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Oh and btw, I wanted to mention that surely folks realize this was a public funeral. Their private funerals for family and friends are later.
It should still have been to honor and celebrate the lives of those that died so others could live. We didn't need to be hearing about guns, race, his political agenda, etc. All the other speakers stuck to the subject. Obama disgusted me in his lack of consideration for the families of the men who had died. I don't think his whole speech is there. But I didn't hear his whole speech. When he started talking about a peaceful demonstration and mentioned someone killed in another city, I had heard enough.
I tuned in to hear the police honored, not blamed for something that happened somewhere else. Those policeman were innocent victims. That is the only thing that should have been talked about today. It was their day, or should have been.
It should still have been to honor and celebrate the lives of those that died so others could live. We didn't need to be hearing about guns, race, his political agenda, etc. All the other speakers stuck to the subject. Obama disgusted me in his lack of consideration for the families of the men who had died. I don't think his whole speech is there. But I didn't hear his whole speech. When he started talking about a peaceful demonstration and mentioned someone killed in another city, I had heard enough.
I tuned in to hear the police honored, not blamed for something that happened somewhere else. Those policeman were innocent victims. That is the only thing that should have been talked about today. It was their day, or should have been.
Right and it can't be reconstructed. If I were a family member, I would have been hurt and possibly angered. As if the families haven't been through enough already - today they had to sit through a lecture on how hurt black people are by white people.
At least this thread had some legitimate effort to critique what parts of the speech people didn't like...thank you for that. The other thread was laced with speculation with what was said and lots of pure hatred. Sad.
I get it, people don't like the president. Doesn't matter what he says, i'm sure some hated the fact he was there. And while you all look at this as an event for 5 fallen police officers, it was so much more. This country is in an ugly spot right now and this celebration of the 5 officers who gave their lives was heard and witnessed around the country (and eventually around the world).
What better place to begin to identify those issues and begin to sort through the stuff choking us as a nation. Like it or not, the President has any number of power bases to try and effect change. To fail to begin to address the problems openly and publicly is to pretend they don't exist.
He took some chances, knowing the critics would rip him, but those same critics would be ripping him no matter what he said. The vast majority of people in this country fall in the middle of the far left and the far right. His speech was more directed to them. He acknowledged the officers and paid them tribute, he acknowledged the problems of the racial divide and he tried to put it into a context those problems are real and we all need begin to face them
What i didn't see or read was the crap he was critical of the Dallas Police Dept. Frame it how you want, but when you try and make written text fit what you want it to say, at least have the courage to post the text to fit your twisted logic.
Again, thanks for those who took the time to cut paste the portions that bothered them. For that i have respect.
Anyone who sees this as critical of the police is looking at it through very prejudicial lenses. And I don't mean racially prejudicial, I mean Obama prejudicial.
Quote:
Faced with this violence, we wonder if the divides of race in America can ever be bridged. We wonder if an African-American community that feels unfairly targeted by police, and police departments that feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs, can ever understand each other’s experience. We turn on the TV or surf the Internet, and we can watch positions harden and lines drawn, and people retreat to their respective corners, and politicians calculate how to grab attention or avoid the fallout. We see all this, and it’s hard not to think sometimes that the center won't hold and that things might get worse.
I understand. I understand how Americans are feeling. But, Dallas, I’m here to say we must reject such despair. I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem. And I know that because I know America. I know how far we’ve come against impossible odds. (Applause.) I know we’ll make it because of what I’ve experienced in my own life, what I’ve seen of this country and its people -- their goodness and decency --as President of the United States. And I know it because of what we’ve seen here in Dallas -- how all of you, out of great suffering, have shown us the meaning of perseverance and character, and hope.
When the bullets started flying, the men and women of the Dallas police, they did not flinch and they did not react recklessly. They showed incredible restraint. Helped in some cases by protesters, they evacuated the injured, isolated the shooter, and saved more lives than we will ever know. (Applause.) We mourn fewer people today because of your brave actions. (Applause.) “Everyone was helping each other,” one witness said. “It wasn’t about black or white. Everyone was picking each other up and moving them away.” See, that’s the America I know.
Simple. He used it to lecture on the dead men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Who had nothing to do with this. And by comparing the two....implies a moral equivalency of the shooters and deceased in each case. Terrorist in Dallas to the Cops in the other 2. And the 100% innocent Dallas cops to the 2 dead black men...1 of which in particular was a career criminal going for a gun vs cops.
Obama brings both up and at the Dallas funeral....as if to say they're a moral equivalent. They are not.
The moral equivalent are the murders of innocent people although I understand that is yet to be determined relative to the 2 black men, still it needs to be mentioned in context. There was criticism from the black community that Obama did not go far enough. We are in the middle of protests throughout the nation, this was much more than just the officers killed although that was the focus. Avoiding the 2 killings was not an option for any president, I can understand those who felt he went too far but avoiding the topic was not possible.
I don't find fault with the entire speech, so no need to cut one portion out of it and ask me what I can find wrong with it. I posted the parts of the speech that I thought were inappropriate for a memorial service for these police officers, so there's no need to repeat myself.
I will repeat one thing though and that's that I already said I don't consider the speech to be inappropriate in the right setting - but this wasn't the right setting.
You indicated by the end of his speech..., that is why I posted his closing.
You are right he didn't cure the cancer of hatred between the races, nor did he fan the flames but I think the black community expected more, all he did point out the obvious.
Last edited by Goodnight; 07-12-2016 at 08:48 PM..
At least this thread had some legitimate effort to critique what parts of the speech people didn't like...thank you for that. The other thread was laced with speculation with what was said and lots of pure hatred. Sad.
I get it, people don't like the president. Doesn't matter what he says, i'm sure some hated the fact he was there. And while you all look at this as an event for 5 fallen police officers, it was so much more. This country is in an ugly spot right now and this celebration of the 5 officers who gave their lives was heard and witnessed around the country (and eventually around the world).
What better place to begin to identify those issues and begin to sort through the stuff choking us as a nation. Like it or not, the President has any number of power bases to try and effect change. To fail to begin to address the problems openly and publicly is to pretend they don't exist.
He took some chances, knowing the critics would rip him, but those same critics would be ripping him no matter what he said. The vast majority of people in this country fall in the middle of the far left and the far right. His speech was more directed to them. He acknowledged the officers and paid them tribute, he acknowledged the problems of the racial divide and he tried to put it into a context those problems are real and we all need begin to face them
What i didn't see or read was the crap he was critical of the Dallas Police Dept. Frame it how you want, but when you try and make written text fit what you want it to say, at least have the courage to post the text to fit your twisted logic.
Again, thanks for those who took the time to cut paste the portions that bothered them. For that i have respect.
1. Whether or not I like the President doesn't change the inappropriate things he said in his illspoken lecture at a memorial service.
2. Sure, this event is just part of a bigger problem, but that was not the venue to discuss racism within POLICE departments, or to chastise police officers and white people in general. Or to eulogize a career criminal named Shelton and talk MORE about him than about any of the dead officers.
3. Thanks for noticing that some of us did directly quote the President's words. I appreciate you taking note of that.
he can come with Jesus hand in hand-- some just gonna hate- the point is we just can't get along-- and that is still wrong and cant even do in an anonymous forum - sad
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