Saturday, March 29, 2008

Amen!!

I always appreciate Salim Mansur's essays. He is so right on this one.

World has stake in U.S. election
"Freedom, as President George W. Bush has repeatedly reminded Americans, “is not America’s gift to the world; it is God’s gift to all humanity.” "
[SNIP]
"Those who seek America’s defeat, or at a minimum retrenchment from the cause of defending freedom by those willing, as President John F. Kennedy said, to “pay any price, bear any burden” for liberty’s success, wish Obama wins the presidency.

Kennedy characterized his victory as a “celebration of freedom” and a renewal of commitment to its cause. So will McCain if he wins, given his commitment to remain in Iraq until embattled freedom there is secure.

November is still some distance away, and those not so fortunate as Americans blessed with liberty’s grace will remain hopeful that the next president will be one who will not appease freedom’s foes nor betray America’s trust in God’s gift to humanity."
I was in grade 10 when JFK was assassinated. Although I didn't think about the implications at the time, these many years later I think the adminstration in the school must have recognized that event as pivotal. Most certainly it was rare that the leader of one of the two most powerful nations in the world would be assassinated.

But for whatever reason, the entire student body was taken into the gymnasium to watch the funeral on television. I think that event, shutting down of regular classes and being marshalled, en masse into the gym, was more instructive than several days spent listening to history teachers in a class room. We were witnessing history in the making.

This was the height of the Cold War. Kennedy had just faced down the Russians in the Cuban Missle Crisis. That he was assassinated while still such a young man perhaps saved his presidency from the usual vitriolic criticism reserved for most American presidents, but then again, maybe times were different then. This was just before the radical 60s generation, which I believe changed everything.

It certainly changed the Democratic Party. As many have said, Kennedy's policies were not much different than Republican policies today. The Democrats have moved toward the more extreme fringe of liberal/left ideology. I wonder how Kennedy would have dealt with the Islamofascist threat? Somehow, I don't think he would approve of his brother's Democrats of today.

As much as I would like to see a Black American become president, I still think that America's stand as the sole superpower has created for it the 21st century's version of the White Man's Burden. The world turns on whatever happens in presidential elections and that's why McCain's my man, even though I don't believe his leadership will be as inspiring as the world may need at this very critical point in history. What we really need is a modern day Winston Churchill. Perhaps his name is Geert Wilders.

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