Posted by
Horizon on Monday, November 10, 2008 9:51:33 PM
If my vote had really counted, I would have voted for Senator Obama. And I'm a practicing Catholic--like Doug Kmiec, the well-known legal scholar and Roman Catholic who came out several months ago for Obama. Kmied argued, if I'm not mistaken, that Barack stands for Life just as surely, and more so, than McCain. I agree with Kmiec on this extremely important issue. I also agree with a real hero of mine, Father John Corapi, who stated on one of his videos that unless America turns away from abortion it will undergo a cataclysm that will make 9/11 look tame in comparison. I also agree with this prophesy. We are probably going to get hit again. Yet, there is, moreso in Obama than in anyone else, hope. You see, I believe Obama was "chosen." People like me, who think about the Bible, look to the Scriptures for clues. One big clue in the Bible is that the Lord singles out persons for leadership: Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David. These are just the ones this lay person can think of. The Macabees also led--by example, an example noted and in a sense imitated by none other than Jesus. Jesus, of course, is the Ultimate One "chosen" to lead. That's what we Catholics believe though we cannot "prove" this in a scientistic way. We can, however, prove it in an emperical way. This has been done, and very beautifully done. Read Pope Benedict's book on Jesus.
Back to Barack: He, too, has been chosen to lead. He could have said no. Instead, he gave his assent. His "yes" has made all the difference. If my theory is correct, the lives he will save will be more than those McCain would have saved, and I include, in my count, the unborn babies.
We are at war with angry Muslims. Extremely angry Muslims. Their anger is so extreme that some of them--with millions saying Yes!--resorted and continue to resort to unspeakable violence. Is any iota of this anger, this violence, justified? I don't know. I've read recently that our troops are on the sacred soil parts of Saudi Arabia. Is this really true? Could this be even half-true or true-but-with-good-reasons true? Again, I don't know the facts on this. I do know that suicide bombers are motivated, in part, by the perception of presence of our military on soil considered sacred by one point four billion Muslims. Barack Obama, for heaven's sake, seems to me much more likely to understand the gravity of this issue, if it is an issue. I'd like to find out. But finding out the truth was not what happened when, after 9/11, we American citizens were told that the terrorists did this because they hate "our way of life." Such hatred our our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our emphasis on human rights and trial be a jury of one's peers--all of this some of them no doubt hate or resent or violently disagree with. But not to the point of doing a 9/11--I don't think. Rather, what makes more sense to me, and should make more sense to you if you're capable of putting oneself in another's shoes--is that the explosive hatred we've all seen on our TV came to NYC and DC and PA because we did, in their eyes, virtually the same thing to them. 9/11 was payback. More than payback, it was a warning of more of the same if we don't start listening to them. All they ask is that we listen, listen as a starting point.
As for the real reasons behind suicide terror, I invite my millions of readers and fans to google Dr. Robert A. Pape, U. of Chicago professor of politics. I also invite anyone and everyone to read the alarming books written by Dr. Michael Scheuer, retired CIA analyst. His most recent work I've read from cover to cover: "Marching Toward Hell." In a nutshell, America is marching toward hell on earth, another 9/11 and then some, if it continues to fail the course on Islam. Yes, Islam. Mohammed Atta and Company were devout Muslims. They believed they were doing the will of God. How can this be? Study up. Read a little. Look up what UBL said about why 9/11 happened. He is saying that the U.S. Air force came onto the territory of Saudi Arabia. That would be his home. His Sacred Home. He has a concern about that, and we should too. (If Saudi Arabia sent its military to our home, I think we might, as obtuse as we are, begin to understand what UBL was worried about.) To make matters worse, our troops, accorging to UBL, parked on SACRED GROUND. Again, we need to learn a little about what this action, if true, means to one point four billion Muslims, or even a tiny fraction of that huge amount.
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Again, read Dr. Pape; read Dr. Scheuer; read Dr. Andrew Bacevich, who lost a son serving in Iraq. Review what Dr. Ron Paul said in the Republican Debates of 2008. When asked why 9/11 happened, Paul, unlike Giuliani, answered with truth and common sense: It happened "because we are over there," meaning we are violating them in their eyes. (So, in last resort payback, they are violating us in our eyes.) Barack Obama has shown that he is more likely to understand the depth of this issue than John McCain. Moreover, the face that this remarkable human being and citizen shows the world is the face of the oppressed of the world. The billions who, historically, have been abused, lynched, struck down, kept down, violated--on and on. Aborted. In an ironic way, Barack's face even symbolizes the innocent aborted. What better person then, to fight for life in all its variegated reality: life on the streets, life in the desert, life in the shacks around the world, life on the margins of human existence, even life, especially life--in the womb. Obama, in his way, will fight, I hope and believe, for all of life in a way that McCain is constitutionally incapable of doing. Moreso than Obama--at least I hope--McCain affirms the problematical presence of our military in untold places around the globe. Some of these places, I repeat, are said to be holy ground, ground held holy by believers in God. If they have an issue with our being on their sacred places, then we have a sacred responsibility, as human beings and citizens, to respect their perceptions of evil-doing on this matter. As a people backing a government doing these things, in part, because of our addiction to oil, we are responsible. We are at risk. Our lives have been and continue to be at risk.
Again, I don't know for a fact that our troops still occupy such extremely sensitive places. But if our troops are still inside boundaries where they really should not be, then, it seems to me, common sense would dictate that we do two things. One, we need to remove our troops from those sensitive places if there is any conceivable way we can do so and still stand by our friend, Israel. Two, we need to remove our troops from those sensitive places if there is any conceivable way we can do so and still stand by our friend, the State of Israel. Whether the State of Israel has any business being there in the first place, is quite another question. My opinion goes with those inside Israel and America and elsewhere: the vocation of the Jews is to practice their faith wherever they may find themselves, and thus to be true to the principles they believe in, especially the Ten Commandments.
Instead of voting for Barack, whom I admire beyond words, I voted for Ron Paul, who openly stated his belief in the non-interference of America in the sacred places of the world. Naive? Probably. I'm a non-expert. But as a citizen, I have a right and a duty to participate according to my ability to do so. I belive I have a profound duty to write about this issue here and now: America has GOT to achieve a level of energy independence so that we do not have to fight ugly wars all because of our greedy addiction to oil. To be relatively self-sufficient in terms of our energy needs, our reasonable energy needs all things considered--such independence would be way we would grow to adulthood, and the way Israel would grow to adulthood as well. Israel would no longer be the unacceptable security risk it has become. If this sounds, "anti-semtic," so be it. It is not. Rather, it is tough love. There has to be a win-win deal in the Middle East War that does justice to the legitimate security needs of all parties concerned, especially America's, the Palestinian's and Israel's. Not biting the bullet is no longer an option. Failure to achieve this win-win deal is no longer an option.
What Father John Corapi has said will happen to those who live a lie will indeed happen to those who live a lie. One means of starting on the road to peace, it seems to me, would be an eight year reign of our new King, Obama. An even better, more reliable road to peace would be for each and every one to be nice to each other. Nice isn't really the word. The word is respect for the individual, as is written, for heaven's sake, even in the Wal-Mart manual. Let's take the baby steps that need to be taken, and go from there. Let's start by treating our wives with respect. Our customers with respect. And as for the Muslims of the world: Let's indeed start treating our girls and wives with human dignity and respect. If I offend, so be it. Universal education is a must, universal education for all boys and all girls. The State of Iran knows that. When will Afghanistan catch up?