I think this is progress...

Let me be clear: no one from the Obama administration or the NAACP or Tea Party or conservative commentators have called to ask my opinion. (I have that problem a lot). I think I could help people if they would just call and ask my opinion before they make statements or take action. The situation of the accusations/firing of Shirley Sherrod is one I am pretty sure I could have helped.
The pressures and immediate reactions of our culture are traits that lead directly to false accusations and shallow thinking. My parents told me to think before I speak. Now people make a name for themselves -- and many make a living--by speaking before they think. My parents taught me to get the whole story before making a judgment. Now people make headlines and often financial profit from taking a slice of a story and deliberately distorting it. My debate coach taught me to make my best presentation with the facts but never falsify the facts. And now, people regularly falsify the facts without blinking. And, most importantly, my Christian faith taught me to do unto others what I would want others to do unto me...and to love others the way Jesus loved. Every day the media blasts -- and some specialize in--doing exactly the opposite. The worst of it all, in my opinion, is that some of those people who behave in overtly unchristian practices like to claim the name Christian.
At the same time, I have to savor some delight in hearing the vehement denials of Tea Party people that they are racist. As messy as this incident is, I can't help but see that as progress. 25 years ago in Mississippi, my experience with people who shared the same political anti-big-government philosophy of the Tea Party members was that they were racist and proud of it. Claiming to be a racist was a badge of honor--not only a common way of living in the world, but a proud, patriotic way to be citizens of this country. I am horrified that there are still elements of that philosophy -- people who openly, defiantly, unapologetically claim that they are white supremacists. But one interesting thing that this current flap points out is that even very politically conservative people in this country seem now to understand that being racially prejudiced violates the core values of our country. That's a big shift.
I still see a lot in our nation that tells me that racism is still eating away at our character and working its destructiveness in our society. But if we have come to a common, acknowledged recognition that racism is wrong, we have taken an essential step that---- just in my lifetime --is a giant step forward and something to build on.