Maya Angelou turns 80 years old today, April 4th, 2008.

Maya Angelou was sexually abused at the age of 7, a mother at 16, a Creole cook, the first Black female San Francisco cable car conductor, a cocktail waitress, a professional dancer, a drug addict, a madam for lesbian prostitutes, dabbled in prostitution, a successful singer, an actress, a playwright, edited an English-language magazine in Egypt, a university lecturer, a civil rights activist, an author and poet. She has either won, or been nominated for every conceivable award to be had from singing, acting, and writing.

The referencing of the past prostitution and drug use could have been left out, but it would have been dishonorable to her honesty, and she would have found that much more offensive than its inclusion. Her introspection on past indiscretions is part of her journey and a message to anyone, that no matter where you find yourself, …”see where you are and admit it…as soon as you admit it you can be like the prodigal son, or daughter, and go to a safe place.” She also believes the past should be addressed out of honesty. If you deny your past transgressions, and present yourself to your children as perfect, then their slighted faults are magnified because they compare themselves to their parent’s perfection.

Maya Angelou is an author of beautiful and powerfully moving verse and prose. The primary subject matter of her writing deals chiefly with discrimination and racism at any level, regardless of race or gender. She accounts for how she deals with racist talk–the quote is long but very poignant:

I will not sit in a group of black friends and hear racial pejoratives against whites. I will not hear “honky.” I will not hear “Jap.” I will not hear “kike.” I will not hear “greaser.” I will not hear “dago.” I will not hear it. As soon as I hear it, I say, “Excuse me, I have to leave. Sorry.” Or if it’s in my home, I say, “You have to leave. I can’t have that. That is poison, and I know it is poison, and you’re smearing it on me. I will not have it.” Now, it’s not an easy thing. And one doesn’t all of a sudden sort of blossom into somebody who’s courageous enough to say that. But you do start little by little. And you sit in a room, and somebody says — if you’re all white, and somebody says, “Well, the niggers — ” You may not have the courage right then, but you say, “Whooh! My goodness! It’s already eight o’clock. I have to go,” and leave. Little by little, you develop courage. You sit in a room, and somebody says, “Well, you know what the Japs did then, and what they’re doing now.” Say, “Mm-hmm! I have to go. My goodness! It’s already six o’clock.” Leave. Continue to build the courage. Sooner or later, you’ll be able to say out loud, “Just a minute. I defend that person. I will not have gay bashing, lesbian bashing. Not in my company. I will not do it.”

When we talk about racism, we have to see that we are not just talking about acts against blacks, we are talking about vulgarities against any human being because of her — his — race. This is vulgar. That is what it is, whether it is anti-Asian, whether it is the use of racial prejudices about Jews, about Japanese, about Native Americans, about blacks, about Irish, it is stupid, because what it is really is it is poison. It poisons the spirit, the human spirit. I know there are blacks who say, “I can use the N-word because I mean it endearingly.” I don’t believe that. I believe it is vulgar and dangerous, given from any mouth to any ear. I know that if poison is in a vial which says P-O-I-S-O-N and has a skull and the cross bones, that it is poison. But if you pour the same thing into Bavarian crystal it is still poison. So I think racism is vulgar any way you cut it.

She has the perfect prescription for politicians who have trouble with addressing their changing stances on issues with too many nonsensical excuses. It would serve them well, along with the country, if they would use her method of addressing it, “Say everybody, you know what I said yesterday, and said so fervently, and said with such passion? Well I don’t believe that any more. I have been changed. Now that is courage.”

Hypocrisy is the malignancy of all great works.

Maya Angelou’s works suffer from this malignancy.

It is abhorrible that the Archdiocese of Chicago has allowed Michael Phleger to be a Priest. It is more abhorrible that he is allowed to continue to lead the Faith Community of Saint Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago. Phleger is a White Priest who leads a Black church through agitation, racism, and hate. Phleger continuously parades inflammatory, racist, and anti-American Black figures through his church to spread their hate-filled prescription for equality. The list includes, but is not limited to, Louis Farrakhan, who Phleger presented with an award from the church, Al Sharpton, Harry Belafonte, Rev. Otis Moss, Jr, among others, and now–Jeremiah Wright. Phleger, at best, is slightly more palatable than Wright.

Phleger perpetuates racism by believing that his Black congregation cannot function if not fed a steady diet of racist and separatist ideology. Rather than teaching directly from the Bible and following the guidelines in the Catholic Catechism, he believes that hate and separatism will set them free. Phleger declared to a crowd of Black participates at a rally with Jesse Jackson who were protesting a Chicago gun shop, that allegedly sold guns to criminals, that the owner of the shop should be “snuffed out.” Forget the 10 Commandments,–just kill him.

The first litmus test for a Pastor or Priest of the Christian faith is do they fit the definition of 2 Corinthians 3:18: But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Are they Christ like?

Unfortunately for their apologists and flocks, Father Michael Phleger, Jeremiah Wright, Otis Moss, Al Sharpton, et al, have more in common with Faust’s Mephistopheles than Christ.

Barack Obama’s imbecilic defense of Jeremiah Wright, and, in essence, all Black churches that expound a racist and separatist agenda , said it is perfectly acceptable for them to be racist because of the history of Blacks in America. It is White America’s fault for not accepting it and in order to move forward, it will have to be accepted. It is irrelevant whether one understands a Black Christian church or not. The fact there is any significant difference between a Black Christian church and any other Christian church is highly debatable. There is one Bible and one fundamental set of rules, and move too far outside the boundaries, and you will achieve cult status. These churches, and optimistically assuming there are only a few and Obama does not speak for Black churches in general, cannot speak their hateful doctrine and get a free pass, for it is common knowledge as to what constitutes racist and hate speech. There is no justification nor is there any honor in promoting hate.

This past Friday Maya Angelou was honored for her birthday at the Faith Community of Saint Sabina Catholic Church. The benediction for her celebration at the church was given by Jeremiah Wright. She accepted the invitation from Faith Community of Saint Sabina Church at the peril of her works losing credibility by her contrary actions.

It is disheartening that Maya Angelou has embraced, and endorsed by her actions, this defective cast of provocateurs and their separatist axioms.

Her words have the power to transcend racial boundaries. She is the driving force behind her word’s power. If she would have applied the courage she spoke of to resist racist exhortation, and publicly declined the invitation and denounce their ideology, her words would have grown even stronger to anyone of any race who needS strength to repudiate racism. But, by accepting from this particular church, with this particular Priest, and allowing Jeremiah Wright to perform the benediction, she has imprisoned her powerful words against any and all forms of racism within the boundaries of one race.