I mentioned to my wife Carol that when I start blogging in earnest after my move to Korea, I need to find my “voice”. In other words, I want to bring something unique to my blog–my viewpoints of course, but hopefully something that will make the reader stop and say ‘I hadn’t really considered that’. Hell, I would be happy if I can routinely provoke a response–even if only to disagree and point out the flaws in my thinking.
Anyway, Carol said “you should be the voice of reason”. I don’t know that that is particularly helpful, but from her perspective I have become estranged from my moderately liberal beliefs. Hmmm. While it is true that I voted for a Republican for the first time since reaching voting age, it seems to me the Democrats are the ones who deserted me rather than the other way around. I see my support for the liberation of Iraq as no different than my support for our intervention in Kosovo. You remember, that little war of Clinton’s that the UN also refused to sanction. And as I stood in front of my DC office and watched the smoke rise from the Pentagon something did change for me–I knew we were at war to defend our way of life. So Carol says I am a neo-con. I don’t particularly care how I am labeled. I think being on the side of freedom and democracy is the right side.
Now, Carol is a liberal. A liberal who buys into the rantings of people like Michael Moore. The recent election put some strains on the marriage, because as the rhetoric became more and more heated, we began to lose respect for one another. I think we have pretty much called a truce and we have chosen to not let our politics define our relationship. And maybe we are even stronger for it.
If I aspire to be “the voice of reason” perhaps I need to find a good role model. Ann Althouse commented on the oratory skills of British PM Tony Blair the other day and linked to his speech and press conference during his recent surprise visit to Iraq. You can read it all here. But this is the part that puts it all in perspective:
Blair: “Now where do we stand in that fight? We stand on the side of the democrats against the terrorists. And so when people say to me, well look at the difficulties, look at the challenges – I say well what’s the source of that challenge – the source of that challenge is a wicked, destructive attempt to stop this man, this lady, all these people from Iraq, who want to decide their own future in a democratic way, having that opportunity.
And where should the rest of the world stand? To say, well that’s your problem, go and look after it, or you’re better off with Saddam Hussein running the country – as if the only choice they should have in the world is a choice between a brutal dictator killing hundreds of thousands of people or terrorists and insurgents.
There is another choice for Iraq – the choice is democracy, the choice is freedom – and our job is to help them get there because that’s what they want. Sometimes when I see some of the reporting of what’s happening in Iraq in the rest of the world, I just feel that people should understand how precious what has been created here is. And those people from that electoral commission that I described as the heroes of the new Iraq – every day… a lot of them aren’t living in the Green Zone, they’ve got to travel in from outside – they do not know at any point in time, whether they’re going to be subject to brutality or intimation even death and yet they carry on doing it. Now what a magnificent example of the human spirit – that’s the side we should be on. “
That’s the voice of reason. It does not matter whether you were for or against the war in Iraq. It does not matter whether you respect or loathe the President. History will judge the wisdom of our intervention. Now, we must look to the future and ask ourselves do we stand with the forces for freedom or those who will stop at nothing to see us waiver and grow timid in the face of violence. Democracy or terrorism–those are our options in Iraq. And so I would ask my “liberal” friends this simple question: where do YOU stand?
the end, if accomplished,will be great…but does it justify the means?
:roll:Hi John, Well its good we have another republican. I an what they call a Reagon Democrat. I have been a republican since Reagon. The Democrats have change completly since Kennedy. I don’t care for Bush, because he is not a republican. Bush has not stayed with the way of a republican. He is better then what’s been out there. Maybe. Right now I don’t think I like anything he’s done. It looks like the republicans in congress may have some backbone and put him in place. I hope so. Irac maybe,if it was done different. Bye for now. Darlene
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A lot of talented actors still have to pay their bills.
I had been approached by a couple of people as far as making movies because of my success in music, but it was always to play the white rapper in Sister Act 2, or something that would just kind of put the final nail into my coffin of my career.
I had had a troubled past, but like most rappers they go out and talk about it to kind of help their career.
I have a lot of real life experience with hustling and doing stupid stuff.
I just realized that the whole point of doing interviews was to promote this movie, so see it three times.
I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.
But it just so happens that when you re in the public eye, everything gets reported.
I love my H.R.H. character. But I never got it. Why do we pay these people millions of pounds to be better than us?
I used to dress up and impersonate our next-door neighbor, Miss Cox. She wore rubber boots, a wool hat, and her nose always dripped.
I like the idea of making big budget films with a heart. I like graphic novels more than comic books.
I think music is what takes the experience off the screen into your soul, into your head.
gold style
But I think that the most important thing was to really stop drinking.
An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.
I only drink to make other people seem more interesting.
Love is an emotion experienced by the many and enjoyed by the few.
Patriotism is a arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.
A person who knows how to laugh at himself will never ceased to be amused.
Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.
The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused.
A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.
A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.
I have survived by representing these sufferings of mine in the form of the novel.
I too am living as a writer with this polarisation imprinted on me like a deep scar.
After the many rumours that we had heard about Hitler and the published criticisms we had read about him, we were pleasantly impressed.
I have always been interested in politics. I was in the student union before, very active.
As long as karma exists, the world changes. There will always be karma to be taken care of.
Do some selfless service for people who are in need. Consider the whole picture, not just our little selves.
I think it was that we were really seasoned musicians. We had serious roots that spanned different cultures, obviously the blues.
For a long time I just did theater and after many years I was ready to make a change.
I was drunk for the second time in my life on junior high and that was a bad one!