Why 83?
Well, I have a rather short answer to that.
As well as a long answer.
I’ll knock out the longer of the two first.
On Monday, April 28, 2008, I had the opportunity while sitting on my couch at home, to watch Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of The United Church of Christ, located in Chicago, Illinois, speak to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on matters of faith and race.
Now just in case you may have been living on planet Mars around that time, Rev. Wright was caught in a media firestorm concerning some video snippets of a series of messages he had once preached regarding God’s judgment of America.
The video snippets grabbed national headlines arguably not for its volatile content, but primarily because President Barack Obama, along with his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their two children, Sasha and Malia, were all members of Wright’s congregation; President Obama for nearly 20 years.
In an effort to unveil whether or not President Obama, then just Senator Obama, who was picking up speed on the campaign trail, was in fact someone who endorsed and supported the kind of messages Rev. Wright was preaching, one of the most demonizing media campaigns I had ever witnessed involving a spiritual leader (black or white) began.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who had led his church congregation for over 36 years, served for 2 years as a private first class in the 2nd Marine Division, and also prior to entering college and seminary school, trained as a cardio pulmonary technician at the Naval Medical Center, located in Bethesda, Maryland.
The same center that in which Wright was personally responsible for helping President Lyndon B. Johnson recover from heart surgery back in 1966.
How’s that for being unpatriotic?
Yet despite his years of service, on Monday, April 28, 2008, I watched as Rev. Jeremiah Wright approached the podium at the National Press Club, of what I just knew would serve as a total reversal of fortune; a complete and necessary vindication for a man who was arguably one of the most influential African-American ministry leaders of his generation.
But what I heard (and saw) on that day…
…well, let’s just say I’ve never been the same since.
