Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Obama fans, what say ye?

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jerry W. Shepperd" <shepperd AT austincc.edu>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org, homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Obama fans, what say ye?
  • Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:26:07 -0500


I didn't hear Obama in the same way that either James or Bev heard him. I heard his message as, When people are frustrated, they hold to the familiar. Guns are familiar. However, the problems we are facing can't be eliminated by shooting them. They are economic and life-style problems. We are spending more than we make, we are involved in a war that costs us more money than we have to spend -- not to mention lives. We must learn to live by spending less money, by using less fossil fuels, by restoring more of the environment than we destroy. (I know. This is paraphrase, so one can make the claim that I, too, am hearing what I want to hear. I will say that I am not in Obama's camp, although my daughters are putting pressure on me.)

These are my sentiments, not Obama's, and I expressed them when they "dragged" me off to patch the wounded and dying in Viet Nam: It is hard to fight ideologies with bullets, especially in other people's home territories, so one must, of necessity find another method of engagement - if we feel the need to engage. That requires changing the way we think, plan, talk, all of which is hard, sometimes impossible.

The bottom line is we all must start talking seriously about change. We may get the words wrong on occasion, because change is a work in progress, and we are still trying to figure out what it entails. We seldom know until it has already happened, but it will happen.

Jerry


At 06:15 PM 4/14/2008, EarthNSky wrote:
Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:
> Like the people in rural Pennsylvania, I put more confidence in my guns to
> protect my family than put in the government. I did so before Obama was born.
> I will do so long after he's a footnote in history. Likewise my religious
> beliefs are a better guide to a decent life than all the government leadership
> that ever existed. It was before Obama was born and will be long after his
> influence passes away.
>
> Yet Obama has look at those things and said "you only CLING to those things
> becaue you are politcally frustrated". His offensiveness is exceeded only by
> his offensiveness.
>
> That's what Obama means by "change".


I felt that his comments showed a lack of empathy to rural people-poor
people-common people. Yet, I read a blurb from one of his books about
the children on the streets of Nairobi and Jakarta turning to guns and
violence...and he seemed to have LOTS of sympathy/empathy for them.
Where was his sympathy for his fellow Americans?? It seemed to me that
he mentioned the Penns not because he really cared about them or why
they were bitter, if indeed they were/are, but he used them only to
further his 'vote for me-I'm the changeup guy" message, or like Roy
says, Elect Me and I'll Fix It...
I don't think BHO intended to offend anyone, and that is exactly why
this whole debacle is important, because in the eyes of many, it gives
us a glimpse into the mind of the man-it's a way of judging credibility
for those of us who don't have a crush on Obama.<g>

B
--
BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky
_______________________________________________
Homestead list and subscription:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
Change your homestead list member options:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/shepperd%40austincc.edu
View the archives at:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead


"Silence is not always golden; sometimes it's yellow."

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
-- Albert Einstein










Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page