Saturday, February 21, 2009
Optimism and hope
posted at 9:45 AM |
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Former president Clinton talked yesterday about the importance of optimism and hope. Yes it's tough economic times, he said, but there is always a place for hope. Whether a few months or a couple of years or even longer, there is always an end to strife and it's important to keep that in mind.
I thought about that game where one team pulls a rope one way and another pulls it the other way. The team that pulls strongly together always accomplishes more than the team that argues and pulls apart.
It is important that we think and speak hopefully about Obama's plan for turning things around even if we think a different way would have been better. Pulling together accomplishes a goal; pulling apart does not.
Nothing is permanent - not war, not recession, not inflation, not depression - nothing. Living through difficulties, perhaps finding ways to weather them in creative and clever ways, can teach us how resilient and strong we are, show us that we can withstand storms and financial problems. We are people, hear us roar (to paraphrase Leon Russell).
I feel hopeful about Obama's presidency partly because so many people were touched and roused by his call to hope and change. He inspired a wonderful sense of optimism and excitement about life and the country and everything else. I'm sorry he has not been speaking with the same tone, recently talking more about how long and hard this will all be. There's a difference between realistic and negative. Right now we need realistic and positive.
Obama got our attention and gained our support for his ideas and proposals with beautiful words and oratorical skill. More, please! We need to continue to feel excited about trusting ourselves, the good in us, the good things that we can accomplish and be.
I thought about that game where one team pulls a rope one way and another pulls it the other way. The team that pulls strongly together always accomplishes more than the team that argues and pulls apart.
It is important that we think and speak hopefully about Obama's plan for turning things around even if we think a different way would have been better. Pulling together accomplishes a goal; pulling apart does not.
Nothing is permanent - not war, not recession, not inflation, not depression - nothing. Living through difficulties, perhaps finding ways to weather them in creative and clever ways, can teach us how resilient and strong we are, show us that we can withstand storms and financial problems. We are people, hear us roar (to paraphrase Leon Russell).
I feel hopeful about Obama's presidency partly because so many people were touched and roused by his call to hope and change. He inspired a wonderful sense of optimism and excitement about life and the country and everything else. I'm sorry he has not been speaking with the same tone, recently talking more about how long and hard this will all be. There's a difference between realistic and negative. Right now we need realistic and positive.
Obama got our attention and gained our support for his ideas and proposals with beautiful words and oratorical skill. More, please! We need to continue to feel excited about trusting ourselves, the good in us, the good things that we can accomplish and be.
8 comments
This guy Obama is either an empty fool or a Marxist ideologue, my guess is both. I can't help thinking black Kenyan Marxist father and then looking at all the disastrous black leaders Africa has had since independence, Mugabe being just the latest, and I see unbelievably one of them as President of the US. Hope all you want but there is a disaster in the making. Obama has been nurtured and funded by Soros, his mentors from his early years were Marxists, his mother and father were. If in the debacle to come the Democrats are purged of the hard left who have taken over the Party then at least some good will come out of it, but at such a price.
from 
– February 21, 2009 at 8:50 PM
– February 21, 2009 at 8:50 PM
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PS. For a more eloquent dissertation on the above, see what Melanie Phillips has to say: America, What Have You Done
from – February 22, 2009 at 9:41 AM
– February 22, 2009 at 9:41 AM
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PPS. If you think I'm being pessimistic, which in itself would be unusual, check out this post. via Alan Sullivan.
from – February 22, 2009 at 12:53 PM
– February 22, 2009 at 12:53 PM
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I simply do not understand this notion of unity when there are obviously two diametrically opposed philosophies vying for the world's stage. There must be times when compromise is simply off the table and for Americans, real ones, this is such a time. I would rather this country have the civil war that is ready to convulse it than enter the drab utilitarian world obama and his ilk propels us towards.
Hope that is not premised on reality is delusional and the notion that hoping enough for something will aid towards it's manifestation in reality is the twaddle one gets from Oprah. Hope actually is a dreadfully over rated concept, best left to Hallmark to dispense, not the freaking United States government.
Hope that is not premised on reality is delusional and the notion that hoping enough for something will aid towards it's manifestation in reality is the twaddle one gets from Oprah. Hope actually is a dreadfully over rated concept, best left to Hallmark to dispense, not the freaking United States government.
from – February 22, 2009 at 2:41 PM
– February 22, 2009 at 2:41 PM
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I am still optimistic for the long term, after all what was it, 58 million Americans didn't want Obama in spite of the hype, not hope, that ran his campaign and more millions will have their eyes opened as Obama stumbles ineptly along, but two years is a long time for him and Pelosi and co to have free run of the hen house, there might not be many chickens left to supply us with eggs by then. The worst part of the Socialist agenda is, as they've been doing in UK, to have as many people employed in government or dependent on government as possible, guaranteed voters for them. As they say, if you take money from Peter to pay Paul, you can always rely on Paul's support.
I love gentle intelligent people like you, you're the best and it would be nice if we were all like you, but there are nasty people out there, from Socialists who think they know better how everyone should live to the barbarians with their Sharia law and they have to be fought with a clear eyed vision of what's at stake and what must be done to defeat them.
Dr Sanity had the best summary of Obama I've seen, she listened to part of an Obama speech and said the gist of it was:
On domestic policy: I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
On foreign policy: Peace in our time.
O is a bigger danger than the bumbling Carter, since he knows what he's doing. See Alinsky for that.
I love gentle intelligent people like you, you're the best and it would be nice if we were all like you, but there are nasty people out there, from Socialists who think they know better how everyone should live to the barbarians with their Sharia law and they have to be fought with a clear eyed vision of what's at stake and what must be done to defeat them.
Dr Sanity had the best summary of Obama I've seen, she listened to part of an Obama speech and said the gist of it was:
On domestic policy: I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
On foreign policy: Peace in our time.
O is a bigger danger than the bumbling Carter, since he knows what he's doing. See Alinsky for that.
from – February 22, 2009 at 3:12 PM
– February 22, 2009 at 3:12 PM
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I haven't been able to post here for several days, I thought maybe I'd been banned! So this is what I wanted to say:
I think we all piled in on you a bit on this one so this is just to say sorry for taking you to task so much but also to point you to a post by the one and only Dr. Sanity who I respect immensely. A number of times over the last year I’ve been met with complete incredulity by lefty acquaintances when I’ve stated that Obama is not very smart. [Well I'd put it a little more strongly than that] They’d cite for instance his editorship of the Harvard Review while missing that there is nothing written by him contained therein. And so it is with everything in his life, from his birth certificate, his high school grades and university results to his voting record in the Senate. They might cite his two well received memoirs while missing what might prompt one so young to think he’s important enough to write them and of course not knowing that they were ghost written by Bill Ayers the well known terrorist. So it’s good to see this this from Dr. Sanity:
“Ledeen calls Obama’s foreign policy team “a bunch of elitist snobs.” I would refer to them as morally and intellectually bankrupt–because that is what the Democrats with their “progressive” leftist ideology have evolved into. The leftist ideologue now in the White House thinks of himself as a ‘pragmatist’, but frankly, for all his education and glibness, he’s an idiot;”
This is the man in the White House for the next four years [except for the times when he's 'tired of it' and escapes for a while] and that is why the likes of me and Zee and many others are freaking out a bit, not because we’re ordinarily excitable or raving right wing rednecks but because we truly think what is happening is frightening and dangerous.
I hope you’ll read the Melanie Phillips article I linked to, she says it much better than I.
I think we all piled in on you a bit on this one so this is just to say sorry for taking you to task so much but also to point you to a post by the one and only Dr. Sanity who I respect immensely. A number of times over the last year I’ve been met with complete incredulity by lefty acquaintances when I’ve stated that Obama is not very smart. [Well I'd put it a little more strongly than that] They’d cite for instance his editorship of the Harvard Review while missing that there is nothing written by him contained therein. And so it is with everything in his life, from his birth certificate, his high school grades and university results to his voting record in the Senate. They might cite his two well received memoirs while missing what might prompt one so young to think he’s important enough to write them and of course not knowing that they were ghost written by Bill Ayers the well known terrorist. So it’s good to see this this from Dr. Sanity:
“Ledeen calls Obama’s foreign policy team “a bunch of elitist snobs.” I would refer to them as morally and intellectually bankrupt–because that is what the Democrats with their “progressive” leftist ideology have evolved into. The leftist ideologue now in the White House thinks of himself as a ‘pragmatist’, but frankly, for all his education and glibness, he’s an idiot;”
This is the man in the White House for the next four years [except for the times when he's 'tired of it' and escapes for a while] and that is why the likes of me and Zee and many others are freaking out a bit, not because we’re ordinarily excitable or raving right wing rednecks but because we truly think what is happening is frightening and dangerous.
I hope you’ll read the Melanie Phillips article I linked to, she says it much better than I.
from – February 27, 2009 at 8:57 AM
– February 27, 2009 at 8:57 AM
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