The Need For Leadership

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who
helps to perpetrate it." ---M. L. King

"Dr. King held the unfashionable view that we had an obligation to
help those in trouble, and to speak out against unfair treatment
and social injustice. 'Our lives begin to end,' he said, 'the day we
become silent about things that matter.'" ---Bob Herbert (BH) in
today's N. Y. Times. When King came out early on against the
Viet Nam war, he was widely reviled, and it cost him important
support in his quest for racial justice. The New York Times
headlined an editorial, "Dr. King's Error." Of course, King
was right, and the Times in tragic error.

All of which reminds me of Barak Obama ("Barak" means "blessing"
in Swahili.) Actually, everything these days reminds me of Barak!
As I told a friend recently, Obama has King's idealism, vision and
eloquence, and JFK's smarts and charisma. Is all that enough? No,
he must also have King's courage. And that remains to be seen!

If he wants to be president, I suggest he go soft on gun control.
(I'm a pragmatist, remember.) It sunk Gore in Tennessee, Missouri,
Arkansas, West Virginia, and on and on. With any one of those
states, Gore would be president today. Yes it's an important issue.
Is it as important as the damage Bush keeps on doing around the
world? The untold lives lost? Western democratic governors prove
that you can carry red states if you give in on guns. Guns are little
boys' toys. If they can't have their toys they go crazy! Unfortunately,
some of them go crazy with their toys!

But I digress. One of the most serious controversial issues O.
must deal with, is immigration. I hereby offer him, free of
charge, the best possible solution: (drum roll) A Marshall Plan
for Mexico! If they have jobs there, they won't risk their lives
to come here. A fence won't work, or spending millions more on
border patrol. We're blowing upward of $2 trillion destroying Iraq.
For less than a tenth of that, we can get the Mexican economy
humming. Let's do it.

Speaking of Mexico, as I just was, do you know why Lincoln was
defeated for re-election after one term in the U. S. House of
Representatives? Because of his opposition to the Mexican war,
which he rightly saw (and said) that it was an immoral land grab
on our part. That, of course, brings us back to Obama, who opposed
this war, (because he has good sense), and has already had as much
national experience as L. had when he ran for president.
As for experience, Obama has had some of the most valuable you
can get. He has been an organizer for social action in poor black
neighborhoods in Chicago. If Bush had had that kind of experience,
do you think his response to Katrina(or lack thereof) might have been
different? O. understands full well why "the nations prisons are filled
to the bursting point with black men who have failed, or been failed,
and have no viable future." (B.H. again) And why "too many black
Americans are willing and even eager to see themselves in the
culturally deprived (and depraved) lineup of gangsters, pimps and
whores." (Ibid.)

More later: jgoodwin004@centurytel.net