I’m Not A President, But I Do Play One On TV

“Character is defined by what you do when no one is looking”~JC Watts

Luckily, not every President’s term in office has the daunting task of speaking to the American people about a tragedy so great that people look to them for comfort. But, almost every President has made a speech about a tragic incident during their term. So far, in the 10 months Obama has been in office, we have heard two such speeches made by him. The first was regarding the botched and blatantly rigged election in Iran and the subsequent uprising. The next was in connection with the horrific massacre at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas. One was not as personal as the other but both were equally reprehensible, as were the remarks given to us by Obama on them.

In the beginning of Obama’s comments on the Fort Hood he said this, and I quote:

“I planned to make some broader remarks,” he told the crowd. “But as some of you might have heard there has been a tragic shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.”

Well, we are so sorry your Majesty. We know that when someone shoots up American Soldiers on their own soil days before they deploy to Iraq, that such said maniac should check with you first to make sure it doesn’t interrupt your speech! The only other time I can remember such an act of blatant disregard for the feelings of a President is in 2001 when Al Queda decided to fly some planes into buildings right when Bush was reading a book to some school children. How rude!

The next sentences Obama said surely mentioned the slayings right? I mean after that statement he must have said something to smooth things over. Let’s see shall we?

“I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It’s good to see you,”

There are a plethora of blameworthy undertones and outright ignorance in that statement. Dr. Joe Medicine Crow has won medals in his life, the Congressional Gold Medal and earlier this year Obama himself awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Never has Dr. Crow won the Congressional Medal Of Honor.The Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom are the two highest awards given to civilians. You think that if you gave him one of the awards, you would know what award it was. You’d think, but you’d be wrong. To salt the wound a bit more, he said “give a shout out”. Was he on a call in talk radio show? A shout out? Really? Dr. Joe Medicine Crow is 96 years old! Do you think he has even a inkling of what a shout out actually is? Remarkable. The only way he could have made it worse would have been to say:

“I wanna give a shout out to my homeslice and nigga Dr. Joe Crow. You da man.”

If your mind is inquiring what it would be like if other Presidents had done what Obama did speaking on a tragedy…let me give you an idea.

George Bush on 9/11: “I was trying to finish reading Red Fish Blue Fish to some kids at a school, but I couldn’t. Most of you know by now that some planes crashed into buildings. I hear Harry Whittington is here today I wanna give him a shout out. Good to see my Vice President hasn’t shot you in the leg again.”

FDR on Pearl Harbor: “I was going to teach my wife how to become a ghost and chat with a First Lady in the year 2000, but unfortunately those pesky Japs bombed a harbor in Hawaii. I hear that Daddy Warbucks is here and I wanted to give a shout out to him and Little Orphan Annie. Let’s sing “Tomorrow” together in the Oval Office later.”

At the beginning of this blog post I quoted JC Watts. If character is in fact defined by what you do when no one is watching, what then does that say about what Obama does when he KNOWS people are watching?

The Bells Are Ringing…

(This is a speech that I wrote…and discarded…for my July 4th Tea Party speech. Its an ok speech…just not appropriate for the venue and theme of which I wanted to convey. So I just posted it here instead…LOL)

A thought occurred to me the other day. I was thinking about bells. And no not the department store although I am long overdue for a new pair of jeans….I was thinking about the importance bells play in our lives. In the morning, I awake to the ring of my alarm clock…symbolizing the bringing of a new day. I am alerted by my phone by a tiny ding that someone needs my attention in the form of a text message. I have a bell that rings that reminds me to take out the trash every Tuesday. I also have a very important bell that chimes when I am low on gas in my car…and for whoever invented that bell…I sincerely give you my thanks. But these are bells we all hear. They remind us, they alert us, they awaken us, and they grab our attention.

Inscribed on a bell in Pennsylvania are the words….Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof. The Liberty Bell was the symbol for the American Revolution and it rang to remind us freedom is an inalienable right…to alert us our responsibility to defend that right…..to awaken us to the dawning of freedom from tyranny….and to grab our attention that this fight was for the creation of a land in which people live free.

My husband is in the United States Navy. He is currently in an undisclosed location on his ship. The bells he hears carry a different tone. His bells remind him that freedom is not free, they ring to alert him of imminent danger, they awaken him from his few hours of precious sleep when a threat arises, and they grab his attention to protect the nation in which he would willingly give his life to protect.

The bells are ringing all around us. They ring for us to remember those that have died in protection of our freedom. They ring to alert us that the fight for freedom is one that is fought everyday even if we don’t see it, to awaken us from the slumber that we the silent majority have been in, to grab our attention. Let once again the chime of them ring throughout the land the call of freedom and to remember the men and women of our United States Military….who fight to keep the resounding ring of freedom alive in this great nation. I am honored to call myself a citizen of the United States of America. Today we remember that bell, that 233 years ago, rang to proclaim our independence, to which we are shameless and boldly proud of.

God Bless the U.S.A.