There are two things I want to share today.
1st .. I have just returned from my book signing at the local public library. It was a blast. We live in a very small community, so I did not expect much. While we were small in number, however, it gave us more time to talk one on one with people. That was amazing. People, strangers to us, sharing their lives with us. Each ones story becoming part of us and ours becoming part of them. One of the librarians told me that she checked out my book from the library (which is way cool in and of itself) to scan it before we were there so she would have some idea of what it and we were about. When she got to the half way point in the book, reading instead of scanning, she realized it was not a book that could be just scanned. She told me in the first few pages the story grabbed her. She is dealing with similarities with her own mother.
Then I come home from this heart wrenching reprisal and begin reading the news online. I come across this story about certain comments made by Obama about people and frustrations and holding to their religion and guns, yadda yadda yadda, It seems that his opponents grabbed hold of this to say that he was aloof and considered himself to be ‘superior’ to the common man. (like any of them have their finger on the pulse of the common man in America)
It is amazing to me the double standard to which we expect our leaders to adhere. While leading the greatest nation in the world, we expect our president to be down to earth like us. While I feel a connection to America and American citizens is vital, it is irrational to expect our elected leader to be ‘one of the boys’.
I am fairly intelligent, and yet, I don’t have the first clue what to do about the war in Iraq. I don’t have the foggiest notion of how to balance the nations budget or right our failing economy. It is all I can do to control the spending in my own house and adhere to some semblance of a budget.
I hope to be considered for the volume of my work in my life, rather than a random statement made on a bad day at the wrong time. Everyday, I deal with my problems, my wife’s problems, my children’s problems, and then the problems of my sixty-five students. It is unfathomable to me to consider dealing with the pressures of the problems of this nation. I do not want my president to be ‘one of my boys’. I want my president to be one of the nations elites surrounded by the rest of the nations elites.
I want my president to display greater wisdom than I can. I expect greater clarity. I demand a level of intelligence that could well be considered superior. I am where I am because of who I am. I expect my president to be a president, capable of making one decision that will affect the six billion residents of this planet and to do so without worrying if some opponent or newspaper is going to try to rake him over the coals for it.
Yes, I expect my president to be in touch with me as much as we are both human beings living on the same planet. I will not agree with every word. I will not accept every statement. I will not support every idea. I will, however, support my president. I will give the benefit of the doubt. I will accept that, while I may not always agree with policy, the decision was made in the best interest of the nation as a whole.
Please deliver me from petty minded individuals that cannot see past the end of their noses. Deliver me from those who cannot accept the ramifications of daily decisions but want to make worldly decisions based on their own bias.
It seems these days, in politics, getting the job is harder than doing it.
1st .. I have just returned from my book signing at the local public library. It was a blast. We live in a very small community, so I did not expect much. While we were small in number, however, it gave us more time to talk one on one with people. That was amazing. People, strangers to us, sharing their lives with us. Each ones story becoming part of us and ours becoming part of them. One of the librarians told me that she checked out my book from the library (which is way cool in and of itself) to scan it before we were there so she would have some idea of what it and we were about. When she got to the half way point in the book, reading instead of scanning, she realized it was not a book that could be just scanned. She told me in the first few pages the story grabbed her. She is dealing with similarities with her own mother.
Then I come home from this heart wrenching reprisal and begin reading the news online. I come across this story about certain comments made by Obama about people and frustrations and holding to their religion and guns, yadda yadda yadda, It seems that his opponents grabbed hold of this to say that he was aloof and considered himself to be ‘superior’ to the common man. (like any of them have their finger on the pulse of the common man in America)
It is amazing to me the double standard to which we expect our leaders to adhere. While leading the greatest nation in the world, we expect our president to be down to earth like us. While I feel a connection to America and American citizens is vital, it is irrational to expect our elected leader to be ‘one of the boys’.
I am fairly intelligent, and yet, I don’t have the first clue what to do about the war in Iraq. I don’t have the foggiest notion of how to balance the nations budget or right our failing economy. It is all I can do to control the spending in my own house and adhere to some semblance of a budget.
I hope to be considered for the volume of my work in my life, rather than a random statement made on a bad day at the wrong time. Everyday, I deal with my problems, my wife’s problems, my children’s problems, and then the problems of my sixty-five students. It is unfathomable to me to consider dealing with the pressures of the problems of this nation. I do not want my president to be ‘one of my boys’. I want my president to be one of the nations elites surrounded by the rest of the nations elites.
I want my president to display greater wisdom than I can. I expect greater clarity. I demand a level of intelligence that could well be considered superior. I am where I am because of who I am. I expect my president to be a president, capable of making one decision that will affect the six billion residents of this planet and to do so without worrying if some opponent or newspaper is going to try to rake him over the coals for it.
Yes, I expect my president to be in touch with me as much as we are both human beings living on the same planet. I will not agree with every word. I will not accept every statement. I will not support every idea. I will, however, support my president. I will give the benefit of the doubt. I will accept that, while I may not always agree with policy, the decision was made in the best interest of the nation as a whole.
Please deliver me from petty minded individuals that cannot see past the end of their noses. Deliver me from those who cannot accept the ramifications of daily decisions but want to make worldly decisions based on their own bias.
It seems these days, in politics, getting the job is harder than doing it.
