Ongoing Conversation on Top of the Rug

I've been out of the office the last few days mostly involved in E. coli cases in state and federal court. While I was out, U.S. Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama, held a press conference that was precipitated by some of the controversial comments his former minister had said regarding race in the United States. This controversy is not new. It's been around since recorded time began.

In the United States, when the founding fathers created a constitution of limited government, arguably the two greatest failures of those founding fathers was the fact they failed to do anything about slavery and the native peoples. It wasn't that it wasn't discussed, it's just that some of the founders thought both topics too hot to do anything about less they fail to form a union over the ongoing controversy. Those topics were left to be debated another day. Along the way, there were other opportunities. Washington (Henry Knox, tried wonderfully but unsuccessfully under Washington to help the Native peoples), Jefferson and presidents till Lincoln all had chances to act, but in one way or another, left the debate to be settled in the future. We eventually erased most of native peoples by the sheer growth of a westward moving population and confronted the slavery issue with a bloody civil war. The effects of slavery did not end with the emancipation proclamation. They continued well into the civil rights movement of the latter half of the 20th century. That discussion is still ongoing. Whether people wish to recognize and join that conversation is another issue.

Today we have a candidate that is half black and half white. He embodies the ongoing argument of race. He may be the Lincoln of our time. History will tell us later if he is elected. Opportunities for change don't always present themselves neatly. It is often quoted that the right answer at the wrong time is still the wrong answer. But it is equally possible that ongoing dialogue about difficult subjects may be the best pressure valve to effect change in a positive direction so that issues of race, crime, poverty, health care, global climate change, war, peace, and pursuit of happiness don't erupt into a wider more entrenched conflict. Let the conversation continue.