Rev. Wright deserves some attention

'God damn America," declared the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. in 2003. But if that got you worried that Wright was somehow not a true American, this week's events ought to set your mind at rest. With multiple televised performances, Wright has now definitively proved he shares that most quintessential of all American traits: a profound desire to hog the airwaves and proclaim, "It's all about me." Next stop: "American Idol"!

Thanks a lot, Reverend. Barack Obama's campaign must be wishing some chickens would come home to roost right on top of the esteemed reverend's head, while pecking and squawking energetically enough to force Wright off stage for, say, the next six months and four days.

With a campaign message emphasizing unity and hope, the last thing Obama needs is his former pastor running around espousing views most other Americans find offensive and deluded, such as the conviction that the U.S. government started the HIV/AIDS epidemic, or the suggestion that U.S. foreign policy is little different from terrorism.

On Tuesday, Obama finally got fed up with the Jeremiah Wright Show, telling reporters that "Rev. Wright does not speak for me. ... I cannot prevent him from continuing to make these outrageous remarks. But ... when I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it."

It's pretty hard to find any Wright defenders these days. Prominent African American commentators? Forget it. Columnist Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says Wright's "anger -- indeed, bitterness ... have clearly distorted his views." The Rev. Eugene Rivers, a black minister from Boston, says Wright's on an "ego trip." In the New York Times, Bob Herbert wonders why Wright seems "so insistent on wrecking the campaign of the only African American ever to have had a legitimate shot at the presidency." Not even the Rev. Al Sharpton is defending Wright.

But.

Something about our collective willingness to throw Wright under the nearest subway train strikes me as a bit too easy.

Sure, Wright's a self-centered jerk, but he's unfortunately not the only man in the United States who believes the conspiracy theories he's been spouting.

Take HIV/AIDS. Sadly, Wright's views aren't very far out of the African American mainstream on this. A 2005 Rand Corp. survey found, for instance, that 15% of African Americans consider AIDS "a form of genocide against African Americans." Nearly 27% agreed that "AIDS was produced in a government laboratory," and a whopping 59% felt that "a lot of information about AIDS is being held back from the public."