A True Patriot’s Duty

American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who was born a slave said: “There is not a nation on earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than the people of the United States at this very hour.”

Today, many people believe that AIDS was a government plot to control the population of blacks and gays. In light of the fact, that our government infected black men with syphilis in the 1930’s and flooded parts of California with crack cocaine under Reagan, such opinions are to be expected. I’m skeptical of the aids connection to our government, but I’ll acknowledge that it’s a possibility.

Nevertheless, I’m disappointed the media has labeled Rev. Wright’s critical remark about our government “hateful.” They have never specifically explains why those remarks deserved that description. Wright dares to speaks truth to power, which our corporate owned mainstream media has failed to do. Suggesting a connection between AIDS and our government is not as illogical, as insisting that we didn’t invade Iraq for it’s oil.

Five years ago, anybody who suggested there was the slightest connection between the invasion of Iraq to gain control of its oil reserves was considered unpatriotic and a terrorist sympathizer.

Rev, Wright has carried on a tradition begun over a hundred and sixty years ago in Syracuse N.Y, by Frederick Douglass. In a speech entitled: “Love of God, Love of Man, Love of Country,” Douglass said: “I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can be heard on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up America to the lightning scorn of moral indignation. In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. It is righteousness that exalteth a nation while sin is a reproach to any people.”