President Obama on Muhammad Ali

"Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he’d tell you. He’d tell you he was the double greatest; that he’d 'handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail.'

But what made The Champ the greatest—what truly separated him from everyone else—is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing. 

Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time.

In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him—the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was—still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.

'I am America,' he once declared. 'I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me—black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.'

That’s the Ali I came to know as I came of age—not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.

He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes—maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes.

Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace." —President Obama

Desmond Tutu offers perspective on the US and Barack Obama

From the BBC

Viewpoint: A word of caution to Obama

Desmond Tutu, the first black South African archbishop of the Anglican church and veteran campaigner against apartheid, gives a lecture in London on Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of the British Council. Here, he explores some of the same themes in an article written for BBC News.

I make no apology for talking and writing, in the UK, about a foreign leader. But expectations of him are so high and attention worldwide is glued to his every step as he reaches the end of his first month in office. He is the story of the moment.

I am obviously referring to Barack Obama.

Three months ago as I watched the news that could define an era, I rubbed my eyes in disbelief and wonder. It could not be true that Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan, was to be the next president of the United States.

Barack Obama's election has 'turned America's image on its head'

During the previous administration's term, I'd been asked to suggest one unilateral magnanimous gesture or action that the incoming US president might make to counteract anti-Americanism abroad. I said that while there were clearly pockets of anti-Americanism around the world, this was definitely not a global phenomenon nor was it directed towards the American people.

What I certainly could attest to was substantial resentment and indeed hostile opposition to the policies of a particular US administration.

I contended, as I do now, that the two are quite distinct and separate.

An elucidating example dates back to the years of the anti-apartheid struggle. The Reagan White House was firmly opposed to applying sanctions against the South African apartheid regime, preferring what it described as "constructive engagement". Many of us were incensed by this policy and opposed it with every fibre of our being.

Black role models

I probably dismayed many people when on one occasion I was told of the latest Reagan rejection of our call for US sanctions against Pretoria. I retorted, out of deep exasperation, "The West can go to hell!" I was then Bishop of Johannesburg, and some thought it was decidedly un-episcopal language.

I was very angry toward the Reagan administration, but that did not make me anti-American. And that is the point, anger and resentment toward the policies of a particular administration do not necessarily translate into anti-American sentiment.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu's talk is the first in a series of lectures to mark the British Council's 75th anniversary Desmond Tutu: Profile

When I was nine or so, I picked up a tattered copy of Ebony magazine. I still don't know where it could have come from in my ghetto township with its poverty and squalor. It described how Jackie Robinson, a black man like us, had broken into major league baseball and was playing scintillatingly for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

I did not know baseball from ping-pong. That was totally irrelevant. What mattered was that a black man had made it against huge odds, and I grew inches and was sold on America from then on.

Remember the extraordinary outpouring of sympathy and concern after 9/11? That surely could not have happened, certainly not on such a vast global scale if people hadn't genuinely cared. Everywhere, virtually.

But what happened that all these positive warm feelings toward the United States were disrupted and turned into the negative ones of hostility and anger?

Read the rest HERE

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7897206.stm

Inauguration Day - President Barack Hussein Obama's Inaugural Address

President Barack Hussein Obama's 2009 Inaugural Address



From C-Span...

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library...

President Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th president of the United States and delivered an inaugural address focusing on the themes of sacrifice and renewal on January 20, 2009.

Rosa sat so Martin could walk so Obama could run so our children can fly

This is worth posting again....
~Peter+

Rosa sat
so Martin could walk
so Obama could run
so our children can fly

Maya Angelou says the Obamas are the Real Deal - Washington Post

"At Long Last, Ready for the Real Deal"

By Maya Angelou

Sunday, January 18, 2009; Page B05

In September 2008, I was invited to introduce Michelle Obama at an event in Greensboro, N.C. I had met her fleetingly during the Democratic National Convention in Boston, but I had no real sense of her personality.

I telephoned Oprah Winfrey, aware that she knew the Obamas, and asked, "What is your take on Michelle Obama?"

Oprah answered promptly and with conviction, "She is the real deal."

I waited backstage in the Carolina Theatre wings. Mrs. Obama arrived, and we sat and talked for 45 minutes. We spoke about family, the economy, youth obesity, television, music, cooking and men. I was completely won over. She neither postured nor preened. I sensed no subterfuge in her conversation. She said what she thought and said it clearly, without bombast. When I was cued to go onto the stage, I shook hands with her warmly and went to the microphone. The theater was packed, and there was no standing room. I told the audience of some of Mrs. Obama's accomplishments, and then I told them of the conversation that I had had with Oprah. I ended my introduction by saying, "Now ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the 'real deal.' "

Read the rest HERE at the Washington Post Online

In my humble opinion, "If you're a bishop, it's really ok to do a Christian prayer, people will understand"

First, I was really happy that the President-Elect chose Bishop Gene Robinson to offer a prayer...then, I read the New York Times..."this will not be a Christian prayer," says the Bishop.

In my humble opinion, "If you're a bishop, it's really ok to do a Christian prayer, people will understand"
...and, "exactly what is happening when you offer an inter-religious prayer, anyway?"

Free advice, and I know you do get what you pay for...

I just get kinda bummed that our leaders seem like we have to apologize for our beliefs, could this be why the Episcopal Church is losing membership?

~ The Rev. Peter M. Carey


Bishop Gene Robinson quoted in the New York Times

Bishop Robinson said he had been reading inaugural prayers through history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”

“I am very clear,” he said, “that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”

Read it all HERE



I'm glad other people, who spoke in this location, have chosen to quote from the Bible, such as MLK, Jr.

Just an awesome front page: "Obama Makes History" - Yes We can!!

Click HERE for the pdf version

Candidates give props to their former coaches

From CNNSI:

Candidates give props to their former teachers and coaches!

Asked what was the best piece of advice he had received from the sports world, Obama said his high school basketball coach, when the young Obama rebelled against him, said, "'Look, this is not about you, this is about the team.' It took me awhile to understand ... but that's how I've approached the work I've done in politics since. If you stay focused outside yourself, you end up doing a better job."

In answer to the same question, McCain said he drew a lesson from a high school coach who also was a literature teacher.

"The guy was my inspiration then and is my inspiration to this day," McCain said. "The lesson he taught me was you always have to do the honorable thing, even if no one knows, because you'll know."

Read it all HERE.

A moment of Zen with McCain and Obama

From Religion News Service blog:

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Our moment of Zen

Moderator Tom Brokaw prefaced the last question of last night's presidential debate (offered by "Peggy of New Hampshire") by saying it had a "certain Zen-like quality."

The question was: "What don't you know, and how will you learn it?"

It's not exactly the kind of koan, or Zen question, you'd likely hear in a zendo (Famous koans are: What's the sound of one hand clapping? If a tree falls in a forest...) Generally, the answer to the question is supposed to be inaccessible to the rational mind. One could easily answer Brokaw's question rationally: "I don't know anything about the history of World War II; I will learn it by reading books on the history of WW II."

That aside, it's still an interesting question.

In Zen Buddhism such question-and-answer exchanges between novices and Zen masters are called "dokusans." Let's see how Obama-san and McCain-san fared.

Obama answered: "The nature of the challenges that we're going to face are immense and one of the things that we know about the presidency is that it's never the challenges that you expect. It's the challenges that you don't (expect) that end up consuming most of your time."

In other words, "I don't know what I don't know."

Zen grade: A-

McCain answered: "I think what I don't know is what all of us don't know, and that's what's going to happen both here at home and abroad...There are challenges around the world that are new and different....So what I don't know is what the unexpected will be."

In other words, "I don't know what I don't know."

Zen grade: A-

Both candidates then said what they do know is...(read the rest HERE.)

...and a few more...

Harlem Meer, Central Park

You don't often see a car with a US Marine Corps Sticker, a sticker indicating a medal won, a Peace Symbol, and a "Veterans for Obama" sticker...

Coffeeshops are gifts from God, as is the work of Archbishop Michael Ramsey

Recognize it?

Huckabee on Jeremiah Wright

Very interesting, .... worth watching... Huckabee surprises people again...

Diana Butler Bass on Rev. Jeremiah Wright

In the God's Politics blog, Diana Butler Bass wrote this thoughtful (and provocative, judging by the comments) essay on Reverend Jeremiah Wright's comments. I found her thoughts helpful and inspired me to take another look at the tradition of Black preaching in America. It also may be helpful for all of us, and especially white Americans to take a good look at the Black Liberation Theologian, James Cone, and the full body of his work. Race in America is a huge issue, and a challenging one and an important one to consider and engage with the best of our minds and hearts.

Read Diana Butler Bass's entire article HERE.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Putting Rev. Wright's Preaching in Perspective (by Diana Butler Bass)

The current media flap over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's former pastor, strikes me as nothing short of strange. Anyone who attends church on a regular basis knows how frequently congregants disagree with their ministers. To sit in a pew is not necessarily assent to a message preached on a particular day. Being a church member is not some sort of mindless cult, where individuals believe every word preached. Rather, being a church member means being part of a community of faith—a gathered people, always diverse and sometimes at odds, who constitute Christ's body in the world.

But the attack on Rev. Wright reveals something beyond ignorance of basic dynamics of Christian community. It demonstrates the level of misunderstanding that still divides white and black Christians in the United States. Many white people find the traditions of African-American preaching offensive, especially when it comes to politics.

I know because I am one of those white people. My first sustained encounter with African-American preaching came in graduate school about twenty years ago. I had been assigned as a teaching assistant to a course in Black Church Studies. The placement surprised me, since I had no background in the subject. But the professor assured me that "anyone with experience teaching American religion" would be able to handle the load.

The subject matter was not, as the professor indicated, difficult. The emotional content, however, was. To prepare, I had to read literally thousands of pages of black preaching and theology covering the entire scope of American history. While the particulars of preaching changed through time, one thing did not. Throughout the entire corpus, black Christian leaders leveled a devastating critique against their white brothers and sisters—accusing white Christians of maintaining "ease in Zion" while allowing black people to suffer injustice and oppression.

Typical of the form used by black preachers is Frederick Douglass' address, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" first delivered on July 5, 1852. The address, a political sermon, forcefully attacks white culture. "Fellow-citizens," Douglass proclaims, "above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wails of millions! Whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them." He goes on to calls American conduct "hideous and revolting" and accuses white Christians of trampling upon and disregarding both the constitution and the Bible. He concluded his sermon with the words, "For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival."

This was very hard to take. I confess: nearly everything I read that semester pained and angered me. But four months of listening to voices that I wanted to reject made me different. I began to hear the power of the critique. I came to appreciate the prophetic nature of black preaching. I recognized that these voices emerged from a very distinct historical experience. And I admired the narrative interplay between the Bible and social justice. Over time, they taught me to hear the Gospel from an angular perspective—the angle of slaves, freed blacks, of those who feared lynching, of those who longed for Africa, those who could not attend good schools. From them, I learned that liberation through Jesus was a powerful thing. And that white Americans really did need to repent when it came to race.

Read Diana Butler Bass's entire article HERE.

Obama's speech yesterday on Youtube

I am impressed with and interested in Barack Obama's thoughts and perspective on Race, Religion and Politics in America. I wonder if all this "controversy" that has arisen with Pastor Wright's statements might engender some interesting and helpful conversation, or will be continue to trod the same old well-worn paths about Race, Religion and Politics.

Stephen Colbert: Running for President!? ;)

Stephen Colbert has "guest written" Maureen Dowd's New York Times opinion letter this week, and,...he's running for president (but only in South Carolina)...he cracks me up:

I Am an Op-Ed Columnist (And So Can You!)

By STEPHEN COLBERT

Surprised to see my byline here, aren’t you? I would be too, if I read The New York Times. But I don’t. So I’ll just have to take your word that this was published. Frankly, I prefer emoticons to the written word, and if you disagree :(

I’d like to thank Maureen Dowd for permitting/begging me to write her column today. As I type this, she’s watching from an overstuffed divan, petting her prize Abyssinian and sipping a Dirty Cosmotinijito. Which reminds me: Before I get started, I have to take care of one other bit of business:

Bad things are happening in countries you shouldn’t have to think about. It’s all George Bush’s fault, the vice president is Satan, and God is gay.

There. Now I’ve written Frank Rich’s column too.

So why I am writing Miss Dowd’s column today? Simple. Because I believe the 2008 election, unlike all previous elections, is important. And a lot of Americans feel confused about the current crop of presidential candidates.

For instance, Hillary Clinton. I can’t remember if I’m supposed to be scared of her so Democrats will think they should nominate her when she’s actually easy to beat, or if I’m supposed to be scared of her because she’s legitimately scary.

Or Rudy Giuliani. I can’t remember if I’m supposed to support him because he’s the one who can beat Hillary if she gets nominated, or if I’m supposed to support him because he’s legitimately scary.

And Fred Thompson. In my opinion “Law & Order” never sufficiently explained why the Manhattan D.A. had an accent like an Appalachian catfish wrestler.

Well, suddenly an option is looming on the horizon. And I don’t mean Al Gore (though he’s a world-class loomer). First of all, I don’t think Nobel Prizes should go to people I was seated next to at the Emmys. Second, winning the Nobel Prize does not automatically qualify you to be commander in chief. I think George Bush has proved definitively that to be president, you don’t need to care about science, literature or peace.

While my hat is not presently in the ring, I should also point out that it is not on my head. So where’s that hat? (Hint: John McCain was seen passing one at a gas station to fuel up the Straight Talk Express.)

Others point to my new bestseller, “I Am America (And So Can You!)” noting that many candidates test the waters with a book first. Just look at Barack Obama, John Edwards or O. J. Simpson.

Look at the moral guidance I offer. On faith: “After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up.” On gender: “The sooner we accept the basic differences between men and women, the sooner we can stop arguing about it and start having sex.” On race: “While skin and race are often synonymous, skin cleansing is good, race cleansing is bad.” On the elderly: “They look like lizards.”

Our nation is at a Fork in the Road. Some say we should go Left; some say go Right. I say, “Doesn’t this thing have a reverse gear?” Let’s back this country up to a time before there were forks in the road — or even roads. Or forks, for that matter. I want to return to a simpler America where we ate our meat off the end of a sharpened stick.

Let me regurgitate: I know why you want me to run, and I hear your clamor. I share Americans’ nostalgia for an era when you not only could tell a man by the cut of his jib, but the jib industry hadn’t yet fled to Guangdong. And I don’t intend to tease you for weeks the way Newt Gingrich did, saying that if his supporters raised $30 million, he would run for president. I would run for 15 million. Cash.

Nevertheless, I am not ready to announce yet — even though it’s clear that the voters are desperate for a white, male, middle-aged, Jesus-trumpeting alternative.

What do I offer? Hope for the common man. Because I am not the Anointed or the Inevitable. I am just an Average Joe like you — if you have a TV show.