25.9.08

That's $700 billion... with a "B"!


There has been a lot of talk lately about the financial meltdown taking place in our nation's financial sectors... i am just wondering if the vast majority of folks are really taking notice of the whole deal? A $700 BILLION dollar "bail-out"?!? Whoa!

i don't pretend to have any real great knowledge of the issues that have caused what has happened to happen but i do know this... the continual pointing of fingers is getting pretty darn old. At some point don't we ALL just sort of roll up our sleeves and collectively say let's fix this?!?

i subscribe to a book summary deal, where get regular emails with book summaries attached and one i received not too long ago had this book attached to it, The Post-American World by Zakaria Fareed.

In this book Fareed makes the following astounding but accurate observation...
"The…American political system seems to have lost its ability to create broad coalitions that solve complex issues. The economic dysfunctions…are the consequences of specific government policies." "The American political system has lost the ability for large-scale compromise, and it has lost the ability to accept some pain now for much gain later on." "The United States…has developed a highly dysfunctional politics." "[It] has been captured by money, special interests, a sensationalist media, and ideological attack groups."
Now don't get me wrong there is a ton of other stuff i read in the book summary that i have a few problems with but in this regard... this inability to create "broad coalitions and solve complex issues" within our own nation... should be a "Houston... we have a problem..." wake up call!

What is our problem? Why can't we disagree without getting all nasty and stuff? Or why can't we drop labels and do the right thing, when it's time to do the right thing? i know what many of you are probably thinking... Hey that's what being an American is all about!!! i am not too sure about that but i do know if ever there was a time to try our very level best to be ONE nation... i think this may be it.


11.9.08

Never Forget....

i have to admit, it always catches me a bit off guard... as i sit here this morning at Starbucks and listen to the reading of the names... i get very emotional... it's not embarrassing it really hurts... a lot.

All i remember is eating a bowl of cereal rather quickly trying to get out of the door for the start of what was a cool, bright, sunny, fall-ish day. By the end of that day almost 200 people would come together in the worship center of where i served in ministry, trying to make sense of what had occurred that morning as i finished a bowl of corn flakes....

Even now, as i hear these names read aloud all i can think of is, in fact, the terror of the day. Maybe that is a sign of weakness or whatever but that day caused me and countless millions to weep tears that still sting our cheeks to this day.

Many people and pundits talked then and still today (seven years later) of how for that brief moment we (the US) had the sympathy of the world and how we ultimately squandered that by prosecuting questionable military actions around the world, blah, blah, blah.... all i know is that looking at the television screen that morning September 11th, 2001, the only thing that mattered was finding out if my mother, brother and sister- in-law who lived and worked in New York City at the time were alright. i didn't want sympathy, i wanted answers.

To be blunt, i am still a bit angry as well, for as upset as i get every single time i think about 9/11, i believe it would do us good as a nation to see the images of the World Trade Center engulfed in smoke and flames, with greater frequency than simply on the "anniversary" date... perhaps we would with greater consistency remember that evil is very real and very deadly.

5.9.08

We Need to Get A Grip!

Have you ever found yourself wanting to see one particular team lose a game but knowing that everything would still be "okay"even if they ended up winning?

That's how i felt... about the Super Bowl a few years back.

It was an historic day... for the first time in the history of the NFL the two head coaches (best of friends actually) on opposite sides of the field were men of color (black to be exact)! The two teams were both teams that I had an strong fondness for... one team had been the team of my "youth"... i grew up watching Bob Avelini, Bob Thomas, Vince Evans and an assortment of head coaches deal with the never ending frustration of not being able to win in the playoffs! i did however, love the Bears Shufflin' Crew most of all.

The other team on the field that night had earned a very special place in my heart too! i had watched this team go from winning a grand total of six games in the first two years of my living in Indianapolis to a record of 13 and 3 and winning their division under their second year quarterback Peyton Manning.... to their rightly earned spot in THE championship game!

So when "Super Bowl Sunday" arrived i can confidently say it would have been totally alright no matter who won the game that night...
  • Would the world have ended as we know it? Probably not...
  • Would football fans from all around the world joined hands and sang a rousing chorus of Kum Bah Ya? In all likelihood uh... No.
  • Would the game itself have morphed into something completely unrecognizable as NFL football? i doubt it.

My "head" told me which team to cheer for while my "heart" tugged in a different direction...

All the while the game was truly exciting, at the end of the game i knew, i knew... everything would be just fine... my confidence and trust in the things of life were not so wrapped up in this "contest" that i found myself wondering if the fate of the entire universe depended on who won... crazy huh?

Hmmm, i wonder if there are a few things we could learn from my "Super Bowl" experience in light of our current cultural and political climate... i think so... we really need to get a grip!

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I AM NOT HAPPY AT ALL!

I AM NOT HAPPY AT ALL!
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