Reflections From a Murky Pond

Back in the lead up to the 2008 elections Obama was all about spreading the wealth. Amid the plethora of not-quite-promises that Obama jabbered during that campaign, that one message was said clearly and openly. Spread the wealth. And this bit of Socialist rhetoric helped carry him into the White House.

Campaign Obama – 2008 v. 2012

Once installed in office, Obama had to start his reelection campaign – after all, keeping his job as long as possible is always Job #1. This presented a problem for the Campaigner-in-Chief; how do you redistribute wealth, after you’ve gone to such great lengths to convince your followers that it’s a declining and failing resource?

Fortunately for Obama, his handlers were up to the challenge. They managed to shift their boy’s message from, “Make Them Pay” to “Make Them Hurt Too” – and spreading poverty is so much easier than spreading wealth anyway.

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On Thursday, March 17, 2011, acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which provides for the use of force if deemed to be needed by the UNSC, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 1973.

President Obama promptly gave the orders for American forces in the region to begin attacking Mu’ammar Qaddafi’s loyalists in Libya.

This is not a course of action that, at first pass, makes a great deal of sense to me. It makes even less sense to me when I look back to the start of Obama’s campaign for the Presidency of America.

It’s time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else’s civil war.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)
Candidacy Announcement, February 10, 2007

This is not like Obama’s reversing his decisions about Gitmo and Military Commissions; that was bowing with some small grace to necessity. Having his regime’s UNSC delegate vote in favor of Resolution 1973 was an unforced act.

So what, if anything, changed? Why has Obama committed our forces to a type of war that he previously stated he believed could not be won?

I think Americans require an answer to that question before we get too much further into the 2012 Election season.

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The Benediction for Obama’s Inauguration was performed by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a stalwart of the civil rights movement and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The was little talk of this in the weeks leading up to the Inauguration because the MSM was too busy attacking the choice of Pastor Rick Warren as the celebrant for the Invocation.

Here’s the transcript of Rev. Lowery’s benediction:

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee. Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand — true to thee, O God, and true to our native land.

We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we’ve shared this day. We pray now, O Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration. He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and, indeed, the global fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hand, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

For we know that, Lord, you’re able and you’re willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.

We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed — the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

And as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little, angelic Sasha and Malia.

We go now to walk together, children, pledging that we won’t get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone, with your hands of power and your heart of love.

Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around — (laughter) — when yellow will be mellow — (laughter) — when the red man can get ahead, man — (laughter) — and when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.

Pretty much what had to be expected of Rev. Lowery. His benediction was straight out of the core principles of Black Liberation Theology. From Rev. Lowery I can accept that, if not agree with it in any fashion whatsoever. He’s more than earned the right to voice his opinion on the national stage.

At least he had the decency and good taste not to reference Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.!

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