Reply #14: I disagree with your premise

[ruggerson]

Reasoning or trying to reach common ground with bigots does not work.

There are two dynamics at play here:

1) the civil laws and statutes that need to be addressed

2) the feelings of people that need to change.

Never, in our country, has the second preceded the first. One can bang one's head against the wall forever, trying to reason and or/change the hearts and minds of bigots.

What needs to changed are the laws. Thus, we need a President who is willing enough, courageous enough and able enough to issue executive orders, take a bold stand for what is right using the bully pulpit and engage/coerce congress to write new statutes that will expand human rights.

This is exactly what Lyndon Johnson and Harry Truman did. Vast portions of the country loathed them for it.

70% of the country supported miscegenation laws in the '60's when the Supreme Court had the courage to strike them all down in Loving Vs. Virginia. 70% of the country was against interracial marriage, but we had LEADERS who changed the laws.

The hearts and minds of the people will follow once the laws have been changed and/or when older, bigoted generations die off.

Martin Luther King understood this.

I don't know if Barack Obama does. It's not just this one concert. It's his actions and words in reaction to the controversy it generated, which convey to many of us that he is not sincere about his commitment to be a real leader for our cause.

I wanted to be a big Barack Obama fan. I still do.

A simple, sincere apology to our community would go a long way towards healing this damaging rift. An apology that reaffirms to us that he understands that this NOT about changing the minds of bigots, it's simply about changing the laws we all live under as co-equal citizens.

If he is the passionate pro equal rights advocate you and many other Obama supporters claim he is, wouldn't he be eager to prove his bona fides to all of us and offer up reassurances and a recommitment to our cause?