Words Mean Things

The video of Father Michael Pfleger's comments has been floating around the internet over the past day or two.  Now the damage control is going into overdrive.

In video circulating on the Internet, Pfleger said the former first lady expected to win the nomination before Obama's sudden popularity.

"She just always thought that, 'This is mine. I'm Bill's wife. I'm white.' ... And then, out of nowhere, came 'Hey, I'm Barack Obama." And she said, 'Oh damn, where did you come from? I'm white. I'm entitled. There's a black man stealing my show,'" Pfleger said at Trinity United Church of Christ. He then went on to parody Clinton, sobbing and wiping his face with a handkerchief. "She wasn't the only one crying," he said. "There was a whole lot of white people crying."

Obama said he was "deeply disappointed" by Pfleger's comments.

"As I have traveled this country, I've been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that that unites us," he said in a statement. "That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause."

Pfleger, the white pastor of predominantly black Saint Sabina Roman Catholic Church on the city's Southwest side, said he regretted his choice of words.

"These words are inconsistent with Senator Obama's life and message and I am deeply sorry if they offended Senator Clinton or anyone else who saw them," Pfleger said.

Father Pfleger only regrets his choice of words because it reflects poorly on the guy he wants to win the presidency.  However, he knew what he was saying when he said it.  Watch him again.  He means it.  Those words mean things to everyone in the audience.  They mean things to us who have watched it after the fact..

My parents always attempted to teach me that those I hung around with defined who I was.  I sure have taken that to heart as an adult.  I'm seeing folks like Barack Obama's friends helping me define exactly who Barack Obama is.

-Colonel Steve