“My head is made up!” I loved that line by William Bendix in “The Life of Riley,” and the program was a favorite of mine on radio during the 40s. Of course, there was also that signature line “What a revoltin’ development this is!” and “Digger” O’Dell “the friendly undertaker” always made us laugh. But that line “My head is made up!” reminded me of Obama’s speech and something in “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

When Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to church with her Reverend Sykes welcomed the children, but she is upbraided by some in the congregation for bringing “white chillun” to their church. As one of them accusingly pointed out to Calpurnia “they got their church, we got our’n.”

After church the children are trying to make sense out of things. So Calpurnia tries to explain it by telling them “You’re not gonna change any of them by talkin’ right, they’ve got to want to learn themselves, and when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.” In other words, as per Chester A. Riley “their heads are made up.”

It was while my good friend Byron, the Episcopal Priest, and I were discussing the issue he gave me a very nice compliment saying I made a good apologist for Obama’s mentor and spiritual advisor Jeremiah Wright. From my own experience in places like Watts I had told Byron I understood the anger and hatred Wright had for Caucasians and America; that once you come face to face with the abject hopelessness and despair of those trapped in the ghettos of our nation you have to accept some of the ugly realities of the racism of Wright not learned in any softer fashion.

That Jeremiah Wright is voicing the hopelessness and despair of so many Negroes is understandable. But it would be a mistake to think Obama believes any differently now than during the twenty years he has attended Wright’s church. The leopard has not changed his spots no matter how hard he tries to disavow them, no matter how some in the MSM try to spin and defend Obama. There was no declaration of an epiphany from which he emerged changed, suddenly realizing he had been brainwashed for twenty years and all at once saw the Damascus light blazing about him.

However, anyone that belongs to an exclusive club and mixes only with those in such a club invariably becomes secluded from the real world about them. Such a fantasy world is commonly that of politicians, not excepting Obama, the wealthy and powerful, but also applies to those of fanatical religious beliefs that only associate and mix with those likeminded. Of such is Jeremiah Wright and those of his congregation like Obama.

But as an apologist for Wright I go back to the beginning of slavery in America, to Lincoln’s War and what happened during “Reconstruction,” the decisions by the Supreme Court and actions of politicians that increasingly made for the situation Negroes find themselves in today that have created those like Jeremiah Wright and his followers.

I have the utmost regard for Tyree Toliver, the pastor of St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Bakersfield for many years and have written about him several times, often tuning in to his broadcast Sunday mornings. His sincerity is so unfeigned as to remind me of the words of Jesus about Nathaniel, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.”

Both Toliver and Wright know the conditions of Negroes in America, they both know the obstacles but Toliver preaches an old time Gospel message of hope and redemption devoid of any hatred while Wright preaches a “gospel” of hatred for Caucasians and America. The real difference is a matter of choice based on a point of view. But when someone’s “head is made up” and “when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.”