This past weekend Gov. Palin, in several speeches asserted that Sen. Obama was "paling around" with a former terrorist, Ayers, of the Weathermen of the late 1960's early 70's (when Obama was only 8 years old).  The claim stems from the fact that, in adulthood, Obama and Ayers did in fact serve on the same Board of Directors of a charitable organization in Illinois(a Board theat also included Bank officers and corporate leaders). Ayers function on the Board was as a faculty member of the University of Illinois, and Obama's position was as a local political/community leader. Neither was there as a terrorist!

All of the above is true.  However, that is not the whole story.  The accusation came from a Candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States who is married to a man who, until recently, was a member of an organization which was attempting to separate Alaska from the United States!!! Their relationship was not just as a casual thing where she denounced his political affiliations and actions as did Obama of Ayers' activities with the Weathermen, they were married.  And, she recorded a welcoming address that was played at tthe organizations statewide convention.

This begs several questions. As a Christian, I firmly believe that we should love the "sinner" while denouncing the sin.  This seems consistent with Obama's experience of serving on a community board with an associate while denoucing his past acts of violence ( which occurred before they met). However, in the case of Palin, we have a modern day stone thrower who lives in a glass house with an Alaskan separatist who welcomes his friends and fellow travellers to their convention.

To this type of "Truth Telling" from Palin/McCain I say, "Thanks but no thanks!"  First, it is not relevant to the central issues of our time and is distracting real leaders and change agents from solving the critical issues of JOBS, ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, WAR & TERRORISM IN OUR TIME (NOT 40 years ago) and HEALTH CARE FOR ALL!  Second, it demeans our public discourse with false charges and inuendos and dare I say "false witness".  Third, it does not give us a true picture of a break from the campaigns of Attwater and Rove which were the promoters of distraction and lies as a path to victory. 

The McCain Campaign mentioned over the weekend that if the campaign continues to focus on the economic crisis then McCain loses because he has no plan to solve the problem and Obama does.  They are returning to the tested and true path of distraction and false accusations as their only chance to win.  If we let them win this time then we lose! Whether Obama's plan works or not, it is the only honest attempt to address our current crisis, and as such, deserves our support!

Recently we heard that Senator McCain had a "Secret Plan" to "get Ossama Bin Laden".  He would not discuss it with the public for fear of tipping off Bin Laden. More on this in a minute.

The "Secret Plan" argument goes back several elections to at least 1952.  Back then the War was Korea (remember MASH?).  Back then the candidates were Eisenhower and Nixon vs Stevenson, the Democratic Governor from Illinois.  Truman was not running for another term as President.  Stevenson when asked how he would "end the war in Korea" reponded that he had a "Secret Plan" to do so. Nixon, the Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate, then called a press conference and attacked Stevenson for keeping the plan "Secret" instead of sharing it with Truman so the war could end.  Nixon argued that it was unpatriotic to keep such a plan from the President with the conclusion that if Stevenson could save the life of one American soldier then he was obligated to give the "Secret Plan" to Truman and to do otherwise would be placing the Stevenson campaign above American lives.  Fair enough, Nixon called Stevenson's bluff and Stevenson had nothing to say.  Score one for Nixon!

However, 16 years later when Nixon was running against Humphrey in 1968, and the war was Vietnam, Nixon stepped forward with a "Secret Plan" to end the war.  The difference was that the Democrats did not have the memory of Nixon's attack on Stevenson and Nixon got away with the bluff, won the election and was able to continue the war for 5 more years! Besides being a successful use of the Stevenson argument without a rebuttal from the Democrats, Nixon delayed the end of the war, so that half of the American casualties of the war occurred after he was elected, to end the bloodshed, and the ultimate terms of the Paris Peace Treaty were the same  terms that the North Vietnamese had offered back in 1968 when Nixon was elected and rejected the offer at that time! Some secret!

Now, back to the future.  What should we do with McCain's assertion that he has a "Secret Plan" to "get Bin Laden"?  Call him on it!  Why doesn't he go to his friend the current President, share his Secret so we can get Bin Laden now and prevent the next terrorist attack that is being planned?

OK, we have had 3 wars + 3 secret plans and that = 0.  You can fool some of the American people all of the time, all of the American people some of the time but, should we all be fooled ..all of the time?  As Auric Goldfinger pointed out upon encountering James Bond upsetting his plans for the third time.."once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but, three times is enemy action!"

In this election, the third time is not a charm, just a lie.  If, McCain had a real "Secret Plan" then why is he using it as a technique to win an election?  Could the answer be that he would rather win an election now than get Bin Laden now? Or is it just that the Straight Talk of the 2000 election has been replaced by the belief that we are not paying attention and can be fooled? Or, is it simply that he has no plan behind the bluster!

Take Care,

Gary

This past Spring we heard that Obama was planning to lower the taxes of the Middle Class and pay for this and his other programs with a tax increase on those making over $250,000 per year and by eliminating the $4Billion tax credit to Big Oil and the tax credits for companies who send jobs overseas.  We now here from McCain that the elimination of the tax credit to Oil and raising taxes on big oil is a bad idea and it is couched in the claim that Obama is going to raise "Your Taxes". Finally, McCain claims that he will lower our taxes by extending the Bush tax cuts.

Fact checking these claims reveals that Obama is going to lower Micddle Class taxes and not raise taxes unles you make over $250,000.  Furthermore, the "bad idea" of taxing "big oil" is exactly what Palin has done in Alaska when she asserts that she "took on big oil" so that everyone in Alaska (man, woman & child) got a check for over $3,000 this month from "big oil" from revenues they charged the rest of us at the pump.  This begs the question that if it was good enough for Alaska to tax the oil coming to the rest of us in the lower 48 then why isn't it good enough for all of us to lower our taxes by eliminating the oil tax credit?( And, why should we applaud a Governor who created a surplus in Alaska by passing on the costs of running Alaska to the rest of us?)

What we have then is somewhat clear to me.  When McCain claims that Obama will raise "YOUR TAXES" he isn't speaking to me as I do not make over $250,000.  They know who they are. They are hoping we do not know who we are.

When McCain asserts that we can pay for the permanent extension of the Bush Tax cut ( remember how much of a check you got?..a lot,  if you made over $200,000, otherwise not much) by eliminating earmark spending and making "adjustments" to the Social Security and Medicare.  If he is serious about eliminating "earmarks" then why is he surrounded by lobbyists on his campaign staff and, why did he pick Palin as his VEEP selection who as mayor of  Wallisa (pop 6,000) got $27,000,000 in one year( after hiring a Lobbyist for Wallisa) and as Governor accepted the hundreds of millions of dollars for the infamous "Bridge" even though the bridge was never built. 

Finally, as a candidate for the Republican nomination, McCain proudly asserted that he supported Bush 90% of the time.  Now he is claiming to be the candidate for CHANGE.  This begs the question, if he supported Bush 90% of the time and he is going to Change things in Washington then what part of his 90% support for Bush is he going to change? Tax breaks for the wealthy?  Tax credits for big oil? Attempts to privatize Social Security? The Enron Exception for energy trading (which was written into law by his advisor Phil Graham & signed by Bush reuslting in gas at the pump costing more than the $2.50 per gallon that fair market prices would have it).  In other words the McCain who is running today will have to undo much of what Senator McCain supported  over the past several years if he is really the agent for change that our economy really needs.

This morning my messages included one very thought provoking and inspirational note.  There was a message from the office of the President of my high school waiting for me.  Forty-six years ago this would have been a cause for alarm as a message from this office was never welcomed. However, as my graduation class is about to celebrate our 45th reunion this fall I was not so timid in the continuation of the message.  And, my courage was rewarded with the news that one of the great teachers of our times was  retiring after 50 years of service to his students and the profession he so brilliantly represented.

For most of you, this time of year means graduation ceremonies and celebrations as students commence with the begining of the rest of their lives. For a very select few this is the moment to put down the chalk and erasers and focus on the next of life's chapters,  outside the familiar setting of the front of a classroom. So it is for Robert Scheuermann, Mr. Scheuermann to those of us who knew him as our teacher.

I write this because his life is important to so many of us.  And, his story is even more important to those of you who will come after we have stepped aside.  For in a time of technology, replication, brief images and super fast computers capable of performing 1,000 trillion calculations per second, his focus was on the thinking person, the spiritual person, the problem solver, the literate, the moral human being, the pilgrim on his journey of life.

He introduced us to Aristotle, Plato, Augustine and Thomas as well as the Flemish Masters, Van Gogh, Galileo and Newton. He did not just read poetry but instilled the poetic within us. And, he did not just tell us what was right or wrong but, showed us how to discover the answers for ourselves.

For that was his greatest gift. He instilled in his students the desire to learn, gave us the tools and critical perspective to learn and then sent us out into the world to make sense of this creation and our place in it.  In every major step in my life since that time 45 years ago. I found that I was not satisfied to see something happen but, had a deep felt desire to learn how it works and its significance to me and those around me.  And, then the tools of inquiry, observation assessment and judgement, that he poured into us those many years ago, did the rest. For this was his contribution to our lives and those around us.  He taught us how to be students of our lives and throughout our life.

In each and every major discovery in my journey thus far, I have had the sense to recognize that he had been there before and had left his mark on the trail for us to follow.  Back in the early 70's I was teaching a class for Honor's Students(yes the irony of me being the only one in the class who was not qualified to register for the class was not lost on me nor my wife) at a small  College in New York, Iona College.  The topic was major arguments in American Discourse, the first being the Pilgrims arguing as to whether Indians should be allowed in the Church. I began the presentation by commenting on the fact that the Pilgrims were Calvinists thinking that the implications of Predestination would suffice as a starting point for discussing the conflict.  I was startled to learn that this concept was lost on college seniors, the best and the brightest of their class.  To the high school students of Mr. Scheuermann the implications would have been obvious for it is in his classroom that this notion of Calvin's  was introduced to us and developed. For as our teacher he did not approach us by lowering the bar because we were "high school students" but rather showed us how to lift ourselves up and discover that we could rise up to the challenge of a thinking person, a moral person, a spiritual person and become yet another pilgrim on our own journey wherever it may take us.

In his announcement of his retirement he compares himself to Ishmael, in Moby Dick, and that our school was his ship, The Pequod, and that like Ishmael's, his voyage was filled with "wonders, mysteries and hazards".  I feel honored that we were his mess-mates on his voyage.  But,  I suspect that our Ishmael was able to discover the wonderment of our existence in a way that only a few can strive to achieve.  And, we , his mess-mates were very fortunate to have such a storyteller among us at the start of our voyage.  As I push back from this keyboard, I pray that my grandchildren and their grandchildren will be fortunate enough to have a Mr. scheuermann as their guide when they launch their voyage.

Let me begin by admitting that the following are the" conjectures of a guilty bystander" ( I borrower the phrase from Thomas Merton). I say this because I have done nothing to correct the problems I am about to discuss.  Indeed, I have contributed to the problems as much or even more than most.  Yet the time has come once again to comment as it is a serious set of problems which of course means that it will be used by some to champion their cause during an election year.

How serious?  Today we have learned that the average price of petroleum has hit $135 per barrel on its way to over $140 soon.  This translates to surveys indicating that we can now pay $4.00 per gallon at the pump with some experts predicting $5.00 per gallon soon.  In case you feel like you have been in a financial free fall let me remind you that in 2000 A. D. ( yes, 8 years ago) we were shocked to experience a dramatic rise in gas prices around Memorial Day from an average of $1.45 per gallon to $2.00 per gallon and, the day before we invaded Iraq, petroleum was selling for less than $28 per barrell.

How pervasive is the set of problems?  For the person making the minimum wage of around $8.00 per hour, they now have to work one day per week to fill up their 16 gallon gas tank!  Our attempt to switch to alternative fuel sources has seen the price of CORN rise from just under $4.00 per bushell last year at this time to over $6.40 per bushell at a time when alternative fuel is competing with a food shortage for corn.  And, the U.S. dollar was par with the EURO in 2003A.D. but now is at almost $1.60 USD to the EURO Dollar making it even more expensive to import those products from China.

So what do we get as a proposed set of solutions?  A suggestion to cut the Federal gas tax for this summer, at around $.18 per gallon which would yield the average person about $50 for the summer.  What else? 

Have we heard any discussion concerning: MASS TRANSIT?  More energy efficient building codes? more self-contained communities requiring less transportation between job and residence, home and school, home and shopping and localized food supplies and materials?  Have we heard any serious discussion that would scare the oil producing countries (other than war), the petroleum industry, the auto industry about their future in the center of the world and domestic economy? 

We were all impressed with Al Gore's dramatic presentation on the environmental crisis ahead.  We applauded, cheered and were pleased that he was awarded a Nobel Prize, an Emmy and an Oscar.  How nice.  Yet while he has done his part we have not done ours.  Not so nice.

Rather than sit back and let the leaders define the limits of "Acceptable Debate" this election year, we should be Demanding that they address this issue in a BOLD, SERIOUS and COMPREHENSIVE PLAN which will marshall our society to act as one to" solve the problem".  I use the phrase, "SOLVE THE PROBLEM" because it was the driving call in the NASA control center during the critical times of the flight of APPOLLO 13 when problem solvers had to invent a way to bring three astronauts back from space in a most heroic fashion.

We have had leaders who have moved mountains in the past.  From Washington, to Lincoln, to Ghandi. to Dr. King we have followed when they have led.  They arise when called upon to "solve the problem" we can all agree must be solved come hell or high water.  This is one of those times. I am sure that there are leaders out there that can do the job if we collectively impress them that now is the time.

Take Care,

Gary