Once upon a time there was a shepherd boy whose job was to watch the sheep. Feeling bored one day he decided to stir excitement. So, he cried, "Wolf! Wolf! A wolf is after the sheep!" The villagers came running only to find no wolf, only a mischievous little shepherd boy laughing at their angry faces. "Don't cry wolf, little shepherd boy, when there is no wolf." The boy repeated this little caper several more times enjoying his new found power to stir excitement and manipulate the village. Then one day, he saw a real wolf prowling among the sheep and he cried, "Wolf, Wolf" but no one responded.
Who would deny that racism still exists in this country? But we have surely come a long way when an African-American wins the presidency when 75% of those voting were white! There was a lot of speculation that the eternal wound that slavery cut into the heart of this nation would finally heal. Those hopes were soon dashed. Cries of racism have been heard more instead of less. We'll never eliminate racism by writing laws. How foolish to think so. Racism is not a political problem, its a heart problem that only the grace of God can remedy.
There are living among us certain charlatans who make pretty good money by pulling out an occasional race card. A local newspaper comes to mind. President Obama will experience his successes and also much failure. Every president gets a pretty healthy dose of both. But when Obama fails its just not cool to cry racism.
I saw a poster the other day of Obama made up to look like 'the Joker'. And someone cried "racism". MSNBC's Keith Olbermann would like to portray concerned Americans at Tea Parties as "racist". I'm not forgetting Hillary's quote, "I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration." How is it when a liberal disagrees its patriotic, when a conservative disagrees its racism?
MSNBC's host Carlos Watson compared the word 'socialist' which is being bantered about a lot lately at town hall meetings as the new "N" word. This is turning the soil and planting seeds of racism and hoping they will grow. I don't believe man can create something out of nothing but this comes mighty close.
The liberal word is that Obama's health care plan would benefit people of color most and any who oppose it must certainly be racists! Liberal shepherd boy, "Don't cry racism where there is no racism". Real racial hatred is the false cry of racism? To jeopardize a people of a certain race by trivializing their worst enemy is ultimately racist. What happens to those victims when real racism attacks and no one will pay any attention any more??
I do agree with you entirely on the substance of this blog entry Mr. Probst. I think that racism is still a maybe not exactly huge, but a significant problem nonetheless. Even with a president who is african-american the underlying tension is still there. I am not sure that this problem will ever be erased because it is an underlying part of humans imperfections caused by sin. I am extremely saddened when i see the word racism thrown around all the time when it is not supposed to be used. It is used just to make a crude remark, an unnecessary exploit just to make their point the winning one. I hope that one day it will become less of an issue, but until then, we will have to put up the "boys who cried wolf".
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