Dear Pat Buchanan

OPINION:

Let’s talk. Many are the voices commenting on the words and theology of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a Christian soldier who long ago dedicated his life and his life’s work to almighty God. I myself have commented, too (and want to give a special appreciation to Dennis Wholey, moderator of the PBS show “This is America,” who treads where others have not) on the Wright debate. Indeed, when race, religion and politics are uttered within one breath, a silent majority says, “Amen.” Indeed, this is America.

It is, Mr. Buchanan, for that reason that I have asked my assistant, Diana Wallace, to set up a meeting between you and me so we can have a conversation on race. After all, in a March 21, 2008, column, you encouraged “a two-way conversation and said, “White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.” (www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25634)

I agree. If white folks sat in the pews only among themselves to discuss race, such a gathering could be misconstrued as a race-baiting meeting. On the other hand, if a group of black men did the same, they might be misconstrued as race baiters. Neither of us wants that, now do we?

So, I’d like to start the conversation by saying that those two scenarios I just depicted are extreme. They are as extreme as the white Americans who used to say that “race mixing” goes against God’s teachings. They are as extreme as the “interpreters” who say the Koran encourages jihadism. They are as extreme as the Crusades, which laid siege on Jew and Muslim alike.

We, Mr. Buchanan — you and me — are made in God’s image.

I want to talk to you, Mr. Buchanan, because three times you have been where Barack Obama is right now. Three times you ran for president (1992, 1996 and 2000), and not once did you get as close to receiving a major-party nomination as Mr. Obama has with the Democrats. You, like Mr. Obama, had the opportunity to deliver a keynote address at a national convention. Remember what you said in the bully pulpit in 1992? “The agenda Clinton & Clinton would impose on America — abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units — that’s change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America needs. It is not the kind of change America wants. And it is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation we still call God’s country.”

“God’s country.” That’s the truth.

Yet what would “God’s country” be if it weren’t for rallying cries from within the heartbeat of America? And I’m not referring to today’s Chevrolets, Mr. Buchanan. I’m referring to America’s houses of worship. Where, had not politics taken a front-row seat, Patrick Henry might never have entered St. John’s Church in Richmond and twined the words: “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

“Chains and slavery!” Hardly a euphemism.

See, my ancestors were kidnapped, chained and enslaved right here in “God’s country.” They didn’t kiss the shores of Ellis Island and have a proper American welcome from Lady Liberty. There was no lamp of liberty to light their way. So the “first” point of discussion that you cite in your column — regarding “freedom and prosperity” — could be a sort of icebreaker.

Before discussing the “second” point you raised — the trillions spent on federal entitlements, subsidies and the like — we’ll probably need to mind our watches. Talking about hands up and handouts would probably put us on the same page of the Good Book. So why do you think blacks — not whites — should be “grateful”?

My late great-granddaddy — a Baptist minister in rural Georgia, a landowner who couldn’t vote — would be disappointed in me if he thought I was provoking a pitched confrontation. What I’m doing is using one of the professions we commonly share to reach out and touch. Some of our media colleagues, who routinely read your columns and watch you on television, aren’t quite sure what to make of your March 21 column, which was titled “A Brief for Whitey.” While I’m not “white” but can trace my Scottish heritage to the 1700s, I assumed the door was closed to me. But I entered anyway (via God’s doorway).

So, today — the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. — I open a door for you, Mr. Buchanan, just as whites have flung wide a door for Mr. Obama.