Growing up in the south, learning to lead and racists in today's media.

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The 2008 presidential campaign had not produced any overtly racist attacks until the Reverend Wright episode exploded onto the scene. It's like conservatives were thinking, "We're not going to say it, we're not going to say it, ...auuuggggghhh, we can't stand it any longer! For God's sake, wake up!! He's a Negro!!!"

It isn't an unusual attack. It is typical right-wing, an irrelevant moment dredged up by the minions of the right and plastered across Fox News, The Weekly Standard and other puppets of the Republican Party.

They want their audience, to fear, once again, the rebellion of the slaves. The message is more subtle today than it used to be, but the meaning is the same: "This should make you afraid, white boy; vote for the Republican. Those blacks are getting to the point they might think we owe them something."

I watched Ken Burns "The War" and I was drawn into the stories of the black soldiers who went to war, died, fought and survived only to come home to the belittling contempt of white sheriffs in towns where white privilege was the law.

I considered.

I grew up in the border state of Tennessee. We had no white-only water fountains, but all the blacks lived in one section of town. You know what it was called.

When I was six, we had a maid named Candy and she cleaned once a week. I remember when my mother told me and my brother that Candy would be working there. My parents both escaped the deep south without the usual baggage of inherent racism and they did their best to pass that along to their children. We treated Candy with respect but, she did not particularly want to talk to us or we to her. That was my first introduction to black women.

In high school, we were integrated one year. There was an announcement by the school administration, and some expectant talk, but nothing much happened. They came and they weren't very many and they followed the rules and they behaved and, most of all, they kept to themselves. There were a few in the band with me. One was named Willie; he played saxophone. So did Melanie. I never spoke to them at all.

There were a few in college, but they were not in my circles so I knew of them but not about them.

I lived through 16 years of a military career and only encountered black men or women when they were subordinates, perhaps refueling my jet or accepting my flight plan at base operations.

My last four years in the USAF, I had to learn a new trade. No longer was I a pilot of jets. I was a staff officer and my job was to manage the application of Air Force bombs on Army targets. I talked to the men who wanted the bombs on one phone and I talked to the men who had the bombs on another phone, and I brought the two together.

After a while, I was given a minor leadership position in my squadron and tasked to lead a "flight" of white, Hispanic and black men and women. The members of my flight performed a variety of jobs that resulted in a functioning subset of an Air Support Operations Squadron. I did that and I learned a lot.

In so doing, I had to talk to black men and find out what it was they knew. I had to ask them to work for me. I had to ask them what they thought we should do. Most of all, I had to ask them to perform as if they cared what the result might be. They did that.

During that time, I had one more new experience. My new operations officer, my immediate supervisor, was black.

He was an F-15 pilot, a fighter pilot, and even though his fighter heritage was more aggressive, more focused, and more intense than my reconnaissance heritage, his style was low key.

We got along OK. He was a good leader and I and all of my peers respected him. We never said that, but it was understood. More than some of our leaders, he focused on our mission, not on the politics of life with the Army's III Corps.

Occasionally, we were issued weapons to carry during exercises. He made a joke once in reference to a man who was a known bigot. I don't remember the specific circumstances, but the punchline was, "... and I was his worst nightmare - an angry black man with a gun." It was truly funny, mainly because, 40 years previously, it would not have been funny at all.

I went into his office one day because a problem had vexed me. I had a task to perform, and, caught between some Army intransigence and Air Force denial, I didn't quite know which way to move. I asked for guidance.

He was silent for a while, and then he asked me, "Well, what do you think you should do?"

I paused. I had requested a decision and he had simply asked me what I wanted to do. I gave him my best guess and he nodded. Then, I knew what I should do. I should make up my mind and be a leader.

It was a lesson in leadership I never forgot. That operations officer was just one man among the many I served, but he knew what I know now. We all make our own reality, and we all decide our own truths. We don't need help; we need the strength and courage to do what we already know is right.

It was not a truth only a black man could tell me, but the fact that it was a black man also told me this: Life is the same for us all. We live, we learn, we teach, we die. That is all there is to life on Earth. It is enough. It is a gift.

The racists don't like to be called that anymore. Too bad for them. Here is a short summary of Joseph Loconte's take on the matter in The Weekly Standard, March 18th, 2008: Blacks, such as the Reverend Wright, who criticize this country are guilty of using "fierce rhetoric of rage and victimhood." Obama is guilty too, by simple association with Reverend Wright. Or maybe he has the rage just because he's black. "How much of this (Reverend Wright's rage) has found its way into the soul of Barrack Obama?" the writer asks. The message, in case you missed it, is Fear the Black Man.

You know, we have to face this sooner or later. If we don't get past it now, it will come around again soon. Eventually, we're going to have to deal with it. Let's hope it's this time.

Authors Bio:
Tim Copeland served a 20 year career in the USAF flying reconnaissance RF-4Cs and working in a Army Corps liaison unit. After the AF, he was a taxi dispatcher, school department computer manager, community college adjunct faculty and computer adaptive technology specialist. He is currently a self-employed technical consultant working with public schools and people with disabilities. He has been publishing political opinion in Maine for over 3 years. He is radical liberal, active in local politics and darn good looking.