Through the years, and during the duration of this blog, I have been called an atheist, communist, socialist, Jew, Moslem, ad infinitum.  So, it is fair to directly deal with it.  What belief system do I adhere to?  None, but I take from most of them.  I am not out to save my own skin for eternity.  I do not believe in man-made religions, which major religions are.  The three major religions of the Western World all have much of their foundation in the patriarch, Abraham.  I like him.  In Genesis he confronts God about God's vengeance and over-reaction and brutality, and the God depicted in the Bible certainly needs that confrontation.  But none of those 3 major religions follow the "good" parts of the Bible.  They claim they do, but simply look at the actions of the people who wear their religion on their sleeve.

Here are some quotes that help me forge morals, ethics, compassion, empathy, love, tolerance, etc.:

"I am a man; nothing human is alien to me." -Terence

"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone." -Jesus of Nazareth

"The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan values and ends is. . .the source of all religious fanaticism." -Reinhold Neibuhr

"Callous greed grows pious very fast." -Lillian Hellman

"I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian." -Alexander Pope

"When a fellow says, 'It ain't about the money but the principle of the thing,' it's the money." -Frank McKinney Hubbard

""...we face the danger of a right-wing take-over and eventually a fascist society." -Rev. M. L. King, Jr.

"I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Moslem, Jew, Buddhist, and Confucian." -Mohandas Gandhi

"The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr." -Mohammed

"A half-truth is a whole lie." -Yiddish proverb

"I confess that I cannot understand how we can plot, lie, cheat and commit murder abroad and remain humane, honorable, trustworthy and trusted at home." -Archibald Cox

"We have among us a class of mammon worshippers whose one test of conservatism or radicalism is the attitude one takes with respect to accumulated wealth.  Whatever tends to preserve the wealth of the wealthy is called conservatism, and whatever favors anything else, no matter what, they call socialism." -Ronald T. Ely

"Until you have become really in actual fact a brother of everyone, brotherhood will not come to pass.  Only by brotherhood will liberty be saved." -Feodor Dostoevski

"The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all in their separate and individual capacities." -Abraham Lincoln

"When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble." -Buddha

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart." -H.L. Mencken

"My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image to be servants of their human interests." -George Santayana

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." -George Bernard Shaw

"We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon." -Konrad Adenauer

"Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do." -James Henry Robinson

Well, there you have it.  Nit-pick it to death, think you have found an a-ha! moment to draw some conclusion about my thinking.  I believe some of the above, but not enough to dress in vestments, or chant, or build huge edifices, or go to war, or whatever.  There is truth in the quotes, there are shortcomings.  Such is life.

Several school districts around the country will not be broadcasting President Obama's address to them.  What are these parents and these school districts afraid of?  Truth?  Intelligence?  Insight? 

For many years the conservative elements in the U.S. have been telling people of color to "pull yourself up by your bootstraps."  That was a comfortable way of keeping these people in bondage.  No way could they succeed with Jim Crow laws, quiet bigotry, unfair courts, separate housing and schools, etc. 

Along comes a man of color, raised by a single parent, thus having two strikes against him, and he not only exceeds, he excels.  Awards and recognition come as he climbs the educational ladder.  With a very successful and distinguished education at top universities and law schools, Obama decided, not on the easy way for a career, but as a community organizer.  In this he showed aptitude, hard work, and an altruistic base.  He becomes the first person of color to be elected President of the United States.  How's that for being special?  Now what do the bigots do that wanted to limit him, prove his inferiority by placing immense hurdles in front of him?  Change their minds?  These kinds of minds resist change.

When it comes to the decision to change or to find proof so one may remain unchanged, conservatives will always set out trying to find proof.  And so they have set out on a course to disprove what has already been proven: Barack Obama is a man of great intelligence and insight, tempered with altruism.  Wow!   But bigotry finds like-minded people and when the people are not of like mind, power can be used to dupe them.  And conservatives certainly have the power and the money.

It amazes me that the same people who do not want President Obama to address their children would have thought nothing of Richard M. Nixon or George W. Bush doing so.  The moral and ethical comparison is so obvious that nobody should have to point it out.

What are the conservatives afraid of?  Is President Barack Obama such a boogie man to them that they fear his intelligence and insights?  Well, not only Boo! but boo-hoo.

I'm reminded of extreme right-winger, Adolf Hitler, smugly perched high up at Olympic stadium to watch his white athletes, who have been given nothing but the best to train, beat the "negrified" nations like the United States.  Jesse Owens forced Herr Hitler to leave the stadium. 

A resident of Idaho was stopped and treated like a terrorist because he had a Moslem-sounding name.  We invaded Iraq on trumped up claims because right-wing leaders needed to get that long-dreamed thing done.  We tapped innocent citizens phones with no court permission.  We tortured prisoners.  We had Osama bin Laden trapped in Torah Borah and let him get away...personally I think that George W. Bush had something to do with this because his family made its fortune off of the Saudi family by illegally trading with Nazi Germany.  The same with arresting American citizens after the 9/11 tragedy and yet allowing ONLY Saudi citizens in the U.S. to fly out of the country.  Remember, bin Laden is a Saudi and made his wealth under the Saudi umbrella...and so did Prescott Bush!

John Ashcroft will now be charged in court by a citizen of Idaho for treating the American illegally.  How in the world John Ashcroft ever became Attorney General of the U.S. strains my belief apparatus.  And Senators like the "liberal" Senator Russ Feingold, who sat in the Senate chamber with Ashcroft for years, could bring themselves to vote to approve the nomination of Ashcroft for Attorney General strains my rationality.  To meet John Ashcroft is to instantly realize he has a screw missing.  And his extreme right-wing religious beliefs are truly zany.  He immediately insisted on covering up the naked statues in a government building.  He must certainly think that the statue of David is profane.  The voters in Missouri came to recognize the goofy thinking and actions of U.S. Senator John Ashcroft, and swiftly voted him out of office.  George W. Bush picked up the strange pieces of rubbish and nominated him for Attorney General.  Imagine, the most powerful nation in the world being run by John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and George W. Bush.  Imagine!

I commend the current Attorney General for exposing some of the horribly undemocratic and illegal actions by Dick Cheney and the CIA.  Go after these thugs!  If the CIA was only following orders, then go after the person or persons issuing those orders ...or those whose convaluted mind twisted things so the torture and illegal searches could take place.  Go after them!

Slowly but surely we are coming to realize that the years of George W. Bush's presidency were years in which the very fabric of American democracy was put at risk.  Go after them!

Driving along in Shorewood, I noticed a kid on his bike.  He was alone,  He looked sad.  I was mentally transported to my own childhood.  I was sad often.  My childhood was lonely, desolate, isolating, and I lilterally fed and clothed myself from the age of eight.  I shined shoes in taverns, I sang for coins, I did whatever I had to do to exist.  That boy on a bike, a kid I knew nothing about, had got me in touch with my own childhood years.

It is easy for adults to chastise kids today who seem to have so much.  We over-reach in stating how tough we had it and that "I had to walk ten miles to school, and up-hill both ways."  It turns kids off.  Yet there is not happiness in toys, trinkets, electronic equipment, etc.  And, of course, there are millions of kids in America who have nothing, or worse than nothing.  Their lives are filled with fear.  They see violence all around them.  They either cower in the corner, or they act out themselves in order to survive.

Yes, I am sad for these kids.  Actually, I feel a certain amount of sadness for all kids in the U.S. today.  Because of the no-tax mantra, they have had the arts and humanities ripped from their lives.  Art is a shell of what it once was in the curriculum.   Teaching about ethics, aesthetics, egalitarianism, good deeds, peace, neighborliness, acceptance-not-bigotry, tolerance, labor, sharing, etc. are considered too political and therefore taken away from kids in school.  Music?  Given short shrift.  We have literally stolen from our own children for our own shallow vision and ignorant selfishness.  We think we are doing our kids a favor by depriving them of what made the United States of America a great nation.  With all the civil rights legislation we are so proud of, many black kids in the inner city today have it worse then many black kids in many of the inner cities of my childhood years.

Talk to admissions people in today's colleges.  They will tell you that kids, even from affluent high schools, are entering without even rudimenatry knowledge or the basics of a decent education.  While we were so busy gathering material things, we ignored what makes our kids educated.  Selfishness abounds in today's youngsters because of the selfishness of their parents.  We have cheated them, taken the tools for education away, and substituted machines and philosophies and love of the M.B.A. to help them make more money.  That is the opposite of education.  That is prostituting education.  That has led to our failure as parents and adults.  That was caused by our failure as citizens who have been given the responsibility to educate the young.

Here is today's American motto: I've got mine, too bad about you.

We are sinking, folks.  America is sinking.  But we do not have all the taxes like those single-payer "socialist countries" like Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc.  And we think we are right to have a one-trick chant: no new taxes!  We are not ready for the 21st century, and we are being over-run by nations that know better.  Our schools need help, but how can you help when tax referendums for schools get voted down?  How can we truly EDUCATE our kids when we deprive them of culture?  What are we teaching them when we allow big corporations to gouge us yet close libraries and museums?  The ignorant have inherited the United States of America, and by God they are not going to spend money to correct it.  Let the planet and our nation go to hell!  They've got their principles as a committed Christians and dedicated conservatives.

It is interesting, sometimes hilarious, the conclusions people draw about me from my blog.  Remember, this blog is but one tiny piece of who I am.  And I have tried in the past to post information about myself, but people come in and out of reading here, and they have no idea who I am.  So...

I suppose it is fair to label me a liberal.  I'm certainly not a right-winger.  But the word liberal has been so prostituted from uneducated and unread people from the right, that it has lost its meaning.  I am an egalitarian, I suppose.  Yes, I believe in a democracy like the U.S., if there are some benefits offered to some people, then they should be available for all.  We are individuals in the U.S., but we are also a collective society of equal partner citizens.  Therefore I share my benefits and my hardships with everyone.  I am proud to feel this way because I see it as the true responsibility of a citizen and a human.

I was baptized and confirmed in a predecessor denomination of what is now the United Methodist Church.  I am not a Methodist.  I was educated in a Lutheran college and served in two administrative capacities in the Lutheran church, but I am not a Lutheran.  I got a graduate degree from a Jesuit university and served as vice president of a Benedictine college, but I am not a Roman Catholic.  I am not an atheist.  In fact, I try my best not to codify my life anymore than is absolutely necessary.  So, please stop putting labels on me that do not stick.  While I have spent some time in the field of education, I have a far more diversified background.  I've held positions in education, health care and medicine, music, etc., and I have worked in a factory, on a farm, and in the recreation field.  Don't categorize me, please.

I was born in the Midwest, worked in the Plains states, worked in Washington [DC], and lived in many Midwestern states.  I have traveled extensively in North America and Europe.  In some ways, I have picked up enlightening aspects of all those geographic areas and a variety of cultures and religions.  I am proud to be considered universal in my thinking, and a representative of the human race.  All the rest is lots of wasted effort to defend or foster a specific, selfish, usually prejudicial belief system.  I do not have that need or desire.

I have given speeches throughout North America and Europe, and I've been interviewed in the media locally, regionally, nationwide, and internationally.  My ideas and opinions have not been limited to this small outlet of blogs.  But I am pleased to be here.  I do not edit out anything you write to me, and do not even know how to erase comments.  I wish the comments posted were a little more civil on both sides.

I have three wonderful children, and five adorable grandchildren.

My hand is extended in friendship.  I hate bigotry.  I can learn from everybody.  I'm somewhat filled with compassion, empathy, tolerance, and try to be a good human being.  When I see intolerance or selfish advantage, I point it out.  I do not much care for materialism and certainly detest greed.

Read me here, judge me if you must, but please don't misrepresent who I am or what I support or criticize.  Whether you like it or not, we are in this thing together.

I am not, nor have I ever been a member of a political party.

Yes, Congressman Wilson of South Carolina, you showed some lack of civilized decorum in blurting out what you did.  As a guest in your House, President Obama, should not be subjected to some crude comments by an elected official in the highest legislature in the land.  You shamed the room, you shamed your party, you shamed your country, and you shamed yourself.

However it is also unfair to try and make too much political capital out of this incident.  And it should be pointed out the Republican members of Congress chastised Congressman Wilson and encouraged him to apologize.  He did it quickly, and the President accepted it.   But this goes beyond just that.

The historical background to this flap is interesting to note.  In Britain it is almost expected that the opposing members of Parliament shout out negative comments and even insults.  This is true even when the Prime Minister speaks in Parliament.  However it is different.  We are talking about a leader who is a member of that body and not an outside guest, as is the case with the President of the U.S. speaking in Congress.  The head-of-state in the U.S. is the President, in Britain it is the Queen, albeit only a figurehead in many ways.  But the difference in the systems is to be noted.

What is so sad about the incident with Congressman Wilson is that he reflects the atmosphere that has contaminated the United States citizenry.  Trying to defeat Obama at ALL costs, a questionable attitude for the group that calls itself patriotic, the Republicans have encouraged the outrageous behavior toward anyone speaking in favor of health care reform.  The long trek to try and reform health care in America began over 100 years ago, and was led by a Republican President, Teddy Roosevelt.  His cousin, FDR, tried again a couple of decades later.  And it has been tried over and over.  Now the sides are configured somewaht differently.  But those who opposed health care reform never stooped to the uncivilized behavior that has been fostered by today's right-wing.  It is not only undemocratic, it is sickening.

We must ask ourselves: how much of this is a reflection of bigoted attitudes that simply cannot abide a man of color sitting in the White House?  That IS a fair question.

How much of this is brought on by those huge corporations and individuals who profit immensely from the unfair, expensive, and low-outcome health care mess we now have?  That IS a fair question.

How much of this is simply right-wing extremism gone crazy?  That IS a fair question.

The right-wing talk shows are ablaze with dire warnings about the government.  You can't trust the government!  Talk shows and Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the right-wing media ranters warn us over and over that the government cannot be trusted with health care or anything.  Every right-wing politician screams against the government, even when the President is addressing Congress.  There are warnings about the government everywhere.  Except...

The right-wing loves to have the government of the United States at war.  In Vietnam.  In Grenada.  In Nicaragua.  In Iraq.  In Afghanistan.  Then, miraculously, you can trust the government.  Wait, hundreds of millions of dollars have been pilfered by Halliburton alone!  Blackwater uses secret torture and killing in our name!  We kill innocent citizens with our bombs!  Collateral damage is what we call killing innocent citizens.  The waste in the Pentagon is astronomical!  And in the process, thousands of Americans are killed and wounded.  And the guy who started the war in Iraq, George W. Bush, has the gall to underfund the veterans' benefits and recovery programs.  That is considered OK.  Collateral damage of Americans.

How do right-wingers sleep at night amid all their hypocrisy?  Lies and hypocrisy are now hallmarks of right-wing politics.  Karl Rove is the gold standard for them.  Dick Cheney is their hero...of course he never was in the military and used excuses to stay out.  But Cheney and Bush can sure invade countries.  They know how to pay off their big corporate buddies.  Suddenly the government is good; suddenly the government is a fountain of easy money.  War is good, health care reform is bad.  Is there anything lower than this?

"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." -Mark Twain

"It is lamentable that, to be a good patriot, one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind." -Voltaire

OK, scream at me for playing the race card.  Is it just coincidental that about 10% of white voters in Alabama and Mississippi voted for Barack Obama?  That used to be the heart of the Democratic Party until it supported civil rights legislation.  Now the South is hard-core Republican and conservative.  Could it be that there was some racism involved?  Are you kidding?

Hordes of white Americans were given all the advantages of race in the U.S.  Millions of whites used excuses about their lack of accomplishments or education because they came from one-parent families.  "My parents were too poor to send me to college," is a white excuse.  Yes, a black kid, confronted with racism daily, a society tried to mold him into failure, he only had one parent, grew up in something far less than elite surroundings, and became an outstanding student at a prestige university and law school.  Then a U.S. Senator.  Then President of the United States.

It sticks in too many white people's craw.   But there it is, folks.  All the bigoted and hateful beliefs about black people doesn't fit this level of success by Obama.  All the attempts to keep black folks "in their place" are somehow skewed.  All the lame excuses white people use for their own limitations do not fly in the face of what this black man overcame.  He stands tall.  He stands handsome.  He stands comfortable in his intelligence and insight.  He fits the office of President of the United States so well that it drives bigots to distractions.  It drove one white, southern U.S. Congressman to do what nobody has done before, yell out a demeaning remark during a speech by the President in that Congressman's own House.  When is enough, enough?  When will this anti-intellectual crudeness end?  When do we become civilized enough to throw aside our bigotry?

What is especially filthy is that they cannot attack him on his abundance of merits, they lower themselves to tell lie after lie after lie.  Not only do they lie, but right-wing organizations organize gatherings to attack him with epithets and obnoxious drawings.  Those gatherings are well planned, and NOT spontaneous.  Don't be duped about this, this is sinister and this is organized ...and full of lies.

It is, plain and simple, bigotry and racism.  Treat it as such.  It has no place in a civilized society.  All the attempts to explain it away as something else, are just more lies.  It is bigotry and racism.  Period.

"The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous." -Frederick Douglas (1818-1895).  Escaped slave, abolitionist, author, editor of the North Star and later the New National Era

During one of my graduate study programs, a M.A. in history, my major thesis paper was on the Middle East.  That was long ago.  I have carefully followed events and developments in the Middle East and parlayed it with my historical background in the area to bring things into clearer view.

It has always been very difficult to bring democracy, especially a particular flavor of it as the U.S. tries to do, to an area in which that is a new political concept.  It was difficult to do when the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved and the many smaller nations evolved from the stability of the Empire.  It has caused wars in Europe, and has seen countries evolve and then dissolve or split up [e.g. Czechoslovakia].  It has seen small nations cobbled together by a super power, as Yugoslavia was made home of the "southern Slavs."  As long as those newly forged nations were ruled by an iron hand, they survived.  When Tito ruled Yugoslavia, it remained a unit, but when he died it fell apart into Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and is still splintering between Serbia and Kosovo.  In the Middle East it is far more difficult.

The nation of Iraq was pieced together as a nation by European powers.  While it was ruled by the iron hand of Saddam Hussein, it was a unit.  But the wrong-headed actions by the Bush regime invaded in a knee-jerk and spontaneous way to topple Saddam without giving thought to the aftermath.  Can't you still hear the Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld gang telling us that the war was won in Iraq and we were being greeted as liberators?  Their advisors should have told them the historical and logical truth.  We made a horrible mistake invading Iraq as we did.  We complicated matters by not going directly and strongly after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.  We had him trapped.  Again, terrible decisions were made and he got away at Torah Borah.  And now we have been a bumbling super power that made mistake after mistake in the Middle East and have a mess on our hands.  Iran is playing it to the hilt.  Repeat: we have caused the Middle East to be a mess.

Some of our actions were due to the Bush-Saudi family ties that go back to World War II when Prescott Bush, George W. Bush's grandfather, made a fortune illegally trading petroleum between his buddies, the Saudis, and Hitler's Germany.  Osama bin Laden made a fortune as a Saudi Arabian businessman, but he hates the Saudi family and likewise the Bush family.  It is no coincidence that Osama chose the new Bush regime to unloose his hatred in the 9-11 terrorism.  When Osama had the twin towers and the Pentagon hit, Bush was fearful of a backlash by Americans against Saudis and thus closed down all flights in the U.S. EXCEPT for the Saudis, who quickly rushed out of the U.S.

This horrible mess has been left to President Obama to try and fix.  Bush mistakes in the Middle East are further complicated by his running up the trillion-dollar deficits.  We have the mess of a badly handled foreign policy, a terribly handled invasion of Iraq, not enough attention to Afghanistan, allowing Osama to escape, insulting and angering our NATO allies and expecting their cooperation in the Middle East, lies to the American people over and over, allowing Afghanistan to be ruled by a corrupt regime, and an infinite number of other mistakes.  It is this culmination of mistakes that puts us in a position that seems to have no current solution.  Sending more troops to Afghanistan may help, but the corruption is so bad that much more than that is needed.  Iraq will splinter apart between Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds.  Terrorists are finding new havens in Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere.  We seem doomed in that area of the world.

What is needed now is a thorough re-evaluation of our political, military, economic policies in the Middle East.  The only way out of this inherited mess is for Obama to look at the area with fresh eyes, and get some intelligent advice from outside the military and government areas.  No immediate solution is possible.  All this coming with the health care debate.  That makes the mess more tangled.  This will all take time.  A new direction in the Middle East overall is required.  Unfortunately we do not have elected officials in Washington who seem capable of anything this intelligent and heroic. 

Whether you are a Jew, Moslem, Buddhist, atheist, or any flavor of Christianity, we live in the United States of America, a country that is heavily influenced by pseudo-Christians and fundamentalist-Christians.  They often use the Bible for their authority and have become very skilled at pulling out of context certain passages that support right-wing perspectives by twisting and falsifying the words.

The New Testament, especially the so-called direct quotes of Jesus of Nazareth, is clearly progressive.    It is far easier to offer support for left-wing philosophies than right-wing philosophies using Jesus and the Gospels for guides.

Personally, I do not claim to be a Christian.  And I am not a member of any organization or group, political or religious or whatever.  But the words of the New Testament are clear.  Jesus was definitely speaking of progressive approaches to life.  Right-wing and so-called fundamentalist "Christians" love to carefully select passages and then reconfigure them to fit their own selfish motives.

I would suggest that you actually read the New Testament, especially the four Gospels, and especially the direct "quotes" from Jesus.  Some New Testament editions present the words of Jesus in red or some different color than the other words.  Read them carefully.  You will find an egalitarian, a man of peace, a man who tells you to love our enemies, a man who with his family became an illegal immigrant from Egypt into Israel, a man who chastised people who love material things, and Jesus blessed the common man.  Jesus believed in healing ALL people.

It would be impossible to give a comprehensive list of Bible quotes to clearly emphasize how progressive Jesus was, but following are some examples.  Please read the Gospels yourself, and cringe at what is written there, and what we have done with our bullying, and with a guy who got many votes running for President [Pat Robertson] saying we should use the CIA or other agency to kill the democratically elected leader of Venezuela.  Read the comments I receive here from people who seem to hate everybody and want to kill every Moslem in the world.  Listen to how carefully selected and out of context right-wingers are in "quoting" Jesus.  Compare that to the Jesus of the New Testament.  And remember, please, that I am NOT a member of any religious group, any political group, and I do not receive money from anybody to express my views [unlike most political hacks from both sides].

[Illegal immigrant] "Joseph got up and with the little child and his mother with him, journeyed toward the land of Israel. . .he was afraid to enter the country."  Matthew 2:19

[Jesus tempted by the Devil about greed] "Man does not live by bread alone."  Matthew4:1-11

In chapter 6 of Matthew, Jesus gives a sermon...  [re the rich, powerful, arrogant] "How happy are the humble-minded, for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs!"  "Happy are those who claim nothing for the whole earth shall belong to them!"  "Happy are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!"  "Happy are those who make peace, for they will be known as the sons of God!"  "Don't pile up treasures on earth..."  "You cannot serve God and the power of money at the same time."  [In chapter 7:] "Treat other people exactly as you would like to be treated by them -- this is the essence of all true religion."  "Be on your guard against false religious teachers, who come to you dressed up as sheep but are really greedy wolves."   He admonished us to render unto Caesar what  is Caesar's  [taxes].

[Matt chapter 11:] "Come to me, all of you who are weary and overburdened, and I will give you rest!  Put on my yoke and learn from me.  For I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls." [chapter 16:] "For what good is it for a man to gain the whole world at the price of his own soul?" [chapter 18:] "Who is really greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?'  Jesus called a little child to his side and set him on his feet in the middle of them all. 'Believe me,' he said, 'unless you change your whole outlook and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.  It is the man who can be as humble as this little child who is greatest in the kingdom of Heaven."

It is clear that humility, forgiveness, peace, love, tolerance, egalitarianism, etc. are all part of the direct comments of Jesus of Nazareth.  In a nation that often announces its Christian faith, why is it then so difficult to offer help, health care, support, tolerance, acceptance, etc. for everybody?  Why do we focus on whom we can persecute and put in jail and have the state murder [capital punishment] and promote guns and be militaristic and be a nation of bullies?  We are hypocrites.

[Quotes above from "The New Testament in Modern English" translated by Biblical scholar J.B. Phillips]

President Barack Obama must move past the stalemate created by right-wingers and greed-capitalists who want to see him fail, even if it harms America terribly.

Obama was elected to CHANGE things.  In an effort to try bipartisanship, he has hit a stone wall built by Know-Nothing Republicans.  It is hopeless for they are dug in to see him fail.

From the beginning of his administration, Obama should have clearly laid out his health care reform program to Congress and the American people.  His early failure to do so has allowed all the lies and distortions to be orchestrated by insurance companies and right-wing organizations.  He is seen as a threat to the immoral profit motives of the private health care industry.

With weak leadership from Senator Harry Reid and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Obama has allowed all reform legislation to stumble in Congress and stall.  He must belatedly take the bull by the horns and strongly lead change through Congress ...NOW!

His international leadership has had wonderful results, and the U.S. has re-gained its primary role in the world after the horrible mistakes of the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush years.  Mr. President, show the same dynamic leadership on domestic issues!  Re-gain your mandate!

As President Obama carefully considers our role and mission in Afghanistan, I express my appreciation to him for giving proper time and thought to this extremely important subject.  The horrible mistakes and proactive bumbling by the Bush administration must no longer be tolerated.

My hope is that advice will come from the military leadership, the diplomatic corps, AND some insightful people outside those two areas and apart from the government.  Thus far military and diplomatic advice leaves much to be desired.  Mistake has been piled upon mistake.

President Lyndon Johnson listened to military and diplomatic "experts" as we got deeper and deeper into the quicksand of Vietnam.  But these "experts" got support from the well-stuffed armchair generals back home who rooted for them like at a Sunday televised NFL game.

The Pentagon and Department of State are often not depositories of wisdom.  Couple that with the limited aptitude of George W. Bush and the devious-sinister nature of Dick Cheney, and it is no surprise at the bumbling of the Bush years in the Middle East.

The men and women in our military did not escape this bumbling.  Inadequate protection for them in the battle zones was atrocious.  Adequate funding for veterans' health care was fudged by the Bush administration.  Conscience was AWOL during the Bush years.

Be careful, President Obama.  Don't get caught up in the inadequacies of the same bumblers.  Get advice from a variety of sources.  We have a great deal of catching  up to do in the Middle East, let's not compound the idiocy of past with the same cast of "experts."

It is tempting to try and satisfy the "heroic" cries of the valiant right-wing warriors safe at home.  Conducting the realities of the Middle East is quite a different matter.