a note

i just wrote the following email to Michael Gerson in response to his opinion piece.

Mr Gerson,
I have read a number of your articles/opinions in the Post.(I have also used them as a jumping off point for my own writings.) I have enjoyed them and found that i like the way that you look at things, even when I don't entirely agree with your opinion. And because it is opinion, I hesitated to write this email, only realize that I don't wish to write to criticize, to ask and try to understand.

I wonder if you think that it is possible to have a mentor who is flawed? Can you live with and learn from a man who is flawed, but in large part exemplifies many of the qualities that we admire most? Do you think that it is possible to see and separate that which is flawed and not only learn from good examples, but also from mistakes?

Our own founding fathers risked everything for their freedom. All the while the enslaved other human beings. They took on the most powerful country in the world and risked their lives to ensure their rights and freedoms while stripping others of their rights and freedom. These are men that we still hold in the utmost regard to this day. I don't think that we should denounce great men like Jefferson and Washington for something they got wrong, when the got some many things right. Rev. Wright has said, no, preached some terrible ideas. But he has united one very troubled community in a very poor area of Chicago. he has done a great deal of good for that community. When other large congregations left for the suburbs, Wright stayed, and built a new church in the community he served. He reached out to bring white congregations to his church to hear his sermons.

While he is not Jefferson or Washington, should we judge him only by that which is negative about him, or should we give him the benefit of the doubt? And beyond Rev Wright, can we not allow Obama to embrace a flawed man? Is it so audacious to believe that he can separate the good from the bad? That he can take Wright's concern and drive to better those in need, and leave his racist feelings behind? If not, what is Obama to do? Can he really renounce a man that helped to shape his life? What would you have him do? We can change from generation to generation, or Barack Obama wouldn't matter at all.

I don't mean this to be accusatory, and I apologize if it seems so.

Dan Davis.