Monthly Archives: June 2004

Part of the Problem

Leave a reply

If you can't be part of the solution, at least stop being part of the problem. This article would be a good illumination of the Red-Blue cultural war we're waging, if not for its contribution to the problem at its end.

What has made that moral revolution important has been that it is now playing out politically. These morally and sexually liberated folk "are willing to vote based on this cluster of issues — and when they do, they vote Democratic," he said.

This should sound an alarm for those Christians who feel shy about voting according to their religious and moral convictions: The other side feels no such hesitation.

Such participation in the political process may determine how many more states turn Blue in this next presidential election — and in the elections to come.

I shouldn't have to vote Republican just to vote "morally". Worse yet, I don't think the Republican platform, for all the RNC's holier-than-thou posturing, is entirely morally sound.

Uncivil War — The Cultural Cleaving of America
Feature by Ed Vitagliano
June 21, 2004

(AgapePress) – It was "the map." Everyone seemed to be talking about it on election night almost four years ago, and for weeks afterwards. Talking heads and political pundits analyzed the vote returns and clearly saw that the election seemed to have split the nation into two camps.

God Rest His Soul

Leave a reply

It’s sad when the Lord calls someone so young home, especially when they had a difficult
life. Mattie Stepanek, and others like him, are shining examples of how to live
lives full of faith, hope, and love.

“I am very human. Some people think I am always brave. I try to be, but I cry
like the next person sometimes. I am needle phobic and pain phobic, so that doesn’t
help,” he said on the Web site. “But even if I get upset, or think, ‘I
can’t do this anymore,’ I get myself together and pray or play or talk with my mom
or a close friend, and I get beyond that tough time. I might say, ‘Why me?’ But
then I say, ‘Why not me? Better me than a little baby, or a kid who doesn’t have
strength or support.’ ”

Teen’s
Advocacy, Poetry Touched Many Hearts
By Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post Staff Writer

Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek, 13, the cheerful, bespectacled child poet who
charmed Oprah and sold more than 500,000 books of dreamy verse, died yesterday at
Children’s Hospital in Washington. He had a rare form of muscular dystrophy that
affected his breathing, digestion and heart rate.

Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

Leave a reply

Or tell me big, ugly ones like Michael Moore has. This article seems to really be making the rounds, and rightly so. It’s a thoughtful critique of "Fahrenheit 9/11" written by a fellow who’s left of center. Now don’t go thinking I like everything this guy has to say. He also wrote a diatribe against Mother Teresa called "The Missionary Position". Even so, it’s worth taking a look at a criticism of F 9/11 that didn’t come from the right.

Unfairenheit 9/11
The lies of Michael Moore.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, June 21, 2004, at 12:26 PM PT

One of the many problems with the American left, and indeed of the American left, has been its image and self-image as something rather too solemn, mirthless, herbivorous, dull, monochrome, righteous, and boring. How many times, in my old days at The Nation magazine, did I hear wistful and semienvious ruminations? Where was the radical Firing Line show? Who will be our Rush Limbaugh? I used privately to hope that the emphasis, if the comrades ever got around to it, would be on the first of those and not the second. But the meetings themselves were so mind-numbing and lugubrious that I thought the danger of success on either front was infinitely slight.

In contrast, I offer the following pro-Moore propaganda.

Turn Up the Heat: A National Town Meeting on Fahrenheit 9/11

Michael Moore’s new film Fahrenheit 9/11 is an incredibly powerful movie that lays bare the cynicism and greed behind Bush’s war policy. The astonishing and revealing footage in it has the power to change the course of the 2004 election. Millions of Americans will walk out of this movie angry at how George W. Bush has botched the fight against terrorism, deceived the American people, enriched his corporate cronies, and endangered lives around the globe.

Help Fahrenheit 9/11 Moviegoers Turn Up the Heat:
Leaflet at Film Screenings

Beginning this Friday, June 25, millions of Americans will get an eye-opening education about the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks when they turn out in droves to see Michael Moore’s new film Fahrenheit 9/11. Moore’s movie has great educational potential – but education about our government’s actions is only the first step toward changing harmful policies. Help F 9/11 moviegoers take the next step by distributing special action leaflets produced by United for Peace and Justice, CODEPINK, and Global Exchange for the occasion. Or, distribute some of our new August 29 RNC Protest leaflets and help build a massive turnout against the Bush Agenda at the Republican National Convention.

Turn the Beat Around

1 Reply

A bit of worldly wisdom has been floating around my head of late.

“Small minds talk about people. Mediocre minds talk about events. Great minds
talk about ideas.”

It’s basically a proverb against gossip and pointless debate, and it’s good so far
as it goes. It’s occurred to me, though, that too much emphasis is placed on ideas.
I offer this alternative.

“Small hearts discuss ideas. Mediocre hearts participate in events. Great hearts
care for people.”

Thoughts?