In a locker room conversation the other day, I answered a question from a friend whom I met while working at the polls during the last presidential election. He wanted to know which of the candidates for president I favored.
“One that won’t be elected,” I told him. “Dennis Kucinich. He’s the only one that has consistently stood up and told the truth about what he believes.”
“Yeah,” my friend nodded, “but he’s just too far out there.”
“Right,” I said. “He’s definitely the best administrator in the pack, and he believes we should put as much effort into achieving peace as into making war. With those attitudes in this society, he doesn’t stand a chance.”
Larry just looked at me, but that look said it all. I could see in his eyes, the understanding that there is something fundamentally wrong with a society that is more comfortable with war than with peace and more excited about having a president with good hair, white teeth and a strong personality than one who has demonstrated his ability to run a government but is just a little guy with a bad haircut.
Besides, Dennis has never proven his right to the presidency by telling us how much he believes in Jesus. How could he ever expect to be president!?
In a related vein, I was interested in Romney’s comments about his Mormonism yesterday. As all the media have pointed out, it reminds us of what Jack Kennedy had to say about Catholicism. Maybe it’s just that I’m an old coot and old coots always think the ways of the past were better than those of the present, but of the two speeches, I much preferred Kennedy’s.
The bottom line of Romney’s speech was his call for “deepening the link between faith and political life”. – (Springfield News-Leader, Friday December 7, p1E) The bottom line of Kennedy’s speech was that faith is a personal choice that was best left out of the political arena in order to ensure that the church has no sway over political decision-making.
The trend of requiring politicians to wear their fundamentalism on their sleeve has led to undue influence for people like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Charles Dobson, and to voting decisions that brought us the likes of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
It seems to me that we were far better off with Kennedy!
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi
Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR
The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle
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I am glad you commented on Romney's speech. I am so dissapointed in the media for not pointing out that he in no way was seperating church from state, he was just telling us that his religion was misunderstood and not a cult. This is the guy that when questioned wasn't sure he could have a muslim in his administration. We must get religion out of politics.
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