OBAMA

I so badly want to write in depth about the whole Obama/Rev. Wright business. However, I lack the necessary training in brevity and coherence to tackle this subject effectively.

If you've been following the news lately, Rev. Wright, the pastor of Obama's church, has made some pretty inflammatory comments about America over the years. Is this enough cause for the American people to reconsider their feelings about Obama's character?

To what extent should the pastor of your church be a reflection of your own beliefs/morals? Only in politics would the two be so inseparable. But you are who your friends are, right? By choosing to become a member of a church, you are accepting its leader as a strong influence on your life. Where does the influence stop? Do you only connect with that person on spiritual matters? Or do you connect with them on political matters as well?

Although, I am inclined to believe your pastor should be a good representative of your character, in Obama's situation, I don't believe this to be true. Obama appears to be very genuine and to say these two guys are one in the same is to call him a phony, and I just don't think that's the case.

For those of you who haven't watched his speech today on the topic of race, click on the link below and enjoy. It's very good.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/obamas-speech-on-race/

-Matt

Burnin' & Lootin'

Just had an interesting conversation with the wife…

Let’s say that you found yourself in the middle of a riot. How strong would the peer pressure be in this kind of a situation? I know that most of our readers probably have a sound value system in place and realize rioting is wrong. But isn’t there a little something in all of us that would want to participate? And if so, to what extent? Mob mentality can be a tricky thing. We have a friend who was once amidst a mob of sorts and he literally looked a girl straight in the eye and proceeded to step on her, even though she was trapped under a barricade. In his defense, he was caught in the middle of a forceful crowd and had no other choice…or did he?

So back to the question, if you found yourself in the middle of a riot, would you participate?

1) Would you loot anything from a store that was already being raided?
2) Would you burn anything?
3) If it came to it, would you try to inflict bodily harm on someone else?
4) Would you aid others in flipping over a car?
5) Would you break or deface any public property?

My answers:

1) Yes – But I don’t think I could steal any “expensive” items.
2) No – I don’t think I have it in me to commit arson.
3) Maybe – There’s no telling what’s going to go down in a riot. If I have to protect myself or my loot, it could happen.
4) Yes – Not a strong yes, but I would strongly consider it. When else would you have that opportunity?
5) No – Although, if someone has already thrown a brick through a store window, it can’t really be too big of a deal if another one gets tossed through trying to knock out the rest of the glass the first guy missed

-Matt