Inflammatory rhetoric and other content in the weekly bulletins of the Trinity United Church of Christ have the credibility of the claims by Barack and Michelle Obama that they have not been aware of the objectionable beliefs of their pastor and of his theology for the 20 years they have been church members hanging by a thread.

Posts:

• (link) “The TUCC Bulletins: ‘European Dominance’ and the Church’s Black-Power Roots.” The quick answer to the question, “Is TUCC another mainline denomination with just a smidge of ethnic emphasis, or, as Mark Steyn described it today, the home base of a “a neo-segregationist huckster?” Uh, it’s the latter.
• (link) “Selected History and Economics Lessons from the Wright-TUCC Bulletins.” Highlights include “the most heinous act of terrorism since chattel slavery (was) the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” “Pat Buchanan’s ancestors did not build this country; they stole this country,” and other gems.
• (link) “MORE Selected History and Economics Lessons from the Wright-TUCC Bulletins.” Includes “lack of respect given to Black people is still America’s pastime,” “Since 1619 …. not much has changed either when it comes to the rights of Africans living in this country,” and much more.
• (link) “Selected Quotes from Others in the Wright - TUCC Bulletins.” Features “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” “the firestorm of racism is far from over,” and other choice items.

(If you are on the home page, click on “more” to get to the body of this post, which is about the motivation for it and provides some background.)
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From the Columbus Dispatch Link (HT Writes Like She Talks via NixGuy):

But in an e-mail sent at 11:43 a.m. to staffers in the attorney general’s office, Dann said he will not resign.

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Note: For those who think (OK, know) they can do better, the original images are here (Dann) and here (Gunga Din; scroll down at link; HT Pho).

Part of the May 5, 2008 series – “The Obamas and the TUCC Bulletins,” the point of which is that the claims by Barack and Michelle Obama that they have not been aware of the objectionable beliefs of their pastor and of his theology for the 20 years they have been church members are greatly lacking in credibility.

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M. Linda Jaramille, Executive Director, National UCC’s Witness for Justice; November 25, 2007, on the Southern California fires:

“Caught in the firestorm of racism” — On the Southern California fires: “In the midst of the physical fires, I was reminded of the firestorm of racism erupting as immigration debates continue.”

…. “The firestorm on the U.S. border is more than an inferno of flames.” ….

“Thankfully, the fires in Southern California are subsiding, but the firestorm of racism is far from over.”

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Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney Pastor Emeritus Mount Zion Baptist Church, Seattle Washington; March 23, 2008:

when we look at the story of our people through the eyes of the resurrection of the Christ, again, in the words of Dr. Jones, “we are a resurrection people.”

Given all to which we have been subjected as a people, we should be extinct. We have been subjected to forced deportation from our homeland, chattel slavery, Jim Crow, separate and unequal institutional policies, racism and unfair administration of justice in this land—which our ancestors built. However, we have not been overcome by the injustices to which we have been subjected. African people in America are a “resurrection people.”

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Kanye West, quoted in Reginald Williams’s “Thought for the Week” in his “To Do Justice” section of the September 18 and 25, 2005 bulletins:

George Bush doesn’t care about black people.

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James Baldwin, quoted in Reginald Williams’s “Thought for the Week” in his “To Do Justice” section of the December 17, 2006 bulletin:

All the western nations have been caught in a lie, the lie of their pretended humanism.

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Sojourner Truth, quoted in Reginald Williams’s “Thought for the Week” in his “To Do Justice” section of the November 6, 2005 bulletin:

“There is a debt to the negro people which America can never repay. At least then, they must make amends.”

Part of the May 5, 2008 series – “The Obamas and the TUCC Bulletins,” the point of which is that the claims by Barack and Michelle Obama that they have not been aware of the objectionable beliefs of their pastor and of his theology for the 20 years they have been church members are greatly lacking in credibility.

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Note: Some of these are repeats from previous posts, but are deserving of repetition.

Reginald Williams; January 7, 2007 (pictured here):

Consider the following facts: Wal-Mart workers earn approximately $14,000 per year. Health care options for employees include a $1000 deductible for individuals, and $3,000 deductible for families. In addition, employees must also wait in order to qualify for benefits—six months for full-time employees, and one year for part-time employees. At a salary already under the living wage level, the mistreatment of its workers by this corporation that made in excess of $315 billion in 2005 is appalling.

Wal-Mart’s sales for the year ended January 31, 2006 were $315.7 billion. Its net income after taxes was $11.2 billion — less than 4% of sales.

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Reginald Williams; April 15, 2007 (pictured here):

The inhuman treatment and lack of respect given to Black people is still America’s pastime. America was founded on the dehumanization of Black folks, and it still operates with a vision that does not see Black people as human.

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Jeremiah Wright; August 26, 2007 (pictured here):

“Forty Years Later” not much has changed since that speech on the Washington Mall given by Dr. King. Since 1619, when you look at the ‘big picture,’ you will see that not much has changed either when it comes to the rights of Africans living in this country.

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Reginald Williams; November 18, 2007 (pictured here):

For many Indigenous Native Americans (Indian) people, “Thanksgiving” is a time of mourning, of remembering how a gift of generosity was rewarded by theft of land and seed corn, extermination of many from disease and gun, and near total destruction of many more from forced assimilation. As currently celebrated in this country, “Thanksgiving” is a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for friendship.

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(thought I’d save this one for last)
Rev. Jeremiah Wright; September 25, 2005 (not signed by Wright, but presumptively his writing; pictured here):

From Murder to Concentration Camp!

The month of September has been an incredible month for African Americans in the United States of AmeriKKKa. Citizens of this country and people all over this world have watched incredulously as the lack of governmental response has murdered thousands of African Americans who are poor and who had no way out of the watery grave that could have been avoided.

Mercenaries from Israel were brought in to protect white property. Black Water (the guys who ran Abu Ghraib Prisons) were brought in as mercenaries to protect white property. White property was protected and black lives were lost!

The evacuees from New Orleans, from Mississippi and from Alabama have been spread out all over the country. Those here in Tinley Park have run away from murder and ended up in a concentration camp!

According to Wikipedia, the total death toll from Katrina in all states affected was 1,836. According to the City of New Orleans, less than 50% of the hurricane deaths in that city were African-American — a disproportionately lower percentage of the population.

Part of the May 5, 2008 series – “The Obamas and the TUCC Bulletins”

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Note: Some of these are repeats from previous posts, but are deserving of repetition.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright; July 17, 2005 (pictured here; opens in new window):

While you were looking the other way, Mr. Joseph C. Wilson IV, a good Republican, a man loyal to the “party,” and a man of integrity wrote an Op-Ed article for The New York Times. In his article he disputed George Bush’s administration’s claims about Sadaam Hussein’s nuclear program.

….. Because Mr. Wilson dared to tell the truth, the White House sought retribution! The Bush Administration publicly identified his wife as a CIA operative. The Bush Administration “leaked” information to identify his wife, Valerie Plane, as “an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. In other words, they “outed” her!

Wright called for George Bush’s impeachment in that same essay.

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Rev. Jeremiah Wright; August 7, 2005 (pictured here):

….. this weekend marked the 60th anniversary of the most heinous act of terrorism since chattel slavery – the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki …..

….. most Americans have no idea as to what we did in the terrorist act committed against the Japanese people.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also invoked in Wright’s infamous post-9/11 “chickens come home to roost” video.

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Rev. Jeremiah Wright; November 6, 2005 (pictured here):

“Both Washington and Jefferson were owners of Africans and fathered babies by African women.”

“(Thomas Jefferson is) the man who was a pedophile and raped the 15 year-old African girl, Sally Hemmings.”

As covered in this previous post, the claims are dubious at best, scurrilous at worst. This previous post notes that Wright made his Jefferson-pedophilia claim at funeral service several weeks ago.

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Reginald Williams; November 20, 2005 — on that year’s riots in France (pictured here):

Young persons who are sick and tired of the government’s and society’s exclusive, supremacist, racist attitude toward them, are rising up and making themselves heard. It is easy to decry the riots as just troublemakers who are off on a tangent. However, when one reviews the history of how Arabs and other immigrants from North Africa have been treated since World War II, one may begin to understand the unrest a bit better.

….. It is a common occurrence for police to demand that they lower their eyes, as in the Jim Crow South, as if dark-skinned people are not even worthy to look in the eyes of white policemen who are supposed to serve and protect.

This shows us that racism is not just an American entity, but a worldwide occurrence. In fact, if names were switched, it could very well be America rather than France.

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Reginald Williams; December 17, 2006 (pictured here):

The truth of the matter is that Pat Buchanan’s ancestors did not build this country; they stole this country. It was the enslaved Africans, and Native Americans who built this country from sea to sea on their backs without the benefit of a paycheck. Moreover, they were immigrants themselves who were welcomed in, and deceived those who hosted them.

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History and economics lessons, TUCC-style, continue in the next post.

….. to let you know that the Institute for Supply Management’s Non-Manufacturing Index returned pretty convincingly to expansion mode in April:

“The NMI (Non-Manufacturing Index) increased 2.4 percentage points to 52 percent, indicating expansion after three consecutive months of contraction within the non-manufacturing sector for April 2008.”

The report, which covers the 85% or so of the economy that isn’t manufacturing, blew away expectations of a 0.3% decline to 49.3%.

The weighted average of the two indices (manufacturing came in at a contracting but improving 48.6% last Thursday) is 51.5%. That is definitely expansion — not by as much as anyone would like, but decidedly positive.

MarketWatch’s Rex (”U.S. could have recession without drop in GDP because I say so”) Nutting was apparently not available for comment.

Recession, reschmession.

Part of the May 5, 2008 series – “The Obamas and the TUCC Bulletins,” the point of which is that the claims by Barack and Michelle Obama that they have not been aware of the objectionable beliefs of their pastor and of his theology for the 20 years they have been church members are greatly lacking in credibility.

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The earliest TUCC church bulletin I have is from May 30, 2004. I only have three others from that year. What’s in them makes me wonder if the 2005-2008 bulletins are relatively toned down.

In that first bulletin, the Reverend Reginald Williams introduced me to something I hadn’t heard of before: The Rhetorical Ethic. It is apparently a concept formulated by a Dr. Marimba Ani, whose work ventures into the neighborhood of black separatism, as well as one other radical African-Americans cause (bolds are mine):

Dr. Marimba Ani has been involved in the Afrikan Liberation Movement since her work as a Field Organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Mississippi from 1963 to 1966. In 1967, after having traveled in Afrika, she began formal study of the nature of Afrikan Civilization in the attempt to determine how the process of culture formation could be used to achieve self-determination for Afrikan people on the Continent …..

….. Marimba Ani’s thorough and systematic critique of the European paradigm demonstrates the anti-Afrikan nature of European thought and behavior.

The following are a few of her scholarly writings:

“The Ideology of European Dominance,” The Western Journal of Black Studies, Vol.3, No.4, Winter, 1979 and Presence Africaine, No.III, 3rd Quarter. 1979. …..

….. She was the founding Director of the Afrikan Heritage Afterschool Program in Harlem, N.Y. from 1983 to 1998, and is actively involved in the Afrikan Reparations Movement.

Williams explains the Rhetorical Ethic in that May 30, 2004 bulletin, and applies it in a unique way to past and current American history (bolds are mine):

The American government historically and currently has been marked what Dr. Marimba Ani calls “Rhetorical Ethic.” Rhetorical Ethic according to Dr. Ani is defined as: Culturally structured European hypocrisy. It is a statement framed in terms of acceptable moral behavior towards others that is meant for rhetorical purposes only. Its purpose is to disarm intended victims of European cultural and political imperialism. It is meant for “export” only. It is not intended to have significance within the culture. Its essence is its deceptive effect in the service of European power.

When we think about the history of this country with respect to its imperialistic actions, such as stealing of various lands, mistreatment of people, and total disregard and disrespect for other people and cultures, we see how acutely accurate Dr. Ani’s description is.

However, if we move from the past to the present, we will continue to see how accurate her analysis is, especially with regard to this current Presidential administration. This administration has clearly shown its rhetorical ethical characteristics by stealing elections, overthrowing a democratically elected president in Haiti, and now with the prison scandal in Abu Gharib (sic).

This Resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has known for approximately 2 years that his administration has been pushing policies and practices that qualify as war crimes.

….. Because the demon of white supremacy is more concerned with possessing a disabling power than respect of people, it finds ways to implement its supremacist practices on people regardless of who it affects negatively, as long as it is does not disserve white supremacy.

Rhetorical ethic is the hypocritical exercise of white supremacy used to service the same. It sets laws that are only to be adhered to by others. But if those laws or structures get in the way of white supremacist actions of power, they will not apply. Such is the history and current state of this American government.

Williams recites the Rhetorical Ethic at least three other times in the bulletins I was able to obtain (July 24, 2005; August 20, 2006; December 17, 2006; links to pictures are at Update 2).

Besides the obvious question (What did Barack and Michelle Obama know about all of this, and when did they know it?), it sort of makes you wonder what the kids are being taught in Sunday school.

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UPDATE: A Wiki entry on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee has this to say about it during the time Ms. Ani was involved:

Many within the organization had grown skeptical about the tactics of nonviolence. After the Democratic convention of 1964, the group began to split into two factions — one favoring a continuation of nonviolent, integration-oriented, redress of grievances within the existing political system, and the other moving towards Black Power and revolutionary ideologies. These differences continued to grow during the Selma Voting Rights campaign.

After the Watts riots in Los Angeles in 1965, some SNCC members sought to break their ties with the mainstream civil rights movement and the liberal organizations that supported it. They argued instead that blacks needed to build power of their own rather than seek accommodations from the white power structure. Eventually, the leader of the militant branch, Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Toure), replaced John Lewis as head of SNCC in May 1966.

Carmichael first argued that blacks should be free to use violence in self-defense, then later he advocated revolutionary violence to overthrow oppression. Carmichael rejected the civil rights legislation that the movement had fought so hard to achieve as mere palliatives.

Further subsequent history at the Wiki entry would indicate that, through Dr./Ms. Ani, at least some of what is considered fundamental “doctrine” at TUCC can trace its lineage back to the violent late-1960s Black Power movement:

Carmichael raised the banner of Black Power in a speech in Greenwood, Mississippi in June 1966. As the mainstream civil rights movement distanced itself from SNCC, SNCC expelled white staff and volunteers, and denounced the whites who had supported it in the past. By early 1967 SNCC was approaching bankruptcy and close to disappearing.

Carmichael left SNCC in June 1967 to join the Black Panther Party. H. Rap Brown, later known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, replaced him as the head of SNCC. Brown renamed the group the Student National Coordinating Committee and supported violence, which he described “as American as cherry pie.” He resigned from SNCC in 1968, after being indicted for inciting to riot in Cambridge, Maryland in 1967. Brown then became Minister of Justice of the Black Panther Party.

By that point, SNCC was no longer an effective organization. It largely disappeared in the early 1970s, although chapters in communities such as San Antonio, Texas continued for several more years.

UPDATE 2: Here are links to pictures of relevant pages from the four bulletins where Reginald Williams recites the Rhetorical Ethic (each will open in a separate window) –

- May 30, 2004
- July 24, 2005
- August 20, 2006
- December 17, 2006

UPDATE 3: When you go to the second, third, and fourth pictures, you’ll see that Rev. Wright would ordinarily be seen to taking responsibility for Reginald Williams’s work. The Williams-authored “To Do Justice” pages are labeled “© Sermons copyrighted by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.”

From Greece, NY:

MAY 2, 2008

‘Mommy . . . Thank you for giving me CPR’

Watching Cameron Knowles chase after the family cat and noisily play video games with little brother Zachary, it’s hard to imagine that just a month ago the whirlwind 7-year-old lay dead on his bedroom floor for at least 12 minutes.

Around 7 a.m. on March 26, Mark Knowles came home from an overnight shift at his part-time emergency medical technician job with the North Greece Fire Department. Coming in the door, he inadvertently set off the burglar alarm.

He stopped at the bathroom to chat with his wife as she dressed for her job as a medical assistant at a Brighton cardiology office.

They both wondered why Cameron, a first-grader at Greece’s Holmes Road Elementary School, hadn’t bounded out of his room when the alarm shrieked.

“I thought I’d better go check on him, and it was time for him to get up for school anyway,” said Mark Knowles, 33. “When I got there, he wasn’t moving. At first I thought he was playing possum, ’cause he’s that kind of kid, but I checked for a pulse and didn’t find one.”

He cried out to his wife, Rebecca, who ran in and probed Cameron’s neck and wrist for signs of life.

“I said, “He’s gone, Mark, he’s gone,’” said Rebecca.

She pulled her son’s lifeless, pajama-clad body from his bed and started CPR. Mark dialed the Greece Ridge Fire Department, where he works full time as a dispatcher and emergency medical technician.

“I said 10 words: ‘My son is unconscious, get a squad to my house,’” he said.

The worst kind of call

Firefighter Mark Quill and EMT Kevin Clarke pulled their rig up to 1296 Weiland Road just minutes later. “Every call you go on is important, but when it’s someone you work with and a kid you see all the time at the firehouse visiting his dad, it’s different,” said Quill, a four-year member of the Fire Department.

He’s been on dozens of cardiac arrest calls. There are few happy endings.

“In this business, usually the worst calls are pediatric cardiac arrest,” said Clarke.

Once inside the Knowles’ house, Quill hunkered down to deliver Cameron oxygen. Clarke hooked up an automated external defibrillator, or AED. Battalion Chief Andrew Paradiso assisted.

It was the first time anyone from Greece Ridge ever used an AED on a child.

“We gave him one shock, and kept up CPR, then a crew from Monroe Ambulance came,” said Quill. “They shocked him two more times and started pushing meds.”

Cameron’s heart started to beat again. But, his father said, he’d been down at least 12 minutes, more than twice the five it can take to cause severe, irreversible brain damage.

As medical professionals all their lives, both Mark and Rebecca — both certified EMTs — knew Cameron’s chances for full recovery were slim.

“Everyone kept telling me at the hospital that I was a hero,” said Rebecca, 32. “But I didn’t know what kind of hero I was. We didn’t know if we’d saved his brain. I didn’t know what kind of life he would have, what decisions we would have to make.”

Go Sox

With Cameron’s heart pumping again, EMTs whisked him to Unity Hospital at Park Ridge, where doctors slipped a breathing tube down his throat while a pediatric intensive care unit team from Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong rushed from Rochester to Greece to retrieve him.

Dr. Andrea Hinkle, a pediatric critical care fellow at Golisano, was part of that team.

At first look, Cameron’s prognosis was grim. According to the American Heart Association, less than 7 percent of all children who suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital survive long enough to ever be discharged from a hospital. When there is significant time without a heartbeat, fewer still ever regain normal brain function.

“We were worried,” said Hinkle. Although Cameron’s heart was beating and he was breathing with assistance by the time he got to Park Ridge, she said, he was displaying some of the classic, jerky movements associated with brain trauma.

“It is very rare for a child with cardiac arrest to survive intact.”

Blood tests given later at Golisano, however, showed Cameron had enough circulation from the CPR and defibrillation to keep his kidneys and liver working. Like the brain, those organs also fail if deprived of oxygen too long during cardiac arrest.

“Although the tests weren’t absolutely predictive, we didn’t see anything with his kidneys and liver,” said Hinkle. “That’s where we were beginning to become hopeful.”

To help save Cameron’s brain, Golisano doctors sedated him heavily and slowed his metabolism by lowering his body temperature to 34 degrees Celsius (about 93 degrees Fahrenheit) for a day. Over an additional 14 hours, they slowly brought his body temperature back to a normal 37 degrees Celsius (about 99 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Warmed up, on March 29 Cameron started fighting against his breathing tube.

Mark returned from errands that afternoon to find his wife sobbing in Cameron’s room.

“I was crying because I was happy,” said Rebecca.

Watching Cameron awaken, nurse Staci Goldstein had asked two questions that left his parents no doubt their boy’s brain was OK.

“She said, ‘Cameron, do you like the New York Yankees?’ and he shook his head no,” said Rebecca. “Then, she asked, ‘Do you like the Boston Red Sox?’ and he nodded yes.”

Hinkle said Cameron’s quick-acting parents and the first responders apparently kept the boy’s blood flowing well enough to prevent serious damage. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.