Reverand Jeremiah Wright

As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say, "That's a terrible statement," I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack. And I'm going to be probably the only conservative in America who's going to say something like this, but I'm just telling you: We've got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, "You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus." And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had ... more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.

- Mike Huckabee, offering his perspective on the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (Source: MSNBC)

I greatly appreciate what the Reverend Governor Huckabee has to say about the recent furor over Senator Obama and, more specifically, what his former pastor Reverend Wright has said in the past. Too often the sling and arrows have come from those who most probably should hold their tongues because they cannot possibly understand the context from which Rev. Wright speaks.

Here's a rough draft of a letter for Reverand Wright. I was supposed to have my wisdom teeth pulled out yesterday, but the dentist cancelled it when he saw that I was congested. I suffered an asthma attack about two weeks ago for the first time since I was a child, and he didn't want to risk me having breathing problems while I was under anesthesia.

As this is a letter from all of the Crossleft group, any suggestions or alterations are welcome.

To the Reverand Jeremiah Wright

As fellow Christians, the members of Crossleft write to you in hopes of entering a dialogue to reach mutual understanding on some of the issues that have arisen these past few weeks over comments that you have made in the past. This must be a rough time for you and we do not wish to add to an already difficult period for you. In the spirit of Christian understanding, we hope to reach out to you and better understand the meaning of your words and place your words in the proper context so we could better understand where you are coming from. When we better understand this, we hope to be able to aid in the spirit of racial reconciliation and understanding that Senator Barack Obama mentioned in his speech several weeks ago.