Anticlimax

If you were ever curious about the meaning of the term 'anticlimax,' you saw a spectacular illustration of it a couple of days ago when President Obama released incontrovertible proof of his American birth and citizenship.

I wonder why this felt more like a defeat than a victory?

Maybe it didn't feel like a victory because it wasn't - because the real enemy remains as undeterred and virulent as ever. Moments after the long form certificate of live birth - moments - a new line of attack was introduced into the public arena, this one regarding the legitimacy of Obama's academic background. And, rest assured, when this new line of crap is put to bed, something else will immediately be introduced calling the President's credentials into question.

When Obama was elected in 2008, we felt that perhaps the racism so deeply embedded in our culture and social structures was vanishing. And that may still be the case. But its remnants have been recharged and thrown into high relief. It is connected like a cancer to the tissue of the American body.

On a micro level, I find its vestiges in myself which I try to disguise in various ways, just as the Idiot Right has tried to disguise its prejudice as patriotism. I am not proud of it, but the only hope I have of ridding myself of it is in calling it what it is and not deluding myself into think that it is something it's not.