Author:
Dear Editor,
In last week’s “Whipping McCain into Shape,” Katie Presley drew a quick parallel between McCain’s promise to whip Obama’s you-know-what, and racist lynchings during the mid- 1800’s. I don’t know if this was meant to be tongue-in-cheek or a hyperbolic but legitimate comparison (or even a straight-up comparison), but I found it over-the-top and quite frankly, disgusting. As an Obama disciple, I’m usually the first one to jump on McCain’s lunacy, but even I wouldn’t go as far as this article. I literally cringed at the line “You show Obama who’s boss. And who’s slave for that matter.” Maybe it’s just me, but I saw McCain’s statement as yet another assertion of the “let’s have a beer, friends,” pork-barrel earmark-hating, all-American baseball/ lemonade/ cowboys attitude McCain’s “maverick” campaign has embraced this entire election, rather than the blatant subjugation of a nameless, faceless African-American that Ms. Presley apparently sees.
Yes, words do matter and it is often necessary to look beyond the text into what isn’t explicitly said—but I, for one, think Ms. Presley looked a little too far and came up with an interpretation that, while convenient for the Obama camp, does not really capture the sentiment of the statement.
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