The O man takes a pass.

I was going to leave this one alone, but I can't. I have too much to say about it, and it is too important a subject to let it just hang out there.

I am talking about the racism conference which opened in Geneva, Switzerland today.

Now first, let me say that the fact that the world has to even have a racism conference, tells you just how messed up the human species is, and what a pathetic state of affairs the planet that we share is in. People are mad at the U.N. for finding it necessary to call all the countries of the world to sit down and talk about our differences, but I am not. In fact, I applaud them for their effort to draft a resolution and a formal declaration which all countries can sign on to.

Now they had to know that this wasn't going to be easy, and that certain cultures have such a deep hatred for other cultures that it was bound to be almost an exercise in futility. Take for instance the fact that the Israelis believe that there is implied criticism of Israel in the U.N. declaration, and that Muslim governments are trying to ban all criticism of Islam, sharia law, and the prophet Muhammad. All these non-starters; so right off the bat we have a big ass road block before we can even hold hands and start singing kumbaya.

Not surprisingly, a literal circus --complete with a protester dressed as a clown---broke out today when Iran's certifiable loon of a President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, spoke of the arrogance of the West. Arrogance, which in his opinion, is "the root cause of the problems of the world." And then, as if to prove his point, a bunch of Western diplomats got up and walked out. Nice. That's a great way to sit down and talk about the world's problems when it comes to race, just get up and walk out.

Which brings me to his O ness. When he announced Saturday that the divided states of America would not be participating in this conference I was greatly disappointed; but sadly, not surprised. I ripped the frat boy when his administration pulled a no show the first time, so I have to rip "the One", now. It's called a conference, if you have issues with the proposals for the final declaration tell your diplomats to take their asses to Geneva and state your objection. Try to lobby some of the other no show countries, and the other Western countries who did show up, and try to get whatever language you don't like removed. Isn't that what this kind of shit is all about?

If this is about a segment at the conference downplaying the Holocaust, show up and up-play (is that a word? Well I just made it one ) it. O man you should have been on on the phone with the German Chancellor telling her that the U.S. plans to attend and Germany should too. Germany has been a major player in anti racism efforts in Europe, and when they pulled out that created an instant problem. Still, they have not ruled out attending, so it wouldn't have been hard to turn on that O man charm and get Fraulein Merkel to pull a switcharoo. I gurantee you that she wouldn't have said nein.

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I am a supporter of Israel, I make no bones about that. And I have taken quite a lot of heat from my more pro Arab friends for that position. But I have to get on the Israelis a little bit on this one. You shouldn't have been lobbying other Western countries not to participate in this conference, instead you should have been encouraging everyone to attend and show the rest of the world just how ridiculous the claims are that there was no Holocaust. You should have been there proclaiming that both sides in the Arab Israeli conflict has some reaching out to do. You should have brought some of those pictures from Auschwitz and held them up when that crack pot Ahmadinejad started speaking. It would not have turn into an anti-Semitic gathering as you feared, and if it did, the cameras would have been rolling, and guess who that would have helped. And if your objection to any U.N. conference on race is about this, well then you could address that as well.

I don't know O man, I am looking at some of the countries that chose not to attend: Germany,New Zealand, Canada, Italy, The Netherlands, and they all have something in common (I will give you a hint, it ain't that they all have good soccer teams). This was not the change that I wanted to believe in. The change that I wanted to believe in would have confronted issues no matter how difficult. Even an issue as difficult as racism. The change that I wanted to believe in would have taken on the uncomfortable subject of racism in the world, no matter what the political cost at home. Instead of boycotting we should have been engaging. That would have been change that I can believe in.

"I would love to be involved in a useful conference that addressed continuing issues of racism and discrimination around the globe," But he said the language of the U.N.'s draft declaration risked a reprise of Durban, during which "folks expressed antagonism toward Israel in ways that were often times completely hypocritical and counterproductive."
"We expressed in the run-up to this conference our concerns that if you adopted all of the language from 2001, that's not something we can sign up for," "Hopefully some concrete steps come out of the conference that we can partner with other countries on to actually reduce discrimination around the globe, but this wasn't an opportunity to do it,"

Wouldn't it have been nice if we could have been there to push for those "concrete steps" O man? I mean I know you are not Catholic, (BTW, are you still going to Notre Dame?) but even the Pope seemed to be saying that we should be there.

"I am shocked and deeply disappointed by the United States decision not to attend" So says Navi Pillay, the chief human-rights host for the conference.

Don't be shocked Navi, it's called politics.