Tag: President Obama

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Peace prize

Congratulations to President Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. This puts him in heady company and I hope that he can live up to the billing. More important than Barack Obama is the fact that Americans went to the polls last November and elected a leader who has put our country back on the track of international diplomacy and away from international lawlessness. We have gone from pariah to promise in just shy of nine months. President Obama gets a prestigious award, which he was quick to say he was unworthy of. Worthy people always say things like that, that’s what makes them worthy. I congratulate the President, but also I congratulate the American people who put a man in office that once again makes most of us proud to be Americans.

I feel sorry for some of his opposition which include virulent members of the right wing of American politics, the Taliban and leaders of Hamas who fail to see anything positive. One of our greatest presidents and a man also hailing from the State of Illinois, once said, “You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot please all the people, all the time.”

Some of my friends have suggested that the Nobel Prize Committee did this as way to shape America’s policy. That might be. Rewarding good behavior with compliments is an accepted practice in the world. Shunning bad behavior is also an acceptable practice. I hope the President lives up to the award and ends both the Iraq and Afghan wars, rids the world of nuclear weapons and also bring healing to the strident racism that affects our own country. The United States of America is a multi-cultural, pluralistic society and we need to foster that at every opportunity. May peace and good fortune continue to bless our leader. Shalom, Peace, Pace, Pax, Amani, Paix, Salaam, Shanti, Mire, Heddwich and on and on.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7wEctHyuc0]

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. — St. Francis of Assisi

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He who is without sin..

I got some friends on Facebook and elsewhere who’ve taken umbrage with Mr. Obama refer to Kanye West as a “jackass.” I don’t follow Kanye West at all and I didn’t see the video music awards, but if the President of the United States of America refers to an individual with that epithet, I say “so what?” Get a life!

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” — John 8:7

Is there anyone here without sin? Have I judged folks unfairly from time to time. You bet. No one is perfect.

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A long time

Today is the first time I’ve taken time to write here in a week or so. Well, that’s what it seems like lately. The words have not been there. I’ve read lots of words and many of them have spoken to my heart, but I haven’t had the time to put them here. President Obama’s stimulus package has been in the news a lot lately. Lots of dissent that it contains too much pork. Many Republicans decry it as too much entitlement spending. The new chair of the Republican party even went so far as to claim that government money never creates jobs.  I guess Michael Steele is either obtuse or maybe he forgot about the U.S. Military. As a former member of the U.S. Navy I can attest that many jobs were created with tax-payer dollars. I suppose that idea is lost on the congressional folks, many of whom never served our country in uniform. Then too, one has to wonder where they think their paychecks come from.

The world has been turned upside down by the financial crisis. Banks and bankers are okay with socialism now that it means they can continue their luxurious lifestyle. Politicians decry socialism as long as it’s on Main Street and not Wall Street. No end to government spending on K Street or at Grumman, Northrop, Lockheed, General Dynamics or other defense contractors. There’s never too much money spent there. The only place we spend too much money is on Main Street. Helping taxpayers is bad, helping defense contractors and desperate financiers is okay.

I hope the stimulus bill passes as long as it stimulates Main Street. I hope it goes to help working families who are the backbone of this economy. I hope we get a lot of socialism on Main Street. Government financed health care is okay for Senators, Representatives, Presidents, Generals and corporals. It ought to be okay for shopkeepers, construction workers and poor people too. We need liberty and justice for all. It’s in our Pledge of Allegiance.  Justice for all means all.