(P1) Political
What Race Card?
Instead of just playing the press's game, why doesn't Barack just come out swinging with:
"What race card. I'm the black guy, not McCain. I'm the guy who had to overcome race to get where I am, and I've done a marvelous job of that. Where the hell are you guys coming from acting like you've been victimized by me. Yes, last time I looked in the mirror, I had fairly dark skin, perhaps not dark enough to satisfy you when you were saying I wasn't black enough! So this is what I mean when I say I look different from all those other guys on the dollar bill! I do! I'm black! And I'm proud! Were there one thing that might keep me from winning a landslide victory in the age of Bush, it would be what the polls cannot show us, namely how voters will feel when they enter the booth and decide whether or not they want to vote for a black man (spell that B-L-A-C-K). Otherwise, there's really no other choice in this election. I'm smart, informed, attractive, not Republican, certainly not Bush or McCain. Oh, and, not so incidentally, I'm black!"
Comment Here on any of the above or below and read the comments of others too. Log in under "Name" or "Anonymous" if you like, but please be sure to sign some facsimile of your name. Actual name is best, but use what you like. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net if you have difficulty.
George Bush's Professional Resume
As stated by the friend who sent this to me, "It's nice to see all of this in one place."
This person needs a job, an executive position, will be available in January 2009, and is willing to relocate.
RESUME-GEORGE W. BUSH
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
(P2) Philosophical
Response to Those Against Department of Peace
Interestingly, the majority of my responses to support for a U.S. Department of Peace have focussed not upon the positive goals but rather reasons to say no to another bureaucracy. I'd really be interested in your observations. Hit "comments" below. In the meantime, hear is typical correspondence:
(P3) Poetical
In Silence
by Thomas Merton
Be still.
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
to speak your
name.
Listen
to the living walls.
Who are you?
Who
are you? Whose
silence are you?
Who (be quiet)
are you (as these stones
are quiet). Do not
think of what you are
still less of
what you may one day be.
Rather
be what you are (but who?)
be the unthinkable one
you do not know.
O be still, while
you are still alive,
and all things live around you
speaking (I do not hear)
to your own being,
speaking by the unknown
that is in you and in themselves.
“I will try, like them
to be my own silence:
and this is difficult. The whole
world is secretly on fire. The stones
burn, even the stones they burn me.
How can a man be still or
listen to all things burning?
How can he dare to sit with them
when all their silence is on fire?”
Comment Here on any of the above or below and read the comments of others too. Log in under "Name" or "Anonymous" if you like, but please be sure to sign some facsimile of your name. Actual name is best, but use what you like. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net if you have difficulty.
Has anyone actually read Kucinish's bill? While it is an interesting idea in theory, it is totally unworkable from a practical standpoint. The governmental department turf wars alone would render the "Secretary of Peace" impotent.
4:35 PM
Dear Anonymous,
In the future, please add your name or nickname. That would add more moral force to the comment. My support of a Dept. of Peace is not so much based upon it's bureaucratic workings as upon the transformative nature of the words "Secretary of Peace." Regardless of how it works out, a Dept. of Peace gets people talking about Peace. What's a Dept of Defense? When was the last time troops were used to defend this country? Don't you think that focusing upon family serenity, gang neutralization, an Academy of Peace (paralleling the 4 "service" Academies), etc, might have a more positive effect? Tell me, Anonymous, why do you focus merely on the negative? So there would be "turf wars." I suspect the war turf might gain the advantage over the peace turf. But then, what do we have now? War turf and No Turf.