Category: Right Speech


“Burn Notice” Life Lessons

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Filed under: Life Lessons, Main, Right Speech, Social Justice — 1 Comment
September 7, 2013

51aKGSNmlOL._SX300_On September 12, Burn Notice closes its doors for good. In its wake, the characters will have to finally do what most of us have haven’t: move on. I seriously doubt the show’s creative genius, Matt Nix, intentionally made Burn Notice to mirror life, but from a Buddhist perspective, some of the show’s life lessons are spot on.

First of all, Burn Notice epitomizes the Buddhist theory of “attachment” and “suffering.”  The notion of knowing the truth would never bring redemption. Yet so many of us in the world today are attached to knowing every detail or delusionally lost that revenge will somehow bring redemption. In truth, a lot of people in Michael Weston’s life would be more adjusted had they simply learned to move on.  In truth, all of us have been there. Some us are still there. There’s no valor in death so don’t forget to live.

Secondly, the Buddhist precept of “Do No Harm” oozes throughout each and every season. Simply put, many us of believe that doing things for the wrong reasons to only make things right is acceptable.  In season three’s “Enemies Closer,” Michael quoted, “After a career spent doing bad things for good reasons, it’s hard to say exactly where you draw the line. You might not know exactly, until someone asks.” In the final season, Michael broke the trust of his true love, denounced family as well as killed both friend and foe.

Symbolically, these scenarios occur in everyday life.  From a Biblical perspective, there is a set of laws concerning ethics that has been given by a higher authority. Yet many of us pretend to befriend coworkers, supervisors and claim the love of committed spouses. But secretly we plot. And affirming our own personal righteousness, we slay our lovers, destroy our coworkers and crush those whom we hate.  If we examine ourselves honestly, what are we really aiming for? Most people are not really aiming for enlightenment. They’re not even aiming for liberation. Most people just want to make their samsaric situation – their normal everyday lives – a little bit better. But violating key human principles neither brings justice nor reinforces divine love.

In Philippians, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” These seem to be among the hardest commands in Scripture to carry out. The foundational plot line of Burn Notice in many episodes involved Michael and his friends helping to protect someone else—from clueless civilians of every variety to retired spies. Nobility is not particularly spiritual or even morally grounded, aside from the “good triumphs evil” scenario.

In truth, the one all encompassing lesson is simple. Sometimes, the only way to find yourself, is to lose yourself to the service of others.

With that, as a Buddhist, I ask you to go find yourself.

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Two Minutes – What Would You Say?

Filed under: Faith & Doubt, Life Lessons, Right Speech, Social Justice
August 30, 2013

PhillipAgnewPhillip Agnew said it better than all those Washington marchers. Phillip Agnew hoped to deliver his message to tens of thousands observing the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, but time worked against him. Now he’s making up for being cut with an online video. Click Mr. Andrew’s picture to watch the speech.

“This is about more than the speech,” said Agnew in a statement released by the Advancement Project Thursday morning. “It’s about the voices of hundreds of thousands of people across the country that have been silenced for too long. Our generation’s dreams have been deferred for too long. While the words spoken amidst the pillars of the Lincoln Memorial yesterday may have reverberated throughout the nation, the actions, energy and love of the rising generation will resound in history books for centuries to come, like those of giants before us.”

———————————— Transcript —————–——————-

By the time we finish another black boy will lay bleeding in the streets of Chicago and as we rest our heads tonight 300,000 of our veterans lay homeless, and I want to explain how the hate we spread abroad is the reason that hatred washes on our shores….but I only have two minutes.

And, I could tell you that Philadelphia just closed 23 of its schools at the same time it builds a $400 million state of the art prison and that North Carolina and Florida continue to silence its citizens at the ballot box- but I only have two minutes.

I could tell you how as we celebrate Dr. King’s Dream, over 400,000 of our immigrant brothers and sisters languish away in privately owned detention camps…and how we still find our queer brothers and sisters imprisoned in the shadows of closets—but I only have two minutes.

I’d tell you how our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters still earn less, have no control over their bodies, and are traded and trafficked like slaves….or that it’s easier for someone to buy a gun and put it to their head than it is to diagnose the illness within it. – But I only have two minutes.

If there was time, I’d tell you that millions of young people and queer people and poor people and people of color are asking what we do with this anger, fear, disappointment, and frustration. This MAD that we feel??? —but, alas, I only have one more minute.

And with it. This last minute of our conversation I’d like to tell you that…though it may seem that all is lost…that there is a generation of dreamers, fighters, defenders, lovers builders bubbling, bubbling, bubbling beneath the rubble.

And beneath your feet you may feel a collective quaking…tremors of a sleeping giant awakening. Emanating from fault lines at the Arizona-Mexico Border, and Raleigh and Austin, and Cleveland, and Chicago, and Tallahassee, Florida.

And we’ve come here from every crack, crease, and crevice of our country to our Capitol to say, that for all whose cares have been our concern. We will not be co-opted. We will not be bought. But, we are ready.

And for those that doubt our energy, and discipline. We are ready.

For those that believe that future fingers may fail the torch. Fear not. We are ready.

For all those that believe in the power of nonviolence and love as unconquerable. We are ready.

Fifty years ago a man told us of a Promised Land. And for 50 years we’ve wandered and wondered. Where are the youth?…a constant whisper in our ears.

And so we have come, asking neither permission nor questions, but to say that we are here. Believing indeed that we have a beautiful history, and that the one we will build in the future will astonish the world.

And we are ready.

May the outcome always prosper over income. Peace over Profit. Revolution over revenue and all peace and power to the people. Don’t believe us just watch.

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Why Can’t We All?

Filed under: Life Lessons, Religion, Right Speech, Social Justice — 1 Comment
August 28, 2013

Martin-Luther-King-I-have-a-dreamIn truth, it’s awfully hard for me to connect with Dr. Martin Luther King. After all, I was only three years old at the time of his “I Have a Dream” speech.  But because I have several African-American friends, I can understand some level of racism by simply witnessing what they’ve endured.

Today, being a fifty-three year old Buddhist, I remember reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s perspective of Dr. Martin Luther King:

“The moment I met Martin Luther King, Jr., I knew I was in the presence of a holy person.  Not just his good work, but his very being was a source of great inspiration for me … On the altar in my hermitage in France are images of Buddha and Jesus, and every time I light incense, I touch both of them as my spiritual ancestors …  When you touch someone who authentically represents a tradition, you not only touch his or her tradition, you also touch your own . . . When those who represent a spiritual tradition embody the essence of their tradition, just the way they walk, sit, and smile speaks volumes about the tradition.” 

There have been times in my life when I have offended all sides of one issue or another. I have gone beyond meditation to campaign for internal dialogue of peace between colleagues and clients. I have walked in the aftermath of tsunamis,’ earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural disasters.  And I wish I could say I always lived and breathed in the core principles of Buddhism, but I have yet to live each and every moment in complete awareness of the present moment and the abandonment of worldly thoughts.

By walking across this small planet; having encountered and losing the greatest live of my life, I reflected on Martin Luther King’s humble and devout lifestyle. Of all I’ve read, I know Dr. King struggled with his role for many years. Many of his friends were killed. Yet they live on with him. Of course the words and choices were Martin’s. Yet his very words and life remain among us in many forms. His very being, as well as many unknown martyrs, continue with us today. Their spirits live because we live.

Still, my greatest fear is that our nation is becoming a nation of silent onlookers. In the face of hate, we shrug. In the face of brutality, we pass by. And in the face of mass murder, we simply accept. We must not remain silent. America is not merely black American, but all of America.

With that, I end with King’s words:

“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied together into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality . . . Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning; you’ve depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured; this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality. “

Dr. Martin Luther King was very Christian, very Buddhist. Why can’t we all?

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Dr. King and Worthy Dreams

Filed under: Life Lessons, Right Speech, Social Justice — 2 Comments
August 24, 2013

the_marchThe New York Times noted civil rights heroes, current movement leaders, labor leaders and Democratic officials addressed a vast crowd that stretched east from the Lincoln Memorial to the knoll of the Washington Monument today.

The New York Times also noted several memorable attendees:

  • One person in a hoodie with the phrase “American Justice;”
  • Several with signs urging “Support Trayvon’s Law” to repeal stand-your-ground gun measures; and
  • “We march because Trayvon Martin has joined Emmett Till in the pantheon of young black martyrs.”

Columnist Jerry L. Barrow was spot on several months ago when he authored, “What Do I tell My Son? “

… as I sit here at my computer more than a year later reading the reactions to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, I am gripped in fear. My soul is laminated in a coat of hopelessness at the thought of my son, who is presently enjoying a vacation 1500 miles away, being engaged on the street by someone who finds him suspicious because of his appearance and kills him.”

However, all the evidence in Till’s death points explicitly to race. And colorblind Americans accepted and failed to condemn his killers accordingly. The circumstances in Martin’s death merely suggest that Martin’s race was likely a factor in Zimmerman’s judgment of him.

From a personal perspective, when I think of Delbert Belton brutal killing by two black teenagers, I respond by asking a similar question, “What do I tell my 83 year old father?”  And truth be told, I have not seen Melissa Harris-Perry cry on television for Christopher Lane, a 22-year-old student at East Central University who was shot in the back and killed by three black teenagers while jogging in Duncan.  Similarly, I have not heard if NAACP Chairman Roslyn M. Brock tweeted about how the black community failed to raise their children in an abundance of love and proper role models (and that’s not saying they don’t).

So I sit and wonder, what would Dr. Martin Luther King think of today’s era of racism and the 50th anniversary of the Marches in Washington, D.C.? Maybe Dr. King would emphasize Americans seem blinded to matters of color.  The racism strewn through every cornerstone of Dr. Martin Luther King’s day is the same racism that lives today.  Yeah, the time is different. True the people have changed. But the roots of oppression are from the very same weed.

Delbert Belton, Christopher Lane and Trayvon Martin should have never been killed. But I refuse to March in Washington, D.C. this week simply because someone believes Trayvon Martin is a civil rights hero or martyr.  Trayvon Martin was neither. But I will march in Washington for the following reasons:

  • The black unemployment rate last year was 14.0 percent, 2.1 times the white unemployment rate (6.6 percent) and higher than the average national unemployment rate of 13.1 percent during the Great Depression, from 1929 to 1939.
  • After adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage today — 7.25 — is worth $2.00 less than in 1968, and is nowhere close to a living wage.
  • More than a third of non-Hispanic black workers (36 percent) do not earn hourly wages high enough to lift a family of four out of poverty.
  • A report by the Violence Policy Center found black males are nine times more likely than white males to be the victims of homicide — 29.50 out of 100,000 black males compared with 3.85 out of 100,000 white males.
  • A study found the gap in standardized test scores between affluent and low-income students had grown by about 40 percent since the 1960s, and is now double the testing gap between blacks and whites.
  • The imbalance between rich and poor children in college completion — the single most important predictor of success in the work force — has grown by about 50 percent since the late 1980s.

For the above reasons, I will stand by your side and fight the fight worth fighting, for these reasons are worthy of Dr. Martin’s dream.

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Serious Reform Remains Illusive

Filed under: Life Lessons, Right Speech, Social Justice — 1 Comment
August 17, 2013

us immigration reformRep. Michele Bachmann, no stranger to outlandish claims, once said: “It appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government” by the Muslim Brotherhood.

At the time, a member of the Brotherhood responded to the Minnesota congresswoman’s rant by quipping: “We can’t even penetrate our own government.”

Traveling across America, I ask a broader statement of America: “Are we big enough to make room for the liberal, secular and more traditional religious segments?”  The ideological fight in America wages onward and mirrors extremism found in the Arab Spring.

A negotiation instructor once said, I can deal with the person who cares too much and the person who cares too little. It’s almost impossible to deal with one who doesn’t give a shit. Remarkably, American’s are really adept at not listening to each other. Our own internal dialogue faces tough challenges against the philosophy of limited engagement. In the wake of draconian voter bills, legislatures fighting to protect the lives of unborn children, while hurting the living; lack of support for healthcare, the budget crisis and an environment that doesn’t proactively create work, our society should worry.

Will America experience an Arab Spring? Probably not like that of Egypt’s. For instance, the U.S. “Day of Rage (September 17, 2011),” a set of peaceful protests against corporatism and corporate money in politics, went mostly unnoticed. But Occupy Wall Street did not. Unfortunately, the appetite for serious reform remains illusive.

So … from a Buddhist perspective, what should I be doing and thinking to defuse these tensions and break through egoism? Motive-mongering and demonetization must be called out – stand up just as you would if it were something that was racist or sexist. If we avoid the demonetization, disagreements can be more positive.

Eliminate the use of extremism. While I hate to solely pick on Fox News, but Mother Jones noted the network’s inaccurate and often times bigoted coverage of LGBT issues. Some of the worst examples of contrived hate from just the past two months include:

We need to be more careful about the things we say — about the things that might inadvertently create a hostile climate. But the larger picture is that polarization emanates from the elites. Congress has become extremely polarized and this then drives polarization in so many other realms of society.

We must build relationships, we are always interdependent. I cannot live without you and you cannot live without me.

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No Peace! No Justice!

Filed under: Do No Harm, Life Lessons, Right Speech, Social Justice — 1 Comment
July 20, 2013

ds_img_direct.phpEight days past the George Zimmerman verdict, Americans continue to appear to help captive by coverage. The parents of Trayvon Martin joined thousands of Americans at more than 100 scheduled vigils in cities nationwide demanding Saturday what they described as justice for their 17-year-old son, who was shot dead last year.

“It’s overwhelming,” Tracy Martin told CNN at a rally in Miami attended by hundreds of supporters, many of whom chanted, “No Peace! No Justice!”  On Friday, President Obama weighed in:

“But I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling. You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African- American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African- American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that — that doesn’t go away.”

I do feel sense of sadness for the Martin parents. Their son shouldn’t have died. But while we memorialize Trayvon Martin and seek “No Peace! No Justice!,” we should not forget all the others who require our faith and love.

“… administration will provide whatever support is necessary to the officials who are responding to this tragic shooting and moving forward with an investigation. As we mourn this loss which took place at a house of worship, we are reminded how much our country has been enriched by Sikhs, who are a part of our broader American family.”

  • When anti-Islam activists like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer led an all-out war in their attempt to prevent the cultural center from opening. At the time, Fox News became a major broadcaster of their Islam-phobic agenda. Fox News gave anti-Islam activists a platform to rally against the Park51 community center, while others spoke against anti-Muslim bigotry, denounced what it saw as bigoted attacks on the mosque.
  • Naveed Afzal Haq shot six women, one fatally, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle building in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.
  • An American woman traveling in northern India in June of 2013 was allegedly gang-raped after she accepted a ride with three men in a truck, police said.
  • Similarly, in Brazil, an American woman was gang raped and beaten aboard a public transport van while her French boyfriend was handcuffed, hit with a crowbar and forced to watch the attacks.
  • Three black women beat the crap out of a white woman in Seattle while a crowd watches.
  • Sanford police arrested 12 African-Americans, eight adults and four children, in connection with a mob beating of a pregnant woman. The brutal attack came almost a year after the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in the same town.
  • In April 2012, African-American Cordell Jude, 22, was driving in Phoenix when Daniel Adkins Jr. walked in front of him with his dog. “Watch it!” Jude yelled to Adkins, who was mentally disabled, according to USA TODAY. Adkins then swung what looked like a pipe in the air and Jude shot and killed him — the pipe-like object turned out to just be a dog leash. Jude claimed self-defense; he remained free for three months, but now faces second-degree murder charges and is set to go to trial next month, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office. The Arizona Stand Your Ground law passed in 2010.
  • Malala Yousafzai, the young girl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen while riding a school bus in Pakistan.

Are you surprised that we’ve rarely heard of these beatings, murders and rapes? Most were based upon some form of hatred? In light of these, I barely heard a word from politicians decrying racism. I did not see Jesse Jackson proselytizing for justice.  How come I haven’t seem Reverend Al Sharpton protesting? Why could we not see the unified marches in several major cities?

As a Buddhist, I try to live by the “Do no harm” rule. Racism is wrong and many have been killed or maimed in its name. But while racism comes a deep and darkened place, racism should not be selective. If we stand to the Trayvon Martin’s of the world, we must stand for all the others. If we march for Trayvn, we must march for all.

From President Obama’s perspective, he could have been Taryvon Martin. But Malala could have been my sister. Daniel Adkins could have been my brother. That pregnant woman in Sanford will be someone’s mother. The Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin is a religious sanctuary for many.

Racism is bigger than just Trayvon Martin. Racism is global. As living Buddhists and living Christians; as living Methodists, as living Atheists, we must stand for it all. Fragmentally parceling out peace rallies is neither peace, nor justice.

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Flight 214: They Deserve Praise

Filed under: Do No Harm, Life Lessons, Right Speech
July 9, 2013

08asiana10-articleInlineLet’s face it, racism is everywhere. Pervasive racist attitudes continue to exist. As such, all of us will continue to experience hostility, anger and hatred. Remember, the world is full of highly educated men and women, comprised of all ethnic races and economic classes. Yet words like “n—er,” “ch–k,” and “f-g” are used throughout society.

Don’t believe me?

An 11-year-old boy’s rendition of the national anthem at Game 3 of the 2013 NBA brought tributes and the darker side of hate as racists lit up twitter:

  • “… they got a Mexican kid singing the national anthem (Daniel Gilmore).”
  • “… Who let this illegal alien sing our national anthem (Matt Cyrus)?”

Tweanty-Two year-old Tyler Gregory Okonma, known by his stage name Tyler, The Creator who sends forth such profound ignorance in his rap lyrics:

“… fuck bitches with no permission and tend to hate shit
And brag about the actions in a rhyming pattern matter.”

 And then the latest form of racism, Flight 214 involved hate tweets:

  • “… of course the Korean plane crashed, Asians can’t drive … (ASAP Yarby).”
  • “… I blame North Korea for blowing up the plane (Kylee Holt).”
  • “… apparently Asians can’t fly (Miriam)”
  • “… I’m wondering if the pilot of this plane that crashed from South Korea was Asian…they can’t drive anything. (Devin Rivers).”
  • “… airplane probably had an Asian pilot and he was squinting so much, he couldn’t see the runway (Eric Nelson).

With that, I choose to take a stand. To clarify, there were 77 Koreans, 141 Chinese, 61 Americans, 1 Japanese and 12 flight attendants on Asiana on Flight 214.

Leslie Mayo, an American Airlines flight attendant and spokeswoman for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants stated, “I can’t say enough about all of them because they — we — always work as a team. Whenever crew members talk about (incidents like this) on the training videos that we watch, they always say: ‘I have no idea where this came from, how I did that.’” Flight 214 cabin manager, Lee Yoon-hye, told journalists: “I wasn’t really thinking, but my body started carrying out the steps needed for an evacuation. I was only thinking about rescuing the next passenger.” Additionally, San Francisco police officer Jim Cunningham raced to join firefighters without any protective gear, handed out knives to the flight crew to help passengers escape, guided passengers to safety and even had the wherewithal to retrieve an iPhone left behind so that its owner could call family members.

From all news reports, there was no indication Flight crew members said, “Asians firsts, Americans last” and cabin manager Lee Yoon-hye was the last person to leave the burning plane. The flight crew of Asiana Flight 214 should be honored for their heroism, grace, guts and determination. They do not deserve racist tweets, bad jokes or thoughtless, stupid ignorance. In the face of death, the flight crew and first-responders stood together, stood firm and beat back the Angel of Death by saving countless lives.

They deserve our praise not our ignorance.

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Seek First to Understand

Filed under: About Love, Do No Harm, Faith & Doubt, Life Lessons, Right Speech
September 11, 2012

In his book the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” The late Stephen Covey wrote of Habit: 5, ‘Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood’

Mr. Covey’s argument is as follows:

“Communication is the most important skill in life. You spend years learning how to read and write, and years learning how to speak. But what about listening? What training have you had that enables you to listen so you really, deeply understand another human being? Probably none, right?

If you’re like most people, you probably seek first to be understood; you want to get your point across. And in doing so, you may ignore the other person completely, pretend that you’re listening, selectively hear only certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely.”

Our words have to be extraordinary important.  They define the person and our followers. In life, we need to hear, we must want to speak, we want to communicate, and God wants us to be part of His society. So true communication is urgent, for each of us has been in our own personal prison far too long.

God commands us to be open and pleads that the listener be open. Think about it … These past two weeks our nation has witnessed two political conventions, with thousands of supporters. Yet we have not found one person whose heart might have been changed by what was heard. After spending all that money and all those hours, we tell ourselves, “Yeah…we were right all along.”  And follow that with, “Yeah…they’ve been wrong all along.”

People who are closed-minded become annoying and downright boring. We appear smart, but are notably dumb. As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “High intelligence is to hold two opposing ideas at the same time.”  We, as a nation have yet to master that.

As the year rolls on, each of us has less and less of an opportunity to be changed by someone else. Am I unwilling to be changed by the experience of someone else? If so, then I do not hold true to my faith. I am not open to God’s spirit working in that person. For the first duty of love is to listen. Not because I will necessarily agree, but if I am not open to listen, then I am not open to being changed … by you. Love is being vulnerable … to you.

We are called to be in relationship to those different from us. And it takes courage in listening to others so different, so compelling in their own beliefs. Who are these people? How do they think and what do they feel. Who do I need to be open to that thought? To whom am I willing to change? Who’s perspective am I unwilling to see?  Who should hear this message? Who should hear my message? Is my message right?

In Buddhism, how we communicate is an important part of our practice. Buddhism has precepts that provide a condensed form of ethical practice, and communication is featured as the fourth precept:

“Aware of suffering caused by the inability to listen to others and unmindful speech, I vow to cultivate deep listening and loving speech in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or bring suffering, I vow to learn to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy and hope.”

As my life nears its end, I want each of to live in one another.

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To the RNC: As You Think

Filed under: Life Lessons, Right Speech
August 29, 2012

In many ways, I love watching the electoral process. Every four years, we Americans are treated to a diverse and often opposing set of beliefs. And this year is no exception. If there was a contrast of opinions, last night should provide plenty of food for fodder.

With such contrasting complexity, Ms. Ann Romney rallied the Republican National Convention (RNC) audience with the power of love while Governor Chris Christie declared “…we’re (i.e., either America or the RNC) going to choose respect over love.” further adding, “Our (i.e., presuming RNC) ideas are right for America, and their (Democratic) ideas have failed America.”

In essence, the theme that most stands at the RNC forefront in this election, as well as that of 2008, is one of “take back America.” Take Back America? From whom? Last time I checked, there were no ‘radicals’ in the White House, Legislature or Judicial branches of government. Most who work for the government came from working class neighborhoods, Independents, Democrats, Republicans and Tea Party alike. Most are distinguished educators, attorneys, skilled workers and the like.

In continuing a theme of ‘Right Speech,’ I can only rebut with the old saying “As you think so shall you be!”

In continuing my theme of ‘right speech,’ when one speaks, you our relationships are all in how you think about the other people of your life. The words you give, the breath you take is not only a reflection of the receiver, but it’s also a reflection of you. Your experience of all those people is in your mind. Your feelings of lovers, relationships and people met come from your thoughts. You cannot own people, you cannot be them, you can live in love or you can live in hate.

Need an example? Former Governor Mike Huckabee just quoted to the RNC audience:

“No small differences among us in our party approximate the vast differences between the liberty-limiting, radical left-wing, anti-business, reckless-spending, tax-hiking party of Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi …”

So far, of what I have seen of the current RNC convention, I think of professor Russell Roberts at George Mason University who recently quoted:

“I think fear is a tremendous factor. It’s one of the most depressing things to me actually, about American politics these days. It’s not so much the partisanship, which has always been a part of our lives. It’s the unwillingness to imagine that someone on the other side of the ideological fence might have an interesting idea, and I think that’s a very dangerous situation for a democracy.”

Remember to honor yourself and live always in ‘right speech.’

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