President Obama has often been accused of not carrying through on promises or projects. That criticism would not apply to the promises he has made to make the White House’s “faith-based initiatives” into “multi-faith-based initiatives.” Back on June 8, 2010, I did a blog titled “We’ve Got a Friend: Obama and Interfaith.” It summarized a [...]
Posts under ‘Government’
Thank you, Mr. President!
I owe President Obama a thank you — and maybe an apology. It turns out that I was too quick to criticize and challenge him in my last blog about not really “speaking his mind” concerning the Muslim Center in lower Manhattan. Two days after I posted the blog, in which I quoted from his [...]
Please, Mr. President, speak your mind!
Dear President Obama, On Aug 3, your press secretary, Robert Gibbs, speaking for your administration, said that you did not want to take a position on the controversy surrounding plans to build a Muslim Center near Ground Zero. When asked what was the opinion of your administration, Mr. Gibbs replied that it was “a matter [...]
“We’ve Got a Friend” – Obama and Interfaith
That’s what I felt as I rode the train back from Washington, D.C. the night of June 7, after attending a meeting at the White House on “Advancing Interfaith and Community Service on College and University Campuses.” It was organized by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. It made clear to [...]
Is Obama “Whacking the Old Folks”??
I’ve just returned from a wonderful, nostalgic visit to my favorite city in the whole world: Rome. And I’ve been trying to catch up with national news. The latest issue of THE NATION has left me stunned, bewildered, unable to be incredulous. A column by William Greider, whose books, columns, and appearances on the Bill [...]
Obama and the Middle Way
In the March 8 issue of The Nation, Katha Pollitt concludes an excellent article with: “What is the point of Obama being conciliatory and careful if his opponents are reckless and don’t want to conciliate.” (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100308/pollitt). I’m sure many of us resonate with what Pollitt is urging: Get tough, Mr. Obama! All your reconciliation stuff [...]
Should Obama Get Nasty?
In the Feb. 21 issue of THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, Walter Rogers wrote: President Obama’s political predicament is perhaps more serious than he understands or appreciates. He appears to see opponents as rivals to be charmed. What he should see are enemies determined to destroy his presidency. To save the agenda for which he was [...]
It’s the system, stupid!
From today’s New York Times, in a lead article on poverty in the US: “American business is about maximizing shareholder value,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at the research firm Decision Economics. “You basically don’t want workers. You hire less, and you try to find capital equipment to replace them.” When I think on [...]
Democracy or Dependency: The State of the US Congress
Democracy or Dependency: The State of the US Congress In a recent THE NATION article, Harvard Law Professor, Lawrence Lessig, lays out compelling evidence for the following conclusion about the state of our democracy due to the state of our Congress: “Rather than being, as our framers promised, an institution ‘dependent on the People,’ Congress [...]
