Parlor Wit

Douglas Adams had a unique and humorous way of looking at life and humanity. Here are some quotations attributed to him:

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.

We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.

A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

A Community Organizer for President

Barack Obama has precisely the experience that our country and our world need now.

The words and actions of George W. Bush have gravely divided our nation and our world. Led by Karl Rove, W played the politics of polarization on both the national and international stage. He favored Christian fundamentalists, corporate leaders, and militarists. He used trickery, slander, malicious prosecution, and war to achieve his goals. And when his actions provoked criticism, his critics were vilified. The politics of polarization was Rove’s game plan all along. And W played it with pleasure.

John McCain’s statements indicate that he plans to continue the politics of polarization. In so doing he will continue the politics of division, hate, paranoia and fear. He will not help us address the profound problems and challenges we face as a nation and a planet.

Barack Obama will. According to his campaign biography, he moved to Chicago in 1985 and became a community organizer for a church-based group that worked to improve poor neighborhoods. He went to Harvard Law School and returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate, where he worked with both political parties to help working families, by creating programs for tax credits and expansion of early childhood education. Since his election to the US Senate, he has worked to ensure that veterans get the disability pay they were promised, and that the Veterans Administration is prepared to receive military personnel from Iraq and Afghanistan. Recognizing the terrorist threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, he traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world. Knowing the threat we face to our economy and our security from America's addiction to oil, he has worked to bring auto companies, unions, farmers, businesses and politicians of both parties together to promote the greater use of alternative fuels and higher fuel standards in our cars. And, realizing the challenges and demands we face in the Middle East, he has undertaken a bipartisan tour of that region, and visited our European allies, as well.

The fruit of his experience, and the promise of his Presidency, can be heard in what he said at the Tiergarten:

"Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century."

Preach it, Barack!


[This Obama photo is not from the Tiergarten, but I think it is one of his best. I got it from Babs. I don’t know where Babs found it.]

There is Hope for our Global Village!

I offer the following news items as evidence that there is cause for hope in the positive evolution of our world community:

• Israel's Olmert says peace deal closer than ever
PARIS (AP) -- Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared Sunday that Israel and the Palestinians have never been closer to making peace

• Israel to swap prisoners with Hezbollah
JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli government said it will swap prisoners with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah on Wednesday, closing a chapter between the enemies two years after they fought an inconclusive war…

• Syria, Lebanon to upgrade ties
PARIS (AP) -- France's president said Saturday that Syria and Lebanon will open embassies in each other's countries for the first time. But Syria's leader cautioned there was still work to be done before that could happen.

• Syria's Assad says Israel peace possible within 2 yrs
Syria launched indirect peace talks with Israel this year under Turkish mediation over the return of the Golan Heights captured by Israel in 1967. ...

[COMMENT: I think the Middle Eastern nations would find a common benefit, and increased stability, if they were to form a regional political cooperative similar to the “Rio Group” created by countries in Central and South America.]

• 43 nations creating Mediterranean union
PARIS (AP) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the disparate and conflicted countries around the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday to make peace as European rivals did in the 20th century, as he launched an unprecedented Union for the Mediterranean....

• Direct flights between China and Taiwan begin
More than 700 Chinese tourists arrived in the island over the weekend after flying across the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait on the first direct commercial flights - aside from holiday charters - since the two sides split during a civil war in 1949.

• Uribe eases tensions with Venezuela
Uribe said Colombia is accepting a proposal by Chavez to jointly build railroad lines between their countries, and is ready to sign accords on the trains when the two meet in Caracas on Friday.

• Dissent over Mugabe
The fact that even several nations are refusing to recognize Zimbabwe's ruler of 28 years marks an unprecedented change in Africa that offers a glimmer of hope for a brighter, more democratic future.

• Zimbabwe: Legitimacy Crisis Haunts Mugabe
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is battling for political legitimacy after most SADC African countries and the wider international community did not endorse his presidency after winning the June 27 run-off.

[COMMENT: “SADC” refers to the Southern African Development Community, a regional political cooperative which includes Zimbabwe and 14 neighboring countries. As neighbors of Zimbabwe, I think they will have a greater effect on Mugabe than the United Nations. They will also have greater motivation, because Mugabe’s Mess is in their back yard.]

Yes, these are baby steps. But we all begin with baby steps, as we learn to walk upright in the world.