How could he not know what Jeremiah Wright believed after attending Trinity for twenty years? After two press confrences and much explaining, this question more than any seems to have dogged Sen. Obama as he tries to move forward in his quest to clinch the Democratic Nomination. Members of the church have been relatively silent, few coming forward to contradict or reenforce the image that has been painted of Wright by the media, Obama and Rev. Wright himself. Through this entire controversy there have been the YouTube clips of a few sermons after 9/11, the Moyers interview and the infamous Press Club/NAACP speeches, all and all a limited scope of reference to a thirty year career. Combined with these facts and using Obama's own history, speeches and books, there seems to be a disconnect between these two men and leads to a question I have yet to see explored by those who believe their relationship should raise questions in the minds of the electorate: Who is Jeremiah Wright?

In an age of google and mass information why has the media not delved deeper into Rev. Wright's past to see if the Post 9/11 Wright is in sync with the Pre 9/11 one? Have most of his sermons over the past thirty years, more importantly during the duration of Obama's attendence to Trinity, been this contradictory to Barack Obama's ideology? The answer is likely they have looked and there was little there. And if the media has failed to do so it is hard to imagine in such a tight race with so much at stake a political operative hasn't been deep in transcripts looking for more fuel to add to the Wright fire. If it is true there is not a history in Wright's past consistent with the Wright America has come to know then the answer to who is Jeremiah Wright becomes clearer and supports Barack Obama's statements that the Jeremiah Wright we know is not the one who brought him to Christ.

Barack Obama represents a generational shift, a realization of what the Civil Rights movement fought for with blood. While supporters of Barack Obama are clebrating the candidates ability to transcend race and class, there are those who are a product of their time and who for them change is not so easy to digest. No, this is not white america, some of who might never vote for a black man (or woman for that matter), but those who fought the fight to get Barack Obama where he is now. They are trapped in an inability to adapt to the reality of the times, stuck in a time where the fight for racial equality was fought on a different field with different rules. Jeremiah Wright is the prime example of how many people from different movements and backgrounds often self destruct when faced with a changing world. They are fighting enemies who are either gone or changed radically.

9/11 was the turning point for Jeremiah Wright, a point in time when two worlds collided and he veered off the road he helped to build. Instead of seeing the world through a modern lense, he saw it as a black man who came of age in a time when the government helped ensure his life would not be easy. He, like so many, lost a chance to unite the country in a positive way instead of through fear and a world view in need of a new Cold War. It was during this time Barack Obama's political career was heating up and his church attendence decreased, a fact pointed out by Wright himself and avoided by the Obama campaign due to the questions some have over whether Obama is actually a muslim. Wright proved further he is a man without a cause during his last outing, making comments and speaking in a sarcastic way at a time when he could undermine what many of his generation could never have imagined- a black president. It was important for him to feel relevant and find a stage than seek refuge in a life's work which Barack Obama was shaped by. As often happens when a man (or woman) resists change, it becomes about the man himself and to hell with the consequences.

Books could, and most certainly will be, written about who is Jeremiah Wright and what this controversy means in the larger scheme of things. And while who he is cannot be defined in a short article, there is no denying he is human, one who is lost and might take with him a man and a dream he and so many have fought hard to see become a reality. In the end it might be Jeremiah Wright's greatest sin.