Thomas Sowell is not just any conservative syndicated columnist. He is also an economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. Because this man happens to be black, I have received his same column titled “Random Thoughts” on three separate occasions. Unfortunately, this pile of non sequiturs and outright insults was not actually written by him. (Here is a list of his recent columns. Although 4 of them are titled “Random Thoughts,” none of them come close to this pile of garbage.)
There are about 20 or 30 emails that have been floating around the internet for approximately 18 months. They were all slanderous to Senator Barack Obama in one way or another. In this particular email, the author is saddened that General Colin Powell is not running for president instead of Barack Obama. Although Powell has served our country with bravery and distinction, he is also the same man who sat in front of the UN and spouted lies for over 30 minutes.
The Bush administration knew these lies that mobilized a nation to war were wrong at the time Powell delivered them. The “Downing Street memo and Ron Suskind’s new book clearly show that the Bush administration knew they were feeding us a huge pile of… lies. So, I’m not sure why the author of this email holds Powell up as a good example because he is just an example of what happens when you rush to war. Heck, the Bush administration didn’t even follow the Powell doctrine when we went into Iraq.
The author brings up the tired story of Jeremiah Wright once again. No other political figure, that I know of, has been asked to speak for his pastor. President George W. Bush is arguably the most religious president that we have seen in over a half a century. What church did he go to? Who was his pastor? We don’t know. We have no idea.
My mother has gone to a church in North Dallas for over 20 years. This church has had a series of pastors that range from nearly certifiable to truly honorable and religious men. I would hate for my mother or for me to be “linked” with some of those pastors. What is never been mentioned, or more correctly, rarely mentioned, is the fact that Jeremiah Wright has helped hundreds of young men and women. His church was revolutionary in the Chicago area in offering job training and also mentorship programs which introduced youths to some of the successful businessmen and women in the community. Jeremiah Wright served in the Marines and Army with distinction and honor but no one talks about that.
The list of insults continue. The partisan knucklehead who wrote this email brought up the saluting the flag issue, yet again. We know that Obama loves our country and salutes the flag. Actually, a civilian supposed to place their hand over their heart while saying the Pledge of Allegiance. The author of this email unfortunately doesn’t know that.
The author of this e-mail now turns his tirade into a full throated support of Sen. John McCain. John McCain is the same Sen. who did not support a holiday for Martin Luther King. He is the same Sen. who has voted against increased benefits for veterans including the recent G.I. Bill. The author, takes a big hit of what I imagine are Quaaludes or PCP, then is happy to endorse John McCain’s notoriously bad temper. For some reason, he/she thinks someone who is out of control, who loses rational thought, would be excellent at confronting the problems of the United States including North Korea, Venezuela and Iran. This may be the craziest thing in this e-mail. So this author endorses irrational behavior to confront irrational people. Has that approach ever worked? (I can tell you did doesn’t work in the ER with crazy patients.) This author needs to take a deep breath and stay on his prescribed medicines. It would seem to me that we, as Americans, we want someone who could rationally think through the multiple scenarios and responses to aggression from Iran, Russia or North Korea. When a gunboat in a Persian Gulf is barreling down on one of our warships, I want somebody who is cool, calm and collected. I want someone who will consider a full range of options everything from direct diplomacy to stealth bombers flattening Tehran.
The way we became the greatest country in the world was not through hair-trigger aggression. Instead we had a series of thoughtful, intelligent presidents who make the right decisions at the right time.
The author of the email then goes completely off the deep end. He starts talking about “towel headed morons.” Really? I’m not sure what name-calling really accomplishes. Doesn’t insulting their religion diminish our own? It sure seems that way to me. As I recall, the Ku Klux Klan tried to use the Bible to justify their white supremacist attitudes. Muslim extremists are using the Koran in the same way that the Klan used the Bible. Hundreds of thousands of men and women have died across the world because of religion or because of misinterpreting religion.
I want the next President of the United States to be able to protect my civil liberties and protect the country. I think it is possible to do both. I want the next president to believe in the Constitution and people of the United States. I want the next president to give us a full-throated support of the middle class over corporations. I would like the next president to believe that a quality education is more important than tax cuts for the wealthy. I would like the next president to believe that the rule of law applies to everyone and that no matter how much you don’t like Congress, thumbing your nose at Congress is unacceptable. Finally, I would like the next president to believe that the greatness of our nation lies not in our military or our magnificent buildings in Washington or even in the words of our Constitution, our greatness comes from us, the people of the United States. We are what makes the United States the envy of the world.
That’s my two cents. Please friends, don’t send me this article again, I’ll have to start taking antidepressants if I have to read one more time.
