When Traditional American Values Seem Crazy

I was watching the Republican Presidential debate this week and I was happy to see the surprising presence of a new face. Standing on the far left of the stage meticulously dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and deep red tie was none other than Alan Keyes. I was surprised and excited. Alan Keyes is a new and late comer to this primary season but he is not new to Presidential politics. He is a brilliant scholar and renowned debater. True his greatest political achievement was a surprising third place finish in the 2000 Iowa Caucus, but nevertheless I was excited to see him on the stage.

Agree or disagree with his politics...Alan Keyes is a straight shooting hard charging statesman. He says what he believes and he will not apologize for it. He said seemingly unheard of things in the debate...like he believes that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights...I found myself thinking, "is he allowed to say that on television?" I mean sure all the candidates in both parties pay lip service to faith and mention God, but this guys talks about God as if he were real and involved in the affairs of man.

I have to say that I am glad that Alan Keyes is back in the race because love him or hate him you sit up and listen to what he has to say. He certainly had me thinking and maybe that is good for the process. After all when did quoting the founding fathers start to sound crazy or even unusual?

Subtle Racism

Some things must not be allowed to slip by without comment. Every time they do we lose sight of reality and slip deeper into a television induced coma. A classic and unfortunatley all to common incident occurred on Tim Russert's "Meet The Press". I am quite certain that Tim himself did not have any idea what was happening and will probably not gives today's show a second thought.

Despite the willfull or blissful ignorance of some liberal elitists, the fact is that racism no matter how subtle is still racism and we must not let it continue to influence our social and political dialogue without recognizing it for what it is and striking back at the powerful influence it can have. This morning's show provided a classic scenario in which the vilian's subtle but truly adept attack probably went unnoticed by all but a very few...I doubt even the vilian himself had any conscious thought when he continuously and consistently stooped to questions steeped in racism. How did this happen? 3 out of the 4 commentators on the show were white. They were all asked a series of pointed questions but all were general in nature and add sweeping implications. The 1 African-American commentator...a well known and respectable political and social thinker was asked extremely narrow and condescending questions about the black voter and how the black voter will react and who will win the black vote. Was this man somehow without qualification to speak on any other issue? Of course not. But he was never given the opportunity. What a bitter poison pill to swallow and yet we as a society swallow it over and over again without thinking twice. We lable and divide and then rather than engaging in honest debate. We assume that if someone does not fit a category they are not qualified to speak on it or worse yet...we assume by our questions and actions that a person is not qualified to speak on anything outside their own social, racial, or sexual category.

It is not my desire to sound negative or bitter and I do not for one minute believe that Tim Russert is a angry racist who is out to harm the African-American community...but he did it today and in a dangerous and subtle way by treating one black man as inferior and not giving him the same treatment as everyone else on the show or asking him broad questions.

While I fail to see eye to eye with many of the candidates running for President and do not see eye to eye with Obama...I hope that we as a nation can truly set aside color and vote for or against him based not on color but rather on the character of the candidate. After all equal and fair treatment, a level playing field and one day a color blind society are great and noble goals. Categorizing, dividing and ultimatley sidelining any person on the basis of color is not only stupid it is the most dangerous kind of racism. The subtle racism of limiting influence and opportunity based on color and racial stereotypes and allowing one's race rather than their actions and beliefs to identify and define a person.

Of Wars Lost and Won

This past week a prominent American political figure declared that the war in Iraq was lost. If that is the case, why are we still there? Why waste one more life on a lost cause? And what of the lives already lost...were they tossed away for nothing?

No. The answer is no. We can win. We will win if we make the decision that defeat and failure are not an option. Regardless of whether an American citizen agrees with going to war in the first place, once we are in a war we must succeed. We must have peace through victory. Nothing else matters once we commit to such a thing as terrible as war we must not quit until we win. One life is too many to throw away in a war that is not worth fighting and winning. So once we have stepped the first irreversible step down the path of war we cannot and must not stop until victory is acheived. Of course we must be willing to do whatever it takes to win, if we are not so willing then we must not begin wars in the first place.

Please let the troops know that you are behind them and support them. The worst thing a soldier can believe is that they or their brothers in arms have sacrificed all for nought. So when you support the troops support the cause and the mission. You do not have to agree with the why or the how but once our Great Nation makes a decision to go to war then we must all be behind the effort. Nothing is more basic than this most simple and fundamental principle of citenzenship and nothing is more critical to the survival of our own or any Nation-State.

When we go to war, we are the good guys and the enemy is evil. There can be questioning or second-guessing that once the battle has begun. Of course, this is what makes the careful discernment of when and why we go to war so incredibly criticial.

Terror Response Training or Pointless Bigotry

Today a New Jersey public school held a terrorism drill. The purpose of the drill was an admiralbe one...to prepare for a possible attack by religious extremists. The problem is that the drill was completely divorced from any reality that you and I live in as Americans. Worse the drill probably did more harm than good because the "terrorists" in the drill might just as well have been members of the Mickey Mouse Club. That organization certainly seems like a gang and just look at what famous alumn Brittney has done to her hair.

I promise we can all sleep soundly in our beds tonight knowing that there is no organized group or disorganized group of right-wing fundamentalist Christians anyhwere in the world that advocates violence and certainly not violence against school children or random violence against Americans. Sure there are the occasional abortion clinic bombers or the Timothy McVeighs of the world but those are individual nuttters acting alone. They are not and never were part of some sinister clandestine terror cell of sunday school teachers that is waiting in the shadows to perpetrate violence on school children in New Jersey.

Our children would be better served being told to look both ways before crossing the street rather than having to live in fear of the quite girl named Ruth that wears big glasses and brings her bible to school. After all, don't most Americans claim to be part of the Christian faith?

The secular progessive school administers in New Jersey may think this was a clever game but we must all ask ourselves, "why we are waisting our time and tax dollars making up bad guys in order to further a secular worldview?" After all there are plenty of real bad guys out there that promise every single day that they are going to kill us. They live and breathe for nothing else. Maybe we should spend our time being vigilante against real threats instead of creating new ones.

Have You Been Bribed?

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money - Alexis de Tocueville.

This seems to be a truly challenging and yet simple thought. Are we there as a people? If so, when did we get there?