A More Perfect Union

This morning I awoke crying as the TV replayed video of the scenes from the Presidential Election Of Barack Obama. The tears ran down a broad smile that strained the muscles in my jaw. I was embarrassed but not much as I sat alone on the couch. later I labored to explain to my friends who happened to be white why the tears flowed. I think at least two of them vaguely understood the magnitude of meaning that the election had for African Americans ( in the future I will drop the African)and for me personally, an Air Force Veteran who felt more of a genuine American than ever before. I tried to explain that the election itself was half the journey and a solution in itself. That Black Americans by and large don't expect any "hook-ups" as one White American was over heard saying at a gas station. These type of uniformed stereotypical opinions taken from anecdotal examples of sometimes only a single instance are part of the racial problem in our country. Black Americans are under no illusions nor delusions that President Obama will solve all of the countries problems, racial or otherwise. Sadly, some Americans cannot bring themselves to embrace a President that does not look like them. Instead they embrace fear instead of change and perpetuate the very devision that has made change so necessary. What lessons are learned from being on the wrong side of a land slide victory? If at all reasonable, individuals should take the time for introspection, reflection and evaluation of the merits of ones own positions. Now is a time of unique opportunity for all Americans to map a future of a more perfect union.

Wisdom From The Wise

"It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public; and freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds which follows from the advance of science." [Darwin]

 

"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities." [Voltaire]

 

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism." [Einstein]

 

"Faith means not wanting to know what is true." [Nietzsche]

 

"I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul.... No, all this talk of an existence for us, as individuals, beyond the grave is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life – our desire to go on living … our dread of coming to an end." [Edison]

 

"The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." [Lincoln]

 

"Religion is a byproduct of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?" [Arthur C. Clarke]

 

"Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies." [Thomas Jefferson]

 

"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile." [Kurt Vonnegut]

 

"Religion is based . . . mainly on fear . . .. fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. . . . My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race." [Bertrand Russell]