Results tagged “Obama” from Marilyn Sewell

I'm glad I'm not in politics, because then I can sit here at my computer and come up with sensible solutions to funding our nation's health care needs--without having to answer to the hordes of well-funded lobbyists from pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies.

So here are a few places where I would go first, to find money:

--The easiest and most obvious one is to change the tax structure.  Forget going after the top CEO salaries--yes, they're obscene, but if we reduced them all to zero, we wouldn't even begin to raise the sums we need.  We need to substantially raise the taxes of very wealthy people.  Obama is going there now, but I wish he could go further, and faster.

--Then I would let a whole lot of people out of prison--or never put them in there, in the first place.  There are surely violent, anti-social people who need to be locked up.  But there are too many people populating our prisons who could pay their debt to society in some other way than doing jail time.  Many might even conceivable be rehabilitated, if we actually tried to do that, which we don't.  The U.S. incarcerates people at nearly 5 times the world average, as Nicholas Kristof recently pointed out (NY Times, 8/20/09), And California spends $216,000 annually on each inmate in the juvenile justice system, but spends only $8,000 on each child in the Oakland public school system.  What is wrong with this picture? 

--And third, there's the obesity factor.  Our kids (nevermind the adults who can't fit into airplane seats or into caskets) are getting to be real fatties, which is a major health issue.  And soft drinks are the biggest culprit of all, I'm given to understand.  So why are we selling soft drinks so cheaply?  We should add a fat tax on every soft drink sold and use all that money for health care.

In fact, if we made all these changes, we'd probably take care of the health care crisis and have enough money left over to solve global warming.  We wouldn't even have to stop spending billions of dollars on foreign wars--which, in truth, would be my very first choice of a smart cost-cutting measure.  But, hey, I'm trying not to dream too big. 

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I woke up this morning with the news that President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize.  Comments from previous recipients and from world leaders were pouring in.  Although some said the prize was "premature," most respondents seem to receive the news as a harbinger of hope for our world.  I would agree.

It is true that Obama has been in office a scant 9 months, but he has not been given the Prize for what he has accomplished, so much as what he embodies.  With his election as our President, he became an iconic figure for the whole world, signifying a new day. 

--He says we need to work together in non-partisan ways to solve the enormous problems of our country.  (And he has tried to do so, in spite of no encouragement from the Republicans.)

--He says that everyone deserves to have health care.

--He says we should rid the world of nuclear weapons.

--He says it's way past time for Israel and Palestine to work for a concrete solution to their ages-old conflict.

--He says that the United States can and should lead the way in the reduction of carbon emissions, but that we cannot solve this problem alone..

--He is not naive about defense, but will always hold out the olive branch for peace.

But it is more than what he says--it is what he is, that won the Nobel Prize.  He listens, respectfully.  He changes his mind sometimes, when the facts merit it.  His wish is to compromise, some say to a fault, but he keeps the vision of the good ever before him.  He is humble.  His life has never been his own, to gain riches or fame--he is a servant of the people.  He understands that the United States is not the only country, but one country among many.  He respects his wife as his peer and true partner--which says everything about his attitude towards women.  And he is a person of color in a world long dominated by white people, but a world that is mostly populated by people of color.  His very presence as head of state of our country says to the world, "This is a new day.  No longer will we do business as usual."

So Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize.  What are the implications of his winning?  Undoubtedly, his voice will carry ever more authority when he speaks of peace.  His distractors--and they are many and they are shockingly effective--will have a tougher time convincing others that he is unworthy, for one reason or another.  His character will only become stronger as he grows into this new honor.

But Obama cannot bring peace to our world alone.  No one can.  What can each one of us do to make our world more peaceful?  I mean, personally, in addition to our political activities. 

I think peace has to be learned, like any other skill, and this skill is best learned by example.  It is learned first in the home.  Then in school and in the workplace.  It is learned in churches and universities and unions and non-profits.  What if wherever we have influence, we sought to bring caring and compassion to our words and actions?  What if we did not allow ourselves to be "hooked" by others' anger or frustration?  What if we assumed the best of people?  What if resentment was released and forgiveness practiced?  I'm not arguing for Casper Milquetoast--it's possible to be firm as well as kind.  

I have only one bumper sticker on my car--it's a small one, on the left side of the back bumper, and it says "Nonjudgment Day Is Near."  I'm trying to practice not judging--discernment, yes, but not judgment.  Just being present with what is.  I've begun noticing how much calmer I am when I can pull this off.  And how much more peaceful the world feels. 

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In institutional affairs, as well as in affairs of the heart, we do well to "speak the truth, in love."  This promise was part of the covenant which ministers typically make when they are installed in a church.  It is not an easy covenant to keep.  Leaders of all kinds of institutions tend to think that fudging the truth from time to time will keep the institution stable and whole; they tend to believe that transparency is just threatening.  Well, truth-telling is messy, yes, but necessary--necessary for the integrity of an institution, and necessary for its long-term viability and strength. And it must be done in love.  That's the clincher. 

Romantic partners also tend to shy away from truth-telling.  We will hold back our true feelings, even deny these feelings altogether, in the name of holding onto the "togetherness"--or at least the peace of the household.  But this denial of our own emotional reality never works.  As one friend once reminded me, "The unconscious always wins."  So we push those hurt feelings under, over and over again, and then all of a sudden we lash out--or worse than that, we just decide we don't want to be with this person any longer.  We may not even know why.  For some reason, we just don't like ourselves when we are with this partner. 

In affairs of state, the same principle holds: speak the truth, with respect and compassion.  President Obama beautifully illustrated how this might be done in his speech in Cairo, on June 4.  In a world in which posing and posturing are the order of the day, resulting in seemingly endless hostilities and shameful human loss, Obama simply said: "So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity.  This cycle of suspicion and discord must end. I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world . . . ."

Obama doesn't skirt the specifics: the Arab world heard about extremism, about nuclear arms programs, about a poor record in human rights.  On the other hand, Obama spoke with equal passion about the suffering of the Palestinians due to the Israeli occupation, about the injustice of Israeli settlements in the occupied territory.  He quoted from the Holy Koran (a holy scripture rarely heard by U.S. citizens): "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth."  He went on to say that he will try "to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us . . . ."

Obama is showing the world--and most especially his own country--what leadership is all about.  He may not be able to heal the ages-old rift between Palestinians and Jews--which after all, goes back all the way to Jacob and Esau--but the truth of his words moved people all over the world, ordinary people who understand on a very viseral level that violence multiplies upon itself and that peace makes possible lives of hope and prosperity, for us and for our children and for our children's children.

Courage is required to speak the truth, whether it's in regard to institutions, or intimate relationships, or foreign affairs.  There are always those who are ready to condemn, or to take advantage of any weakness shown.  But the fact is that there is health in the truth, and people are drawn to health when it is given as an alternative.  Honesty has a way of opening up possibility, because a clean field emerges where previously obfuscation made everything blurry and confusing. 

Yes, truth-telling takes courage, but when it's done for the right reason and when it's done in love, it leads to new life.  Ways open that have been shut.  Dreams that never could be imagined suddenly appear. Nothing seems impossible.

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I just watched the Inuguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States.  One of the memorable phrases that he used in his address was recognizing "the triumph of hope over fear" at this time in our nation's history.

I feel that I just woke up from a bad dream, after the past eight years of Republican rule.  During that time everything that I hold dear about my country has been violated by the Bush administration: torture, in violation of the Geneva convention; pre-emptive war, in violation of international law; inept and wasteful handling of that war, once started; ignoring of the protections of habeas corpus; spying on American citizens; refusing to recognize scientific knowledge in making policy; allowing the short-term gains of the few to endanger the life of the planet; power and position given to those whose main virtue was their support of the President; deregulation, leading to shameful economic inequity and finally the breakdown of the economic system.  I could go on, but let's stop there.

Now in office is a man who embodies change.  The underprivileged son of a black man and a white woman, he is young, highly intelligent, compassionate, and a man of great integrity.  In his very person, he says YES to this nation, YES WE CAN.  Yes to all of us, not just some of us.  And in a time when so many of us have been beaten down by seeing our ideals dashed to the ground, we can once again choose hope over fear.  No wonder my tears were flowing so freely as I watched the Inauguration on television this morning.  It was a great letting go, and a great coming forth. 

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The sub-text of this fascinating Presidential campaign is race.  Does race matter?  Only Stephen Colbert, of the Colbert Report, can look viewers in the eye and say, "I don't see color."  Perhaps one day in the distant future, no one will see color at all.  But now everyone does.  The question is not, "Does race matter?" the question is, "How much does race matter, and to whom?"

I am from the South.  I know the South.  So I should not have been surprised when I talked with a Southerner last summer--a well-educated woman, a liberal, a long-time Democrat--who told me at that time, "Obama is not electable."  And when I asked why, she said, "He hasn't had enough experience."  Did her comment come from her own unconscious racism?  Or was she simply echoing the views of most of her neighbors and friends?  It now looks as though Obama is electable--but the new question becomes, "What about the Bradley effect?  Will people who say they would vote for a black person actually be reluctant to do so in the confines of the voting booth?"  I suppose we will see in three weeks.

One way to measure the division of the races in our country is the extent to which blacks and whites differ on the issue.  Whites were truly shocked when blacks cheered as O.J. Simpson was judged innocent in his first murder trial.  Didn't everyone know he was guilty as sin?  Maybe so.  But did whites understand the depth of anger that blacks carry about police corruption and police brutality?  Not a chance.  And more recently, whites were shocked to hear the remarks of Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former minister, regarding his anger toward this country.  Again, whites mostly have no idea of the amount of unspoken anger that festers in people of color when they are talked down to, ignored by taxi drivers, disregarded when decisions are made.  And most whites have never attended a black church service, which is one place where blacks speak are able to freely not only about their own sins, but about their hopes and dreams, and about the systemic sins that plague this country.

Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, whether you support Obama or McCain, I think all Americans will judge it a positive step forward that a black man is being seriously considered by either party as a viable candidate for President of the United States.  This in itself is something of a moral miracle, considering that blacks were being still being lynched in this country in the 1940's, and Civil Rights legislation wasn't passed until the 1960's.

So are we color blind yet?  Not yet.  But though Obama is called black, we should remember that he is bi-racial, as more and more of our citizens will be, as time goes on.  We will begin to wonder, as people do of my bi-racial grandson now--what race is he, actually?  Maybe just the human race.  Whether or not he is elected President, Obama and his kind are the future, a future when truly, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., suggested, people will be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. 

Let us set our hearts and minds toward this long-awaited time of justice and reconciliation.

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An advertisement linking Barak Obama to high gasoline prices is planned for national cable networks and is to play locally in 11 swing states, including three states particularly hurt by the economic turndown: Michigan, Ohio, and Pennysylvania.  The 30-second ad is called "Pump."  (NY Times, July 22, p. A14)

The script for the ad reads as follows: "Gas prices.  $4, $5, no end in sight.  Because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America.  No to independence from foreign oil.  Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?  (chant)  Obama, Obama.  One man knows we must now drill more in America and rescue our family budgets.  Don't hope for more energy, vote for it.  McCain."  The visuals support the message that Obama has caused high gas prices.

In the first place, no one who has studied the issue believes that increasing domestic oil production will be all that helpful to the U.S. in gaining energy independence.  In addition, both candidates have endorsed alternatives: wind and solar power, ethanol (Obama) and nuclear (McCain).  Many economists agree that McCain's proposal for a temporary gasoline tax rebate would not give any substantial help.  And the cost of oil has been rising for years, because of various economic conditions and political influences. 

As the Times goes on to state, "'Pump' is misleading on nearly every substantive point."  In other words, in plainer language, Senator John McCain, who must ultimately be considered responsible for this ad, is clearly and unequivocally lying to the American public. 

Even in this age of falling expectations, when cynicism is rife, in regard to politicians, I am shocked.  We should expect more from a Senator, a war hero, and a presumed candidate for the President of the United States.  We should expect integrity, we should expect truth.

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