Want Confidence in our Leaders?

We read and hear so much negativism in our media these days, it is no wonder we all feel badly about politics. Tea Party(no government), Conservatives(less government) Republicans(don't know for sure), Democrats(more government),Liberals/Progressives(welfare state). All denigrating each other and clearly not cooperating. Yet, we have made several enormous changes to our health care system and are about to do so with financial reform. Next up is immigration and climate change control.

It's a wonder any administration of any persuasion can keep its head with all the sniping, two wars being fought and the colossal oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. By the way, wonder how the Tea Party & Mr Paul (no government)would be handling the spill?

Anyway a friend of mine reminded me recently not to clog the internet with information we already have or can get readily. I do want you to see and hear, however,a first rate interview conducted by Charlie Rose with VP Joe Biden.

Please take the time to watch this 40 minute segment. Mr. Biden's range of knowledge, honesty and confidence are a wonderful testament to whom we have at the helm .

Here is the link: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11035

And the Losers Are..........

We, The American people!

Bob Herbert of the NY Times said today:

"Already the oil from the nightmare brought to us by BP is making its way into the wondrous wetlands of the gulf coast, into this natural paradise that belongs not just to the people of Louisiana but to all Americans. Oil is showing up along dozens of miles of the Louisiana coast, including the beaches of Grand Isle, which were ordered closed to the public.

The response of the Obama administration and the general public to this latest outrage at the hands of a giant, politically connected corporation has been embarrassingly tepid. We take our whippings in stride in this country. We behave as though there is nothing we can do about it.

The fact that 11 human beings were killed in the Deepwater Horizon explosion (their bodies never found) has become, at best, an afterthought. BP counts its profits in the billions, and, therefore, it’s important. The 11 men working on the rig were no more important in the current American scheme of things than the oystermen losing their livelihoods along the gulf, or the wildlife doomed to die in an environment fouled by BP’s oil, or the waters that will be left unfit for ordinary families to swim and boat in".

Analysis
This is the bitter reality of the American present, a period in which big business has cemented an unholy alliance with big government against the interests of ordinary Americans, who, of course, are the great majority of Americans. The great majority of Americans no longer matter.

No one knows how much of BP’s runaway oil will contaminate the gulf coast’s marshes and lakes and bayous and canals, destroying wildlife and fauna — and ruining the hopes and dreams of countless human families. What is known is that whatever oil gets in will be next to impossible to get out. It gets into the soil and the water and the plant life and can’t be scraped off the way you might be able to scrape the oil off of a beach.

It permeates and undermines the ecosystem in much the same way that big corporations have permeated and undermined our political system, with similarly devastating results.

We Americans have done marvelous things for our fellow citizens in the last two hundred years.

The Obama administration continues this tradition and has made several culture altering changes starting with health care. They are poised to reign in the banks and Wall street and next will take on immigration. All the while, we work on the economy that is showing signs of recovery. After that will come climate change. What an agenda! What courage!

Th hidden agenda that has existed for two hundred years is the sordid connection between big business and government. I need not detail it here since you all know it and it is well documented. It is time for government to take an aggressive stand concerning off shore drilling, dependence on oil, climate pollution and privileges and free passes afforded big business.

As the President's chief of staff says" never let a good crises go to waste" Now is the moment to reign in big business and corporate greed. The economic crises was brought to us by corporate greed and the gulf coast crises is another expression of that greed.

Let us get behind the president as he attempts to take advantage of the gulf crises to further his energy strategy. He will meet a whirlwind of lobbyists greater than he did over health care and financial reform. He will not get unswerving support even inside his party because so many legislators are dependent on corporate contributions for themselves and jobs for the communities they represent.

I think the president has the courage to do this and hope you will all send him enrgy, courage and good will.

So Here we Go Again: The tail Wagging the Dog

Who ever said that America had it right? What we have said,however, is that we knew right from WRONG. That, my dear friends, is a very different proposition than what we are faced with today.

Have you looked at and listened, for example, to the Tea Party? Have you Looked at what they represent? Try this on: they are a lunatic fringe well beyond the beleaguered republican, inept democratic, disappearing conservative and out of business independent parties. They are ready to fill in the void of "the leadership vacuum" that has plagued out nation since the year 2000.

If you think I exaggerate look at the way the nation and world is handling the current economic and international political crises. The West is held hostage by Iran and its allies Turkey and Venezuela, The greed of US companies such as Goldman Sachs has plunged Europe into an economic wasteland.

We watch as the gold coasts of Louisiana, Florida and the Eastern-Atlantic run the risks of being destroyed by corporate greed and no planning. We fight two wars without purpose, and we are playing" I win, You lose" on every major issue facing the nation and world. " Drill, baby drill, seems to have no cache these days, as SP is silent as she builds her fortune and has no intent of running for anything(thank the Goddess). BTW, she is a darling of the Tea Party advocates.

Oh me, are there simple answers? No. Are there people of good will willing to compromise and include solutions that care for most concerns? No.

Who rules the world dialog? The demagogues on the air waves in all languages in the world's major countries, the world governments' self interested staffs, and finally WE THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION AND EVERY OTHER CIVILIZED NATION OF THE WORLD WHO SIMPLY DO NOT CARE FOR OUR FELLOW MAN!

If you think this is depressing, try waking up tomorrow and alter the direction.

Guess what? I do! Each and every day. I think, I write, I take part, I influence and here comes the real punch: I LOVE.

Yes, that is the answer. Love, reach out, make unselfish decisions about little and big things in your life. Be sure your family, friends, village, city, country and world is making it.

Heroine: Jane Wells does!!! Check out her website and work on Darfur. She is a lady who can afford,frankly, to sit at home, make tea and not bother herself with issues.

Instead she, her husband Jon and children have traveled to Dafur many times to call attention to the genocide and systematic destruction of a whole race of people! Look at Jane's website, 3 Generations, a 501c3 Not-for-Profit-organization, to find out how to get out side your self and change the world.

Well, here is the good news: we count, we make a difference, we must speak and act up and we LOVE AND ARE LOVED.

Welcome Back,Ted

I have missed me! Have you? Just kidding. There is so much to talk about; but today is about special people. Yes, heroes and heroines. I will define the terms for you as I see them and will introduce you to some over the next few blogs.

Definition of Heroine/Hero: a person who makes a difference in other people's lives in a positive way even when it is not convenient.

Candace Sue Wife, friend executive, daughter, healer, shaman, victim, yes I said victim. Candace has survived sarcoma and this year lived to tell about it at the Sarcoma Foundation of America's annual Gala. She was awarded a "courage" award and trust me , that word does not tell the story. If you ever want to meet courage, love, faith, an angel, allow me to introduce you to Candace. On my best day, I don't measure up. Not that she puts up any measurements. It is just the way she lives her life. Trust me, she doesn't get who she is which is the magic!

Deb Phillips You may not know her; but I recommend you visit her web site debphillips@groupmv.com This perfectly human woman has not only been through all the human stuff(illness, family deaths,etc) but always knows where she is, who needs her, and how to give love. If you are in trouble, or think you are about to be, call Deb.

Jenifer March-Joly. Mother, wife, daughter and Executive Director of the Citizens'Children Committee of New York. As if Jenifer did not have enough to do in her personal life; she heads one of the finest children's advocacy groups in the country. Focused on New York City, Jenifer(through the C.C.C.) ensures that children are not victimized by Washington, Albany or NY City government as they attempt to balance budgets and legislate on their behalf.

Rhea Wong. Hang on to your seats when around this woman. She is the Executive Director of Breakthrough New York. This organization takes promising middle school children from the NYC inner city public schools and helps them get to the next level. Next level? How about scholarships to the the best private schools in the country and then on to the Ivies. That do it for you? Does for me.

Elise Platt. You would not say "who" if you knew her. Smart, dedicated, professional, direct, honest, and one of the creative people in our midst. Yes, she paints, sculpts and designs homes for real people to live in and thinks like a Rabbi. By the way, if you develop a life threating illness you must live with, contact Elise. Been there, done that.

One more for today and then I am done. The Pope, yeah, the Pope. Everyone is having fun pissing on him and the church(which they richly deserve),but I must point out that he has taken the heat, and, after realizing that the Vatican bull shit would not fly about the liberal press beating on them or jihad against the church, he finally got down on his knees and said today "we are wrong, the enemies are inside the church. We must purify the church, do penance, administer justice and seek forgiveness"

Who would think that the church and the pope had that in him. Usually it is "off with their heads, don't challenge our authority, go back to your slimy lives and oh, send us money"

Great world? yes, one way or the other.

Love you and have lots to share over the next few writings.

Easter Message

Rev. Bill Federici,nephew, sent Laura and me this message that we share with you. Have a great weekend what ever you do and what ever your spiritual persuasion is.





Dear Friends:

Eastertide is about meeting, and witnessing the shocking core of our beliefs and our practices as Christians:

God is Love.
Love is God.

In the midst of the world’s pain, we dare assert that fact. Rather than ignoring the pain of the world, our message meets that pain with the promise and possibility of healing and transformation.

Easter, then, becomes a year round fact and a year round choice. In fact, I believe that Easter is a moment by moment fact, and a moment by moment choice.

Easter is the choice for Love.

Eastertide is an opportunity to intensely remember and practice this choice for
love over hate,
courage over fear,
life over death.
We can choose the excellent over the medicore, the strange over the familiar, the uncomfortable over the comfortable, the uncomon over the common.
Our lives are moment by moment choice for Love, or for Love’s opposite. How thrilling to know that in each of our breaths we can choose to make tangible the Love of God by “choosing it down to earth.”

May this season be rich with blessings and joys for you and yours.

All Love, great and small, Rev. Bill

The Frailty of Blind Obedience, or, The End of the Catholic Church as We Know It

Few Catholics, including those of us retired from the institution, know how to understand or deal with the current world-wide meltdown of the Catholic Church. Yet, we Americans have seen similar meltdowns in our recent political lifetime and even in times past.

To be more precise, when I was running PR for the Verizon System, I learned and practiced the first rule of public relations survival.

That rule is " When things go wrong, tell it FIRST, FAST AND FULLY.

Unfortunately, people like Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton either never learned it or forgot it and in the end it cost them their presidencies. The cover up is almost always worse than the offense.

How does the Catholic Church believe it can survive the Tsunami about to wash over it without coming clean? As importantly, what is this breach of trust all about?

Please read Sister Joan Chittister, OSB's opinion reprinted below. Sr. Joan is a Benedictine nun who has been in the forefront of speaking out on issues regardless of the consequences. Because of her international standing as author and lecturer on peace, justice, spirituality and women's issues, she has not been squelched.

"Divided loyalties: an incredible situation

By Joan Chittister
Created Mar 17, 2010
For all the certainty about the facts of the case, there is still an aura of discontent everywhere about the situation surrounding clerical sex abuse in the church. No one disputes the data now; everyone disputes the nature of the problem. And worse than that, the data simply keeps piling up on all sides.

First, the world called it an "American problem." As in, those Americans are a wild bunch anyway, what else can you expect?" The Vatican went so far as to dismiss the issue as simply another demonstration of American exaggeration -- what the Irish call the American tendency to be "over the top."

Then Ireland found itself engulfed in the problem and suddenly the outrage was no longer seen as "over the top." On the contrary, it became a display of integrity. Nor were the numbers seen as being exaggerated by the media. On the contrary, the numbers of child victims, the world began to understand, had, if anything, been minimized.

Now, the boil has broken in Europe, too: in the Netherlands, in Austria, in Germany, and, oh yes, in the Vatican, as well.

Now, the United States is no longer seen as being hysterical about a non-problem but early in its confrontation of it, also a decidedly American trait.

But what, precisely, is "it?" What is the real problem?

Note well: After stories of the first few high-profile cases of serial rapes and molestations and their unheard of numbers died down, the focus shifted away from individual clerical rapists to the unmasking of what was now obviously a systemic problem. This prevailing practice of episcopal cover-ups, of moving offenders from one parish to another rather than expose them either to legal accountability or to moral censure in the public arena, occupied the spotlight. It was a practice that saved the reputation of the church at the expense of children. It traded innocence for image.

But we know all of that. So why doesn't all of this just settle down and go away? Why won't these people -- these survivors -- "just forget about it," some people said.

The answers to that question is both personal and social.

For some, of course, the need to expose their experiences comes out of the need to heal themselves by reclaiming a sense of control over their lives. To stop living in the shadow of victimhood and powerlessness. For others of them, it was because, having had their secret shame exposed, they now found the courage themselves to speak out about the unspeakable ghost that had for so long haunted their lives.

But it is also possible that the survivors go on drawing our attention to the situation because, this time, consciously or unconsciously, they are trying to warn us of a second aspect of the problem, still largely undefined, that is at least as serious -- even the incubator, in fact -- of the obvious issues of cover-up and concealment.

This time, however, it is Ireland, not America, that is ripping away the veil from this even deeper dimension, the one that moves beyond the problems of sexual repression and institutional face-saving. The unmasking of this context requires changes in the church that are in ways more serious -- and certainly as important -- as is the awareness of the danger of the sexual abuse itself.

The dilemma that really threatens the future of the church is a distorted notion of the vow of obedience and the tension it creates between loyalty to the Gospel and loyalty to the institution -- translate: "system."

In this case, the problem swirls around Ireland's Primate, Cardinal Sean Brady, a good man with a good heart and a good reputation. Until now. In 1975, then Fr. Sean Brady, a newly certified canon lawyer and secretary to then Bishop Francis McKiernan, now deceased, in the diocese of Kilmore, took testimony from two young boys abused by the serial rapist Fr. Brendan Smyth. At the end of those interviews, Brady exacted a vow of silence from the boys which effectively protected Smyth from public censure and enabled him to go on abusing children -- including in the United States -- for another 18 years. Brady, too, said nothing to any one about the case, other than to his bishop, ever again. Not to the gardai, not to the courts, not even to the bishops to whose dioceses Smyth had then been sent.

Challenged now to resign because of that failure to give evidence of a crime, Brady's answer is the Nuremberg defense: He was only following orders; he did not have the responsibility to make any reports other than to his bishop; he was only a note-taker. All of these elements of the situation are now in hot dispute.

But the question is deeper than the simple ones of role and organizational responsibility.

The question is why would a good man with a good heart, as he surely is, think twice about his responsibility to take moral and legal steps to stop a child predator from preying on more children everywhere, some of them for years at a time?

The answer to that question is a simple one: It is that the kind of "blind obedience" once theologized as the ultimate step to holiness, is itself blind. It blinds a person to the insights and foresight and moral perspective of anyone other than an authority figure.

Blind obedience is itself an abuse of human morality. It is a misuse of the human soul in the name of religious commitment. It is a sin against individual conscience. It makes moral children of the adults from whom moral agency is required. It makes a vow, which is meant to require religious figures to listen always to the law of God, beholden first to the laws of very human organizations in the person of very human authorities. It is a law that isn't even working in the military and can never substitute for personal morality.

From where I stand, if there are any in whom we should be able to presume a strong conscience and an even stronger commitment to the public welfare, it is surely the priests and religious of the church. But if that is the case, then the church must also review its theology of obedience so that those of good heart can become real moral leaders rather than simply agents of the institution.

A bifurcation of loyalties that requires religious to put canon law above civil law and moral law puts us in a situation where the keepers of religion may themselves become one of the greatest dangers to the credibility -- and the morality -- of the church itself."

Health Care Cost and Coverage Reform: the loyal opposition's opinion

As promised, here is the Wall Street Journal's opinion. Before you go on here is a comment from some one from another country:

"I’m not an American (some of those who knows me may add ‘regretfully’… J). Am an Israeli and veteran friend of Laura & Ted (as well as, with other addressees) and as such, I’ve the privilege to be on Ted’s ‘mailing-list’.
Notwithstanding, I’m taking the liberty to share with you guys my feelings.
I feel today that the success of Obama’s Administration (with the House-Speaker’s support…) to pass the Health Reform is an historical event that defined as, no less, than a hilling of the entire ‘Civil Right Legislation’.
By giving a chance to any one to get, at least, a basic Medicare (such as in Israel) we are expressing mercy and humanity.
Yes, the priorities with the budget expenditure might be amended, however, being part of a Society that has a sense of mutual responsibility and brotherhood, seems to be a reasonable price.
To that extent, Ted’s great expression – “The good of everyone equally comes first” is an adequate way to illustrate your achievement for better life.
Happy Passover. Yoav"


CAPITAL JOURNALMARCH 22, 2010
Vast Ambition, Colossal Risk
By GERALD F. SEIB

As a piece of social policy, the health bill passed Sunday night by the House of Representatives ranks up there with the Great Society programs of Lyndon B. Johnson in ambition and scope. But here's one big difference: The Great Society programs were enacted in an era when Americans still tended to trust the government to get things done.

By contrast, a principal reason the health bill was so hard to get to this point, and the reason it's such a political risk, is that this landmark legislation proposes expanding the government's role in the giant health economy at a time when Americans are far less likely to trust the government to do things right.

President Barack Obama will sign the core legislation into law, and it's likely the Senate will also approve a package of changes to that law, which the House passed Sunday night. But how the legislation is perceived by Americans in both the short term and long run may well depend on whether its advocates—Mr. Obama, his Democratic allies in Congress, a variety of labor and health interest groups—can convince Americans that, at least on this giant issue, the government is up to the task.

At a minimum, Democrats will be trying to show citizens that the government can produce outcomes that are at least superior to the status quo in health care, which almost everybody agrees can't be sustained.

Proponents of the health legislation are quick to point out that it doesn't amount to a government takeover of health care, and they are right. The legislation builds on, rather than replaces, the employer-based health-insurance system that has prevailed in this country for decades. It funnels patients getting government subsidies into private insurance policies and pools, not a government-run health plan, and is at best a small step toward the nationalized health-care system some liberals want.

So in that sense, it's a far more modest exercise in social engineering than was the Great Society program of the mid-1960s, which included legislation creating Medicare and Medicaid, the food-stamp program and Head Start, as well as two landmark civil rights acts.

Yet by making the federal government both a much bigger economic player, and a more potent referee, in the private health marketplace, the new health bill represents a similar turn to government action to confront gnawing domestic concerns. What has changed are attitudes toward that government

When President Johnson led the drive to create Medicare and Medicaid, Americans saw before them a government that had won World War II, built the interstate highway system and launched an almost universally admired space program that was headed toward putting a man on the moon. The New Deal was widely considered the reason the Great Depression finally was vanquished. "Liberal" was such a coveted label for a politician that one of President Johnson's deep worries when he took over after President John Kennedy's assassination was that he might be seen in Kennedy circles as too conservative.

Since then, attitudes have soured. The Vietnam War went from nuisance to debacle, tarnishing for a long while the notion that the nation's best and brightest minds were at work in Washington dealing brilliantly with difficult problems.

Later, President Ronald Reagan told us government was the problem rather than the solution, President Bill Clinton declared the era of big government was over and President George W. Bush told us the other big piece of the social safety net, Social Security, was better taken out of the government's hands entirely and turned over to the private sector.

More recently, government experts assured the nation that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a mistaken conclusion with calamitous consequences. Now deficits further sow doubts about Washington.

The result has been an erosion over time in confidence in government's competence. One of the best barometers of that shifting attitude is found in polling done by the Gallup organization, which for four decades has been testing Americans' trust in government. When Gallup asked in 1972 how much Americans trusted the federal government to handle domestic problems, 70% said they had a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust. By last year, that had fallen to 51%—almost even with the 48% who said "not very much" trust, or "none at all."

Here's an even starker reading: In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll last fall, Americans were asked how much of the time they trusted the government to do the right thing; 65% said "only some of the time," and a stunning 11% said "never."

Can confidence in government be turned around? Perhaps; it seemed to rise briefly in those feel-good moments after President Obama's 2008 election victory.

That's why the Obama administration's ability to competently put health legislation into practice, assuming it becomes law, is so crucial.

On that front Democrats can console themselves with some other history: Medicare itself was viewed as a nearly impossible undertaking, but was implemented smoothly, as was a Medicare prescription-drug benefit signed into law by President George W. Bush.

Maybe, advocates might argue, that shows the government can get some things right after all.

Write to Gerald F. Seib at jerry.seib@wsj.com