The other day my wife and I were in line at Mike's Smokehouse. On the wall to our right are pictures of celebrities who have partaken of the great ribs, one of which is (then candidate) Barack Obama. The man in front of me, about my age, looks at the photograph and says to his wife: "I can't stand to look at that guy. He makes me sick."
What I really wanted to do was lean forward over his shoulder and say: "Now you know how I have been feeling for the past eight years!", but I decided I wanted to keep my place in line and not get involved in, right wing fisticuffs.
Truth is, my gut feeling is that President Obama will not finish his first term. That he will be assassinated by the CIA just as the last president to really engage those who do not agree with us, President Kennedy was killed for attempting to bring peace to the world.
I am certain that President Obama did not score any points with the guy in line ahead of me with his recent address in Egypt, an address at which someone from the crowd yelled "We love you!". President Obama speaks too much truth for this country to handle. He admitted our guilt in the 1953 Iran Coup:
"In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government," he said, alluding to the coup.
Quoting from the Quran for emphasis, President Obama called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims" Thursday and said together, they could confront violent extremism across the globe and advance the timeless search for peace in the Middle East.
"This cycle of suspicion and discord must end," Obama said in a widely anticipated speech in one of the world's largest Muslim countries, an address designed to reframe relations after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The White House said Obama's speech contained no new policy proposals on the Middle East. He said American ties with Israel are unbreakable, yet issued a firm, evenhanded call to the Jewish state and Palestinians alike to live up to their international obligations.
In a gesture to the Islamic world, Obama conceded at the beginning of his remarks that tension "has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations."
"And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear," said the president, who recalled hearing prayer calls of "azaan" at dawn and dusk while living in Indonesia as a boy.
At the same time, he said the same principle must apply in reverse. "Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire."
I can well imagine how this kind of rhetoric is being received by the military-industrial complex that runs this country. Peace??
We can't be having peace! We have weapons to build, targets to try them out on!
I try every day to be positive and hopeful for this presidency, but it is difficult when I know that what he believes in will get him "liquidated" by the real powers of this country.
It doesn't help that he gets impatient with his handlers and exposes himself to dangers by not taking their direction very well.
I hope that those of us who love peace and want to see a better world will get down on our knees and pray for President Obama's well being.
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