The N&O's Saunders: “an embarrassment.”

A few weeks ago, Raleigh News & Observer columnist Barry Saunders reacted to the filing of a civil rights violation suit by members of the Duke 2006 Men's lacrosse team.

Among other injustices, the players were targets of a Durham Police produced CrimesStoppers Wanted poster which told the public “horrific” crimes of rape and sodomy were committed at a party the players hosted. New Black Panther Party members came to Durham and threatened the players while Saunders said nothing.

Saunders, ignoring his support during the Duke/Durham frame-up attempt of the obviously wrong, even criminal, acts of disbarred Mike Nifong and others, "found his voice" when the suit complaint was filed [excerpts from his Feb. 26 column]:

… Oh, their wittle feelings have been hurt.

As a Durham resident, I should file suit against the lacrosse team because of the emotional distress various members of it have inflicted upon the city of Durham and, by extension, me.

A News & Observer story from 2006 reported that nearly one-third of the players on that year's team had been charged with various offenses such as underage drinking, public urination, and open container violations. ...

Y'all guys ought to be ashamed, because unless you wear your lacrosse jerseys to job interviews or on first dates, no one but family members and friends know who the heck you are. …

Today, Saunders writes about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, close friend of Sen. Barack Obama.

What does Nifong-enabler Saunders think of a pastor who shouts “God damn America,” justified the terrorists 9/11 attacks which killed thousands of Americans and citizens, and who’s repeatedly delivered racist screeds from the pulpit?

Saunders approves of Wright and what he said.[xcerpts from today's column]:

Man, y'all need to leave that man's preacher alone.

Judging by the backlash against Barack Obama for things his former pastor said, you'd think the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was the first person to rail against our government.

Saunders then says, correctly, that white preaches have said things as awful as what Wright's said.

But instead of condemning the preachers of both races for such statements, Saunders praises Wright's hateful and outrageous statements. Worse, he tells readers they should seek out pastors just like Wright.

Since Wright has tilled no new soil with his preachments, the question becomes, "Does a black preacher have the right to say the same things as a white preacher?"

No, he doesn't have that right. He has an obligation to say those things. And more.

Much of what Wright was quoted as saying was strident and, at the least, undiplomatic.

Who, though, wants a diplomatic preacher, one content to mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities from the pulpit? …

Balanced news sources have reported that Wright was just as scathing toward the shortcomings of blacks as he was toward those of whites or the government. He was well known for saying things that made both the government and his parishioners uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that Obama acknowledged confronting him after some sermons. ( Obama repeatedly denied until his Tuesday speech that he’d even heard Wright making the anti-American and racist remarks that are now at issue. I posted on that here. JinC)

That's good. Here's a tip:

If your pastor never says anything to make you feel uncomfortable, you probably need to find a new one.

Over the years, I’ve heard many blacks here in the Raleigh/Durham area describe Saunders as “an embarrassment.”

Who can’t understand their feeling that way?

Saunders' Feb. 26 column is here; today's is here.