I was driving toward Farmington, NM, in the middle of Indian Country listening to a classic rock radio station when "Ballad of Jane" by L.A. Guns came on. What kind of playlist is this thing, I was wondering when I topped a hill, and the station switched to talk radio. Abruptly a man was talking about the Bible and the election. A woman called in, somewhat distraught, explaining how, as she listened to Obama speak she came to the realization that he was, in fact, the devil.

The commentator did not say, "I don't think he's the devil." In fact, he did not contradict any of her claims that somehow Obama was the fabled fallen angel and running for President to bring Armageddon upon the land. He said, "We should pray that he sees the light and comes to Christ."

Just to make sure everyone knows this: Obama is a Christian and not the devil. The devil does not exist. The "devil" is in all of us. It is our job to reject these thoughts, even though it's, apparently, much easier to let them consume us and blame everyone else for our problems.

I'm preaching today. Just a little bit.

For months I've been saying the reason Obama isn't just killing in the polls is one thing: we're still racist in this country.

There are a lot of people in our country who, in the privacy of a darkened voting booth--and despite what they may have told friends, family and pollsters, will never vote for a Black man running for President.

I am not one of those people. I am voting for Obama. No backstepping, no questions asked, no problem.

This doesn't mean there aren't times I feel uncomfortable around people of different races. Or that I might subtly, even without thinking, nudge myself a bit away from someone. My explanation would be, well, I don't sit that close to anyone, but it wouldn't necessarily be true. Or maybe I give someone a wider berth on the sidewalk. Or I watch someone a little bit closer than I watch others.

I wish I was more comfortable around everyone no matter what they look or act like. No differences in my actions when I'm talking to this person as to that person, but I know it's not true. Try as I might, I still have a bit of racism in me.

And if I know this of myself--a person who really doesn't consciously care what people look like, a person who has dated women of all shapes, sizes and colors, and sometimes goes out of his way to be accommodating to everyone--well, I guess what I'm saying is we're, to varying degrees, all racist.

We used to talk about it all the time. Spike Lee started his career by making movies about it. Public Enemy told us they were black men and the Man don't gave a damn. James Brown was black and proud. Somewhere along the way, in the last fifteen years, we've stopped talking about it. Or just thinking it. "Don't ask, don't tell" got applied to everything we didn't want to admit about ourselves.

When Kanye West said President Bush doesn't care about Black people, we were shocked. SHOCKED! that anyone would have the audacity to say such a thing.

So we've kind of convinced ourselves that we're cured. That we took that problem on, and it's all okay now. We have all seen the light except for those backwoods hood wearing freaks on the edges of society.

You don't have to wear a hood to be racist. As a white man, I know this is true. As a white man, other white men feel okay to say what's really on their mind. As a white man, you hear people say, in broad daylight, the words: Nigger President.

We've got a lot of problems in this country. Our financial system is in crisis because we told people they could "buy" houses with no money down. We financed an incredibly expensive and unnecessary war with no money down. We drown in credit card debt. We pay 100 to 150% more for gas than we did a couple years ago. Our schools are failing to teach. Our health care system seems to serve no one half the time, and it costs more than we spend on food in a month.

And yet, the deciding factor in this election for many people (hopefully not the majority) might be the fact that Obama has darker skin than they do.

I love this country. In fact, I have only been out of this country for a day or two in my entire life. And I know we're better than this. I know that most people are decent and loving and really do not have a lot of hate in their hearts. I know we can get over this--enough to not make it a deciding factor in the upcoming election.

This week I spent four days teaching people how to use new machines. I was, as I said before, in the NW corner of my state. And I noticed that most of them did not look like me at all.

At first.

But after a few presentations, I could barely tell where my nose ended and theirs began. We were all just regular people working together to solve a problem.

Matt Worley's favorite quote about race comes from Ray Charles. He was told that his band was all white guys, and Ray said, "Well, they sound black to me."