This week brought both the exhilaration of watching our country make progress on the road to a more perfect union, and the disappointment of watching it stumble back. On Tuesday, the misguided "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy officially ended, finally allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military. A day later, the state of Georgia executed Troy Davis, a black man accused of killing a white police officer more than 20 years ago, despite what GOP Rep. Bob Barr called the conviction's reliance on "the skimpiest of evidence," and, in the words of former FBI director William Sessions, "pervasive, persistent doubts" about Davis' guilt. The day after that, at the latest GOP debate, a gay soldier's question about DADT drew boos from the crowd and silence from the candidates, who returned to arguing over which of them is most opposed to government intrusion into the lives of citizens -- lethal injections aside, of course.
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I would add one more huge concern, not addressed or even alluded to in any of the Republican debates - the fact that our countries media focuses almost solely on the negative in our schools. Ignored almost totally are the large numbers of successful, pleasant, cooperative, high achieving student leaders in our schools, of which there are many, and who are seldom mentioned.
I do agree that the negative deserves to be exposed and discussed, but the claim from some talking heads and network officials - that bad news sells better than good news. How would they know? How often has the latter been tried. Even our local newspaper defended their high profile sports coverage - even for our third place in the league at the time basketball team, whereas our national Mock Trial Team merited only a Quick Read on page 33 of section H. When our Mock Trial Coach raised a little cain, the principal did organize a school wide parade down through town involving every student activity, but it did take making a scene to make that happen, and it's only happened once in 17 years.
How can this group of people call themselves Christians when they lack love or consideration for their fellow Americans but expect us to believe that social security needs to be abolished because communities take care of their own? If that were indeed true, then how is it that so many in this country have fallen below the poverty line, that we have one of the highest crime rates in the world, that 1/4th of our women become victims to domestic violence and that we have so much homelessness in one of the richest countries on earth?
What has happened to healthy debate and presenting solutions to the critical issues we face in our time, then coming to a workable resolution together? There is a lot of grandstanding and misrepresentation of facts but not one of the GOP candidates has sold me on any plans or ideas. Compromise is not a four letter word. It is what drives innovation and progress.
You say, "How can this group of people [the audience?] call themselves Christians when they lack love or consideratÂion for their fellow Americans but expect us to believe that social security needs to be abolished because communitieÂs take care of their own?"
It needs to be abolished because it's a collapsing Ponzi scheme, like Bernie Madoff was running.
You say, "If that were indeed true, then how is it that so many in this country have fallen below the poverty line, that we have one of the highest crime rates in the world, that 1/4th of our women become victims to domestic violence and that we have so much homelessneÂss in one of the richest countries on earth?"
Are you saying that if communities really did take care of their own, that poverty, high crime rates, domestic violence, and homelessness would be reduced? So why DON'T communities take care of their own, rather than fobbing it off to some bureaucracy in Washington?
Have you ever considered why it is that a small country with few resources (Switzerland) can be prosperous, while other countries with massive resources do not prosper?
Mixed into the stammering, R.S. said, "Any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military." Mr. No Govt. Intrusion banishes Commander in Chief; he wants a celibate monastic order; R.S. could hand down Papal-like edicts.
Further, Santorum is willing to go to great lengths to see that no "privileges" go to a special group he wants to discriminate against. Apparently it is better to take those "privileges" away from everyone. His comment was:
"I would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military. The fact they are making a point to include it as a provision within the military that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege to, and removing don't ask don’t tell. I think tries to inject social policy into the military. And the military's job is to do one thing: to defend our country..."
How will "No Sex in Military" affect recruitment? Military budgets? Foreigh policy? And, if Rick Perry didn't hear booing in the audience, why didn't he at least listen to what he himself was saying? The Peeping Tom govt. of the GOP is outrageous!
Dr Norman Borlaug ... the winner of the world food prize made this observation after his years traveling the world, observing it’s inhabitants ...the two legged kind... “those who are highly educated and come into wealth generally develop a method of thinking that is not good for the good for his fellow citizens”... now he is a man of letters not just a wild eyed Scandinavian like I am... If you don’t agree with me or him ...just take the time to look around you...where is the root of many of our problems...Is it not from our upper class society both in business and our leaders..those in this class that wear white hats are in the minority so much so that when we recognize their good they make the headlines... the others are guerrillas in the bushes
And very worrying.
No corporation would let its employees leave prior to meeting a critical project timeline. You would work around the clock to finish your responsibilities first, then leave on vacation. So why do we hold these politicians to a much lower standard?
ANOTHER budget crisis???? OH NO. Amazing. Who's fault is it no that congress hasn't submitted a budget for the last THREE years??? How come the media doesn't question this budget malfeasance????