CHOICE: The Most Important Word of All

Choice is the exercise of free will. It is what drives the human spirit. However, choice is the most powerful word, and potentially the most dangerous action known to mankind. The fact that not all people regard choice as a good thing lets you know how precarious a “choice” can become.

On the subject of choice, noted philosopher Dr. Frederick Bailes said: “Man’s power of choice enables him to think like an angel or a devil, a king or a slave. Whatever he chooses, mind will create and manifest…” Even if you do not subscribe to the theories of Dr. Bailes, you have to admit that his “choice” theory is on target.

Nevertheless, you should take note that unlimited choice can lead to psychological problems. Unlimited choice could cause you confusion, conflict and regrets brought on by illusions one might develop through believing unlimited choices also means unlimited control, and unlimited access to unfettered desires within an unstructured existence…

Some sports and religious fanatics may fall victim to the reality of unlimited choice in an unstructured existence, i.e. a person beating or killing someone else because their team lost the Super Bowl Game; inflicting physical or psychological injury to another person because that person refused to follow certain religious teachings or practices. Seekers of political office and their supporters often find themselves in a state of unhealthy conflict and delusion due to the belief that their choices give them unfettered control or access to laws and government using structurally criminal logic based on an anti-social agenda.

The power of “choice” is nothing to play with, but is everything to consider with the deepest of respect. Choice engages the pathway of thinking with the process of judging the subsequent choice options, leading to a selection of appropriate or inappropriate action. Here is where one personally unleashes his or her “angel or devil, king or slave.” But when uninformed people make uninformed choices, they usually unleash the very thing they thought they were trying to contain.

Whomever the American public chooses to serve as their next President, let that choice be based on an informed public engaging its pathway of rational thought with sound judgment, so that the subsequent action brings forth an appropriate choice for our nation… and not just for the most vociferous members.

Let not this choice be based of skin pigmentation or other misnomers such as “hard-working white people," war service records or religious misinformation. Indeed, when making your Presidential choice for 2008 think like a restless slave who was once an angel. Remember how it was in contrast to how it is. Look at your choices and select the person who represents the kind of change required to get this nation back on the right track. Select the person who can actually add structure to the government that you would be willing to make appropriate choices towards its betterment…

And remember: “Whatever you choose, mind will create and manifest.”

GLM

Does Your Mother Know Where You Are?

Today we give special honor to all women who consider themselves "mothers." The goddesses who rescued us from harm, and nurtured us from childishness to responsibility. It is Mother's Day... Does your mother know where you are today?

Mothers are more important than presidents and presidential elections; kings or queens. Lose a mother and you will understand what I mean... Mothers come in all shapes, colors and sizes. They come with all sorts of ideas and attitudes and with purposes generally unknown by their male counterparts. They are usually smarter than the rest of the human population, but seldom get credit for the jobs that they do...

I take my hat off to my mother. I could not have done her job even if I were given unlimited funds. Her work as a mother was always performed "Pro bono publico," and usually included someone else's ill tempered kids. As thankless as the job was, I suppose she got satisfaction in knowing that she let a bunch of us stand on her shoulders while she worked hard to keep her balance. Strange I never fell from her high perch while she did that acrobatic balancing act down below...

Thanks, mom... I know you felt like pushing me off a few times. We all owe you a debt that would be impossible to repay even by today's standards...

If your mother gave you one good thing or tried her best at mothering you, this is a day you should celebrate... If you ever felt the love of a mother, even if she was not your own birth mother, you have cause to celebrate today... If anyone of the female gender ever wiped a tear from your eye, then today is your day.

The experience of being a mother is fathomless, and her importance transcends time and the universe... Happy Mother's Day to ALL mothers. Even Barbara Bush... May you enter the Pathway of Light with joy, and may your souls receive endless blessings from on High...

GLM

Happy Mother's Day!

Disarming the Haters

Time to move on…

“Those interested in fighting expressions of anger and hatred and isolation can always denounce or debate them. But denunciations and debate often do not deal with the core sense of anger. Every group of aggrieved people has some core set of experiences and beliefs, and these experiences and beliefs are difficult to rebut. The Obama approach is the one most likely to be successful. Inclusion of average citizens in the Obama coalition takes away a source of volunteers and fundraising for those consumed with counterproductive anger and hatred. Rhetoric of inclusion, explanation, understanding, and mobilization undermines the intellectual isolation that so many of the most alienated suffer from.”

These statements by State Rep. Mark Cohen, Dem. PA, are disarming and indeed reflect the hopes of millions worldwide. It truly undermines haters of all colors and political persuasions who are content with just stewing in their own confusion or discontent.

I was asked this question the other day: “What candidate best embodies the sense that Americans can pull together and solve their problems collectively?”

We will not solve a thing by staying in Iraq for 100 years. Nor would we by opposing the war but doing nothing to bring it to an end... How could any of us benefit from the obliteration of Iran? Since nothing was solved by the killing of Saddam Hussein and the subsequent occupation of Iraq, how does more war restore safety to those in harms way? What have American national and foreign policies been successful in doing these last 8 years other than dividing the nation against itself, and the world community against our leadership?

Time to move on… It is time to do more than be angry at our neighbors who differ in their opinions about the situation. It is time to do more than use irrelevant individuals, such as Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as convenient "whipping boys" to divert attention from the real work ahead. It is time to do something that would bring a "positive" change to the future of the country and the world.

Goodbye George W. Bush; Dick Cheney… See you later Condoleezza Rice… Take it slow Scooter Libbey… Don’t call me; I’ll call you, Karl Rove… And don’t let the doors hit you as you all leave the scene!

Here’s to better days ahead...

GLM

MAY DAY Mayday!

May First is a day celebrated worldwide, honoring workers with parades and festivities. But for Americans, this May Day demands a “Mayday! Mayday!” distress call... We are all in distress about things that used to not stress us at all…

The former press corps did not as much mind when high profile preachers and evangelists spoke out and said things that were unkind, or inflammatory about differing religions and ethnicities…

Take the Rev. Billy Graham for instance. In 1972, he was recorded in the Presidential Oval Office, on Nixon’s now infamous Watergate Tapes, talking about Jews and the media. Rev. Graham is heard saying: "This stranglehold has got to be broken or this country's going down the drain." Then he went on to tell Nixon: "A lot of Jews are great friends of mine. They swarm around me and are friendly to me, because they know that I am friendly to Israel and so forth, but they don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country, and I have no power and no way to handle them."

Well… I am glad Nixon had the temerity to tell Rev. Graham, “You must not let them know.” Or, as he might have said if it were Rev. Jeremiah Wright: “Be cool Jerry! Don’t blow our bigoted cover!”

History records that Nixon's and Rev. Graham’s cover got “blown,” but they both went on to more fame, or perhaps infamy… In November, 2004 Rev. Graham was lining up Christians by the thousands for baptism in the Pasadena Rose Bowl.. All the American Presidents since Eisenhower have called on Rev. Graham’s services and counsel…

In 2000, George W. Bush said he stopped drinking because of a bible study with Billy Graham…

Mayday!

How about the late Rev. Jerry Falwell? He was an outspoken supporter of the South African apartheid government? He gave much comfort and support to staunch apartheid advocate, P.W. Botha when he was elected South African President by the white minority... After Archbishop Desmond Tutu received his Noble Peace Prize in 1984, Rev. Falwell said of the Archbishop: "I think he's a phony, period, as far as representing the black people of South Africa."

In 2002, Jerry Falwell raised $1.2 million to push President George W. Bush's agenda through Congress… Approved by Bush himself.

Mayday! Mayday!

I now call the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to the witness stand...

We Americans now care about what these preachers are saying in the ears of presidents and presidential candidates... some of them, that is... We want to be sure that you, with your very divisive speech, will have little to no influence on Barack Obama who might become the next President of the United States of America…

What is your verdict “Conservative America?” “Reagan Democrats?” “Crossover Republicans?” “Libertarians?”

Should Obama be banned from the White House for consorting with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and would you be more inclined to vote for him had he joined the Rev. Billy Graham or the Rev. Jerry Falwell crusades as did Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and "The Decider?"

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

GLM

Disfellowshipping Religion From The Presidential Race

Hopefully people can see through much of what is being said in the media these days about Barack Obama and his former pastor Rev. Wright...

How does what Rev. Wright said years ago, or is saying now give insight to the mind of Obama anyway? Will Rev Wright's fingerprints leave as significant a stain on our nation as did Donald Rumsfeld's? Will they overshadow the bloody torture fingerprints of Alberto Gonzales? Now that is something real to think about for a change...

Tell all of the frightened people to take a big "chill pill." Barack Obama will not name Rev. Wright to his cabinet, but McCain just might make Rev. Hagee his "Secretary of Religious War."

Today I listened to a radio interview with Arianna Huffington as she promoted her book, Right Is Wrong. She stated that the "lunatic fringe has not only taken over the right, but has done so with the help of the media" which has become a mouthpiece for it's policies... She believes Democrats have weakly stood by and let it happen for fear that they would be labeled "un-American" for not backing republican war plans and war agendas...

She's right, since everything that is taking place these days is being dictated by the headlines, and the Democrats seem to have an energy crisis when it comes to speaking up for themselves and outing conservative journalists for not being completely truthful in their reporting...

Take today for instance. Obama issued denunciations for Rev. Wright based on the fear that media will injure his chances for his nomination if he did not do so. He had to do it to change the tone of the media's reporting... But why does McCain get to embrace Rev. Hagee and accept his endorsement without a media backlash? Where are the loud mouthed Democrats who need to be trumpeting this fact; this bias?

By the way, Rev. Wright was a pastor when he went on Bill Moyer's Journal, but since he has been making the press rounds and trying to influence the voting process, he is now a politician and fair game..

Quoting Arianna Huffington's article in today's Huffington Post: "Democratic leaders need to re-define the center of American politics." But I'll go a step further, 'Democrats need to fight back and stop being afraid of losing what they don't already own: THE WHITE HOUSE!'

As long as the public sees Democrats in a constant defensive mode rather than in an aggressively offensive one, voters will always have a sense that no-matter what republicans do or say wrong, they must be right since Democrats keep backing down...

Mr. Obama needs to kick Rev. Wright to the curb, and remind everyone that the Pope was once a Hitler Youth back in the day... Does that call the whole Catholic Church into question? He needs to expose Hillary for her double standards with her former ties to Rev. Wright, and point to the flawed theologies of Rev. Hagee, Rev. Dobson and the late Rev. Falwell. Also try throwing in Rev Ted Haggard for extra flavoring...

Mr. Obama needs to remind the public that it was not Rev. Wright who got us into an illegal war in Iraq; a war that both Hillary and McCain voted for... He needs to remind the public that foreclosures are at record highs, and the dollar is at a record low ALL due to failed republican policies... and he needs to say it with A-U-T-H-O-R-I-T-Y! Fight them tooth and nail because the public seems to respect politicians who fight for their true beliefs regardless to their outcomes... How else can you explain George W. Bush winning the presidency twice?

The media would go Democratic if there were more Democrats with the guts of Rep. Jack Murtha or Sen. Jim Webb who will show their political teeth, or the politically incorrect Rep. Maxine Waters who would expose a republican lie faster than George Bush would tell the truth...

The media hooked onto republicans because they were/are the most outlandish and the most aggressive. Republicans forced themselves on the American people similar to the Nazis forcing themselves on the German people... Republicans systemically took over all vestiges of government and the federal court system, while infiltrating the media with their partially false neoconistic propaganda and spinmeisters...

Due to the present state of our Union, Democrats have better than a 50/50 chance at regaining the White House, and restoring a veto proof Democratic Congress.

Time for the Dems to shine a beacon light on the truth, and do it regardless to what their poll numbers say... As my mother says: "Truth always rises to the top..."

GLM

Clinton In Focus

With a sense of contrition, I confess that I was once a Bill Clinton co-dependent. I enabled him to stand before the country and blatantly lie about an innocuous sexual relationship with an equally innocuous woman named Monica Lewinsky... Bill considered the whole thing so "innocuous" that he should not have been called on it. Many of us agreed with him.

We Clinton Democrats began our long enabling journey in 1992. We ultimately elected Clinton President and endorsed his Clintonisms, while he in turn expected us to rally to his defense as he got egg on his face... Clinton's behaviors and excesses led directly to the election of George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

How? Keep reading...

The American public has long been guilty of believing politicians, especially those who look and talk like we want them to look and talk. Black Americans jumped on the Democratic bandwagon, and rightfully so since it is the party that pushes through the legislation that ultimately gives us more governmental access... We rode the Clinton express like it was the actual freedom train, but where did we go?

Clinton led us to believe he was the closest thing to JFK, and that his election would benefit all Americans who wanted a better life after the economy had faltered under Bush senior. He led some to believe that he was a man of faith who could be trusted. Since most Americans at the time were church going people, Clinton played the "faith card" to get more votes. He used multi-cultural and multi-ethnic themes to attract Americans of all hues and faiths...

However, Clinton's main support came from the black community. He hung out with Grover Washington, Jr. When he got into trouble he summoned Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. to pray with him. He played his alto saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show, and commissioned Maya Angelou to read her poetry at his inauguration. Vernon Jordan, Jr. was his "best friend," and he clowned with Bill Cosby. Clinton even calls himself the "First Black President."

On to the election of 2000... Clinton was popular still, but he was not running. Al Gore was. Because Clinton behaved so "morally reprehensible" in the eyes of the white conservative church-going public, it was easy for a scoundrel like George W. Bush to play a Texas sized "faith card" to trump Gore's. Bush won almost half of the voting public, but 5 Supreme Court Justices with the help of Jerry Falwell and James Dobson put him over the top...

Because Bush looked and sounded like the republican worshipper sitting in Falwell's church every Sunday, he convinced many, with his conservative demeanor, that it was time to get back to 1952 "American Values." The American press, owned by corporate Bush supporters, was unwilling to look deeper into Bush's character, therefore leaving the non-thinking American public at the mercy of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly.

Clinton unknowingly left the door open for Bush and the NEOCON juggernauts, using Monica Lewinsky as the door stop.

So here we are in 2008. Hillary Clinton, Bill's wife, is now running for President. Barack Obama, a black man is challenging her for the Democratic nomination. John McCain is the seated Republican candidate who will face either of them in November. We are still paying a major price for the failed Bush presidency, and will continue to do so for some time; even longer if John McCain is elected.

Bill Clinton is again drumming up co-dependents and enablers for his wife Hillary. They have both equivocated several important facts, such as taking fire in Bosnia, and have alienated most if not all of their support in the black community with their unfair and untruthful characterizations of Barack Obama. Bill and Hillary both have played a "race card" the size of Arkansas. Like the Monica Lewinsky affair, they both consider their race baiting and fear mongering "innocuous," and believe that they should not be called on it.

I think it is time for the Clinton-Bush presidential years to come to an end.

GLM