Defends Obama

by Mark N. Jones

I was taking stock of three Letters to the Editor (published Aug. 1) concerning “Obama Baffled by Jews’ Resistance” (July 25) and felt obligated to put it all into perspective.
Letter writers Greenspan and Krieger complain about Obama’s association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who got caught on YouTube saying a few ridiculous things, and even associated with Louis Farrakhan. What these writers fail to see in their myopic perspective, is the fact that Wright and Farrakhan are based in one of the largest ghettos in the U.S. — the South Side of Chicago, where gangs and other crime is rampant, as is AIDS, illiteracy and unemployment, and in their spare time, when they’re not spewing hate messages, they’ve devoted decades toward helping their poor, downtrodden constituents get a better education, clean up the neighborhood and say no to crime.
The amount of time they spent saying racist things, however despicable, has been miniscule in the big picture.
Obama himself was a community organizer in that same neighborhood, and one would imagine that after he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law, became mentored by Jewish legal scholars, and gave up a lucrative law career in order to serve the disenfranchised, and recently told Hamas they’d always be considered terrorists until they recognize Israel’s right to exist. He should be considered a mensch, not an anti-Semite.

Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization