Memorial Day Sonnet

If Liberty means anything to me,

I will remember what my freedom cost,

By those who gave their all to keep me free,

Whose lives were sacrificed, but never lost.

I will remind myself of what they did,

And keep them dearly cherished in my heart;

Their honor never from me shall be hid

And I will know they always did their part

To save our nation and its people here,

To pledge their lives in defense of our ways,

To show that freedom always outlives fear,

And sacrifice is hallowed all our days.

If Liberty means anything to me,

I will remember those who kept me free.

© John Stuart 2008

Pastor at Erin Presbyterian Church,

Knoxville, Tennessee

It remains to be seen if history will repeat itself, but throughout the nomination process, trying to beat Obama with personal attacks instead of policy arguments has all but failed. GOP Tennesseans may feel they were being patriotic in singling out Michelle Obama for their initial attack ads, but this will only increase Obama’s popularity and make Tennessean Republicans look paltry.

If McCain has any spine, he will condemn these spurious attacks and call to make political spousal abuse off limits for both parties. Politics is an ugly business, but drive-by slurs only makes the perpetrators look even uglier in the eyes of voting citizens.

#1:       Just before the Super Delegates make their votes final on June 4, Bill is taken into hospital with a suspected heart attack. Hillary is at his hospital bedside, just like Rocky did for Adrienne. The Super Delegates get out the sympathy vote and she wins 75% of them. She wins the nomination and Bill miraculously recovers.

#2:       Just after June 3, Obama is in the lead and begins to prepare a speech for accepting the nomination. However, an old flame suddenly appears just before the speech and everybody is stunned. Hillary comes to the rescue by saying that Obama, despite his past, is a good man. The Super Delegates drop Obama and run to Hillary. She humbly accepts the crown and asks the people to pray for her opponent and his family.

#3:       Aliens land in Denver during the Convention. Obama and most of the Super Delegates are disintegrated with ray guns. Hillary comes out fighting like a modern Joan of Arc and ends up defeating the aliens with her shrill tones and laser beam eyes. What’s left of the Democrat Party nominate her as their leader for life.

#4:       Obama goes down a mine shaft in West Virginia trying to impress voters. The mine collapses and no one can rescue the miners or Obama. Hillary suspends her campaign and seeks to comfort Michelle. Hillary even tries to dig Obama out of the mine and the country sees an image of her with mascara ridden tears and bloodied finger nails covered in coal dust. She wins the nomination, the Whitehouse, the Nobel Peace Prize and is asked to become President of the United Nations within four years. Only green kryptonite can hold her back.

#5:       Florida and Michigan are given back their delegates and the ACLU successfully wins a lawsuit entitling Hillary to be given all the votes that were cast for her in the two States. After recounting, Hillary squeaks through a win.

#6:       Hillary, Bill, and Chelsea sit at a dinner table in a New York spaghetti joint and say nothing. The screen goes blank and the credits start rolling. End of story.

When I think about how many people in the past protested, suffered, and even died for their votes, you would think that for each voter it would be priceless.

However, John McCain and Hillary Clinton think our votes are worth $30 a piece. Thirty pieces of greenback, but it may as well be silver.

A summer time ban on federal taxes will save us all about $3 dollars per week and solve nothing. But if it makes people think that these two presidential candidates “feel their pain,” then there’s a lot more wrong in America than just the economy.

For Pete’s sake, Indiana and North Carolina, WAKE UP. You’re selling your birthrights for  thirty dollars!

At least Obama understands the magnitude of the problem...

Wright tried to be his own Bill Cosby, but looked more like a fifth grader (sorry fifth graders) making a show and tell presentation. All he wanted to show was how conceited he is; all he wanted to tell the world that attacking him was an attack on the Black Church.

Who appointed him as the spokesperson for the Black church? Is he so big headed that he actually believes this stuff? How many African Americans does Wright know that have been given a $1.5 million dollar home by their workplaces? This ministerial maverick has been living in wealth for so long, that he has forgotten the pain in his community.

Any other pastor who caused a presidential candidate so much trouble would have taken a sabbatical and kept out of the headlines. Wright is bent on wrecking Obama and veils his hypocrisy in, you’ve guessed it, biblical quotations.

And as for his unpatriotic, vitriolic You-tubed sermon comments about America, he totally “nullified” the issue by saying if you haven’t heard the rest of the sermon, then sound byte viewers don’t know what they are talking about.

Perception in politics is reality, ministerial man. If you don’t understand that one, then you don’t know what the rest of America is talking about.

Bring it home, preacher man, and give Obama a fighting chance. Don’t become a millstone around his neck. This is the first time that the African American community has a real opportunity of having a Black President. Take your controversial circus act out of town until the 6^th of November. Otherwise, in years to come, the name Jeremiah Wright may become synonymous with Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscariot in both the African American community and the field of politics.

And, as for one of the biblical quotations that you paraphrased to suit yourself the other day, here’s what it actually says:

Proverbs 17:28Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.

Perhaps you should reflect upon the verses that directly follow it:

Proverbs 18:1, 2          

1          An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends; he defies all sound judgment.

2          A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions.

Rush believes that Republicans can screw up the Democrat nomination’s process and thus render a death blow to the Democrat hopefuls in November. He has faith in his own audience and his conception; the only thing wrong with that is this: it’s un-American.

Instead of letting the American people vote for their own candidates in these final races, Rush wants to spoil the whole process. Depending upon who is the underdog in each State, Rush urges his listeners to vote for either Hillary or Obama. He wants the race to be very close, so that the Super Delegates will have to make a semi-unpopular choice of nominee for the party. Limbaugh gleefully gloats that his operation is ruining the Democrat party and deludes his audience into thinking that they are creating havoc for their opponents. It’s just one big joke on the election process; but it’s also unpatriotic.

It’s un-American because it goes against the forces of freedom in a Republic. He’s trying to squander the votes and voices of conservatives by making them do something that goes against their will: voting for Hillary Clinton. For almost a decade, the United States became the laughing stock of the world because of the shenanigans in the Whitehouse during the Clinton administrations. Are conservatives willing to set aside their furor over those wilderness years and let Clinton win States like Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania? Is Indiana going to become rich pickings for the Clinton campaign just because of the Limbaugh Luddites?

This is a foolish philosophy and one that has the potential of backfiring on those Republicans who voted for Clinton in the primaries. In the long run, Obama was an easier target in November because of his waffling and woeful inexperience. What Limbaugh has done is re-galvanize a failing Clinton campaign, making her the comeback Queen, which has the potential of running her all the way to the Whitehouse. When she was ready to be picked off a couple of months ago, Limbaugh resuscitated her campaign. Instead of ensuring that there was one less candidate, he has allowed this to drag on, breathing life into the more formidable candidate, instead of letting superficial Obama climb to the top.

Come November, the Democrats will remember what the Limbaughtarians tried to do and will come together in a show of strength that will ruin McCain’s chances. And then what will the loyal Limbaugh listeners do? They will regret following the foolish advice of this broadcast blowhard and their idealistic icon will fall from the golden pedestal that he has created for himself.

Conservatives voting for Clinton was the death-knell to our influence in the GOP. And Limbaugh is to blame. Remember this caveat: be careful who you vote for in the primaries; she may become President in November.

Mr Blair said faith should be rescued from extremism and be a force for progress, in his first speech on faith since becoming a Catholic.

He said politicians found it difficult to talk about faith because they "may be considered weird".

His speech was accompanied by a noisy anti-war protest and silent vigil by Catholic peace group Pax Christi.

Mr. Blair, who converted to Catholicism months after stepping down as prime minister last summer and is now a Middle East envoy, told an audience of 1,600 at Westminster Cathedral he was often asked if faith was important to his politics.

"If you are someone 'of faith' it is the focal point of belief in your life. There is no conceivable way that it wouldn't affect your politics," he said.

  Read the rest of the story here…