US Dept. of Justice
Washington, D.C.
From: The Rest of Us
Out Here, USA
Eric,
I heard your speech the other day, you know, the one in which you accused Americans of being “cowards when it comes to discussing race.”
Here's what I have to say about that:
Allow me to elaborate.
I'm not going to argue with your basic premise -- that Americans still have trouble talking openly to one another about race and race-related issues. It's a process and, well, we're still progressing.
But cowards? I don't think so. After all, we have a black President of the United States of America sitting in the formerly all-White House. We have a (gorgeous and wickedly smart) black First Lady. Our new ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, is black. And, (you might want to grab a mirror here) we have our first black Attorney General of the United States of America.
That's hardly the work of a nation of racial “cowards.”
The choice of the term “cowards” was so wrong. You might have substituted other very real American traits; independent, difficult, cranky, myopic, provincial, skittish, in denial... any one or combination of which would have fit better than “cowardly.”
That's exactly the kind of race-based whining that landed Jesse Jackson in irrelevancy-land. And if you keep talking like that, you'll be joining him.
Besides, you have far more important jobs on your plate right now than lecturing us on the kinks that persist in our racial relations. If racial justice is what you're looking for, repair your own Civil Rights Division, which the Bush folks gutted then filled with creeps, liars, morons and barely-closeted racists.
That's your job, not giving us lectures on who we hang with, or don't hang with, on weekends.
But there's even more important work you should be consumed by right now – the work of reestablishing the rule of law in the USA.
Never in the history of the Union has an attorney general taken office with such a wealth of evidence of criminal activity – much emanating from you very own agency – littering the very ground upon which you stand. Pick it up. Get it on the record, and get it under oath.
Then start indicting people, beginning with your predecessor, Alberto "I don't recall" Gonzales, and his covey of sycophant lieutenants.
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