Monday, March 31, 2008

Who says young voter's are not informed (about health care)?

The Topic: Health Care Reform

The Subject: Barack Obama's plan to reform the Health Insurance Industry and to make high-quality and affordable Health Care available to all US Citizens.

The Questions: Which plan has a better chance at passing? Which one works better? Why?

If the answers to these questions matter to you, please click the image below, and listen to young Derrick Ashong's detailed and informed explanation.

(Click the image to watch the video)

This has got to be one of the most detailed and reasonable explanations of why Barack Obama's plan to reform the health insurance industry is the better plan.

When people say it's not possible to change the way we do things in Washington, maybe we should ask ourselves why? Is it because the way Washington works ultimately benefits these people?

Perhaps its because they are beholden to the very special interests they promise to reform? For example, Hillary Clinton and John McCain accept millions of dollars from Washington Lobbyists - in fact, Clinton herself is single largest recipient of Drug Lobby money in the entire Senate.

Barack Obama asks us to think about this: It's not a lack of solutions that prevents positive change in Washington, its a lack of political will.

If that doesn't give you pause about the competing health plans, then it should. Now I'm off to the library to try and get about half as educated as young Derrick.

Best,
D. Tree
(sign the pledge to support our nominee:click here).

P.S. - please watch the video before commenting, thanks!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Fair and Rational People: The Truth About Obama's Church

Did you know that Trinity United Church of Christ is part of the larger United Church of Christ, a predominantly white denomination? Did you know there are more than 1.2 million members of this church - mostly white?



How is it then, that some people believe this church is somehow "militant black supremacist," and why are people so angry about rev. Wright's sermon - a sermon which was certainly critical of American foreign policy - but was hardly the racist and hateful thing so many reactionaries believe it to be?



Well, the answer is quite simple: those angry critics have neither listened to the complete sermons of rev. Wright, nor have they made an effort to learn the truth about this church and what it represents. And yet, they have the gall to condemn not only rev. Wright as "full of hate," but they also have the audacity to claim the same about Barack Obama and every one of the 1.2 million members of UCC for even being associated with the church.



I'm willing to bet most of these folks have not even taken the time to read or listen to Barack Obama's historic speech on race relations. As one writer put it, "it is truly disingenuous and deceitful to insult someone without even bothering to hear their side of the story."(source)



This is a call for all those who consider themselves rational people: Reverend John H. Thomas, President of United Church of Christ (pictured above) has a message for you:
Those who sifted through hours of sermons searching for a few lurid phrases and those who have aired them repeatedly have only one intention. It is to wound a presidential candidate. In the process a congregation that does exceptional ministry and a pastor who has given his life to shape those ministries is caricatured and demonized.

...

But what was his real crime? He is condemned for using a mild "obscenity" in reference to the United States. This week we mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, a war conceived in deception and prosecuted in foolish arrogance. Nearly four thousand cherished Americans have been killed, countless more wounded, and tens of thousands of Iraqis slaughtered. Where is the real obscenity here? True patriotism requires a degree of self-criticism, even self-judgment that may not always be easy or genteel.

...

How ironic that a pastor and congregation which, for forty-five years, has cast its lot with a predominantly white denomination, participating fully in its wider church life and contributing generously to it, would be accused of racial exclusion and a failure to reach for racial reconciliation.

...

Today we watch as the gap between the obscenely wealthy and the obscenely poor widens. More and more of our neighbors are relegated to minimal health care or to no health care at all. Foreclosures destroy families while unscrupulous lenders seek bailouts from regulators who turned a blind eye to the impending crisis. Should the preacher today respond to this with only a whisper and a sigh?

...

I pray we will be shrewd enough to name the hypocrisy of those who decry the mixing of religion and politics in order to serve their own political ends.
I beseech every person who considers themselves rational and objective to set aside your anger, and take a minute to learn about UCC and what it really stands for. Please maintain respect when commenting, and at least demonstrate your fairness by reading the excerpts of Rev. Thomas' message before posting your replies. (Click Here to read the full text of Reverend Thomas' message.



Peace,

D. Tree

Monday, March 24, 2008

Obama Inspires Easter Sermons

Barack Obama's historic speech on race relations seems to be having a significant impact on the religious discourse among devoted Christians. Over the weekend, the New York Times reported on how Obama's call for an open dialogue has made its way into the Easter sermons of Churches across the country
The response to the controversy from the pulpit will vary, of course, depending on a church's denomination, racial composition and political and theological leanings, as well the predilections of the pastor. The Wright controversy is a natural topic for those in the United Church of Christ, a predominantly white denomination that includes Mr. Obama's and Mr. Wright's church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago (the largest church in the denomination).
Here are some notable excerpts....

Philip L. Blackwell, senior pastor at the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple:
"The church needs to be a community within which the pain can be shared," said Mr. Blackwell, who is white and leads an urban, racially mixed congregation. "The grievances can be aired, and the power of that can be directed toward the "new creation" that is portrayed in the Resurrection."
The Very Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland:
"I'm going to talk about the stones that need to be rolled away from the tombs of lives, that are holding us in places of death and away from God," Ms. Lind said. "One of the main stones in our churches, synagogues, mosques, communities, countries, world is the pervasive stone of racism. What Obama has done is moved the stone a little bit.

"I will ask our congregation to look at the stones in our lives,"
she said.
The Rev. Dean Snyder, pastor of Foundry United Methodist church, (which was the Clintons' home church during President Bill Clinton 's tenure):
said he noticed the rising awareness among some African-Americans of white Americans, he said, "who don't understand the history of black people in this country and the role of the black church as a prophetic voice, and that in church you can say things that you couldn't in larger society."
The Rev. Kent Millard of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis:
said he felt Mr. Obama had explained the reality of the relationship between a pastor and his congregates.

"Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is member of our congregation, and I would hope he would never be held accountable for everything I have said in the last 15 years," said Dr. Millard, who is white. "Why is there any assumption that a person in church is expected to agree with everything a pastor says?"
So, what do others think about these statements? At the very least, Barack Obama's speech seems to have inspired the religious community as being the words of a man who has thought deeply on this issue, and who has worked his entire life to bring people together. He showed true presidential leadership by transforming something hurtful into something helpful; by challenging us to be the better country we want to be; and by acknowledging our historical differences with honesty, and then setting them aside in an effort to inspire unity, common purpose, and hope for a better future.

Generations of Spiritual Tradition, Reduced to a Soundbite

Once upon a time in the Democratic Party, we gave our fellow progressives the benefit of the doubt. It seems in this increasingly bitter nomination fight, your fellow dems have become fair game - perhaps to the point of alienating forever, one of our most dedicated voting blocs.

From the New York Times
Some black ministers said that their sermons might address how the reputation of a man many of them revere was reduced to sound bites. They pointed out that sermons in black churches covered a long and circuitous path from crisis to resolution, and it was unfair to judge the entire message on one or two sentences.

"I may not use his exact language," said the Rev. Kenneth L. Samuel, pastor of Victory Church in Stone Mountain, Ga., "but I can tell you that the basic thrust of much of my preaching resonates with Dr. Wright. I don't think I'm necessarily trying to preach people into anger, but I am trying to help people become conscious, become aware, to realize our power to make change in society."
As the angry mob continues to attack and condemn the hardworking and decent people of the United Church of Christ, with the all but explicit call-to-arms of a "Kitchen Sink" strategy, the Democratic Party itself treads a razor's edge.

It is a gamble indeed, to put the importance of one's own career above the good of the Democratic Party, and the traditional voters who have been among our most dedicated supporters.

In the end, I feel it may be one candidate's lack of action in reigning in their more angry and mob-like supporters that will make them lose the nomination.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

An Affront to the American People

In an apparent violation of both the spirit and the letter of the law, the White House disclosed in Federal Court that computer hard drives containing over 10,000,000 e-mails from 2003-2005, "have been destroyed.":
The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed.
...
The White House says it does not know if any e-mails are missing, but is looking into the matter.
Contempt for the American people; disdain for our Constitutional values; obstruction of justice; and, plain old dishonesty... all in a day's work for the Bush/Cheney White House.

Such gross disregard for the American people is not merely negligence, it is a blatant violation of the Presidential Records Act, which states the Archivist of the United States must be consulted before any White House records are disposed of.

These people knew they were supposed to preserve records, and they knew these records contained important information about the run up to the Iraq War and Plamegate - and they destroyed them to avoid accountability.

What can you do? Click here to contact your senator, and tell them you are concerned the White House is breaking the law in and effort to obstruct a legitimate investigation.

Given the track record of this administration, and it's 1,000 documented lies in the rush to war, we must demand the appointment of an independent council, or at the very least a manual recovery effort on each individual White House computer.

It's never too late to send a signal to the Bush Administration, that the American People are tired of the lies and dishonesty. We are sick of being treated like imbeciles: Mr. President and VP Cheney, you have disrespected America. We will not tolerate your abuse of the law and your contempt for the american people any longer.