Obama Inspired Me

  A lot of people were inspired by candidate and then President Obama.  I was one of them.  After watching him gain momentum in the primaries in 2008, thanks to his position on the war in Iraq, and then defeating Hillary Clinton and Senator McCain, I watched him squander the most political capital that a person could hope for.

   I watched again and again, issue after issue, the president not only cede negotiating positions to the Republican party,  but never even had starting points in negotiations that his supporters imagined he would.  The key word here is "imagined".

   I had never imagined that we were on the brink of a true universal health care system.  I just thought he might at least bring it up.  I never imagined that he would truly bring U.S.troops home from Iraq.  I just didn't think he would actually try to extend the deadline that Bush had set.  The one thing that I did expect him to do he did.  He did allow unlimited travel to Cuba by people with relatives there.  But unfortunately, he has maintained all of the programs that we spend millions of dollars on to undermine the Cuban government.  I think it would be easier than most people think to go a lot farther and establish relations with Cuba since the times of Kennedy.  There would be no personal political risk, which of course is the main calculation in the minds of politicians like him.

   But what we are witnessing this week should turn the stomachs of decent people.  The absolutely unbalanced military pounding being applied to the Palestinian people in Gaza.  Hamas apparently has a military wing because its chief was assassinated by an Israeli air strike earlier this week, but I've not seen any images of an actual Palestinian military.  Rockets and some machine guns can hardly be called a military in today's world and anyone who tries to claim that the fight is balanced is simply lying.

   Watching Obama's administration answer the questions of violence by Israel by stating that they stand by Israel's right to defend themselves, as if  the violent occupiers have been sucker punched and become victims by the people they seem to be determined to occupy.  It's disgusting and disgraceful.  It's also why Israel acts as disconnected to reality as the Obama administration when the United Nations votes to condemn the embargo of Cuba... another embarrassing stance that Obama decides to stick with.

   Obama inspired me and these are events that reinforce my certainty.  He inspired me to finally un-register from the Democrat party, which I had already believed for some time had not been a good fit for me.  He also inspired me to vote for the Green party candidate for president on November 6 of this year.

   He has done so much as president to have left me quite inspired.  Hopefully others will be inspired too.  For that I say to President Obama, "Great job."   

Israel and Palestine: What will be

   As a citizen of this world we live in, the issues of injustices anywhere I find of much interest and urgency.  Today I will express some of my concerns in relation to the issue of the situation facing the Palestinian people and the state of Israel.  I must disclose that my one of my grandfathers was Jewish.  His parents came to the United States almost a hundred years ago in search of a better life.  They left behind most of their family who just a few short years later became victims of the Nazis.  I understand the profound effect that their historical crime have had on the Jewish people as the subject was so horrible that my grandfather almost couldn't speak of it.  I myself am not Jewish, nor am I of any other faith.  This fact should not disqualify me from critisizing the policies of Israel nor should I be considered an anti-semite or "self-hating Jew." 
   It's a bit embarrasing that with the marvel of the internet, we are able to read opinions from around the world, and in spite of the fact that there seems to be a wide variety of opinions in Israel on the subject, we here in the U.S. are basically stuck with one prevalent opinion in our press with an almost disdainful reaction to any opposing view. 
   We openly speak of the importance of the problem, but our official stance is no more than a blessing for Israel's state to continue acting with virtual impunity in it's belligerent actions as it continually denies a peaceful reality for the Palestinian people.  Despite occasional rhetoric about how there needs to be a meaningful peace and a two state solution, the U.S. continues to support the state of Israel in it's "creation of facts" on the ground which makes such a goal more and more unlikely.  The dream of a Palestine free from occupation is one that will probably not come true.  The reality is that, thanks to a hard-headed policy on the part of some of the actors in this real life drama, that we have quite possibly passed the point where a two-state solution can be accomplished.  The fact that within Israel itself, the population of the Palestinian community is outpacing that of the Jewish one.  The likely outcome will someday be that there will be one country for all of the people, Jewish and Palestinian.  The question will then become will the state be one of an aparteid nature?  If so, then the problems will surely continue as the oppresed part of the population will struggle for equality.  Or will the hard-headed members of that society, from both sides, be marginalized enough that the people in the future state can live together in harmony as brothers and sisters, just as so many have already proven possible.  I am eternally hopeful that the good people will prevail in their search for peace as it is something that people all over deserve.  It is just a shame that so much pain and so much suffering must go on for so long.  As a world community, it is our duty to be on the side of peace and denounce the wicked politics that only prolong the misery that so many people must endure in the thing called life, that is no more precious for one person than another.