On a Day of “Hope,” Rev. Joseph Lowery is Overcome by Racist Hate

From Red State:

Posted by Jeff Emanuel (Profile)

Tuesday, January 20th at 5:29PM

It was likely inevitable that at least one of the many aging leaders of the civil rights movement would use his time in the limelight today to make an effort to keep the embers of the race-based flame wars from being extinguished once and for all. In this case, it was Rev. Joseph Lowery, who used his opportunity to pray before the masses to rehash the long-past ills of a bygone age of racism and inexcusable ethnic discrimination.

“Lord,” said Lowery, “we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around… when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.”

Listening to Lowery, you would never know that today marked the first time an African American was sworn in to the highest office in the land. Rather, you would think America was still stuck in the pre-1955 era — that Rosa Parks had never refused to move to the back of the bus, and that the Rev. Martin Luther King had never made his historic plea for “all” people to be judged not on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character– something today more than any day since then shows is, indeed, possible.

Today was a historic day for multiple reasons. Unfortunately, even with the swearing-in of the first black president in U.S. history, some Americans - and some American “leaders” - are apparently finding it impossible to let their hatred go and to live in the present, rather than in the distant past.

Apparently it’s not just white Pennsylvanians who bitterly cling to things, is it?