Gotta have a plan, man

So briefly on political things - read through the transcript of Kerry's speech on cnn.com (first off, let me just say it's so much nicer to read them than to have to put up with all the annoyances that would go along with watching it live.) First, did it strike anyone that most of that speech could've been read by many a Republican candidate? Obviously trying to seem inclusive and middle of the road, etc. But he has all these great things he's going to do...and no mention of how. I'm going to restore the rest of the world's faith in America...ok, but how, pal? At what price? What will we have to give up for this to happen? Nothing comes free - and buying back the "respect" of those countries that have given up on the U.S. isn't going to be cheap. How much of what makes us essentially American will we have to trash in order for you to make that happen? It just smacked of high school SG elections, "I promise to get longer lunch breaks and shorter class periods." Yeah, ok, whatever. You have no ability to do that, don't promise it.

Other thought and then I'll desist: "My faith is important to me, but I don't wear it on my sleeve." Isn't that akin to saying, "My marriage is important to me, but I don't wear a ring or tell anyone my spouse's name." So, how important, exactly, is something you're not willing to divulge and follow publicly - ESPECIALLY if it's your faith. Do you (or even should you), as a Presidential candidate be out as the next Billy Graham? Probably not. But should you be willing to say, "Yes, this is what I believe, to the exclusion of other faiths, no matter what. And while I will govern the country fairly and justly, at the core of me and who I am is a system of right and wrong that has been shaped by this faith." ? I think absolutely, resoundingly, yes. Otherwise there are only two choices: 1) You are willing to compromise said "faith" depending on what works best for you at the time and thus it really isn't that important to you or 2) You are basing your decisions on something that you are not willing to be publicly transparant about and so we, the people, have no idea what system of right and wrong you're really employing.

This leads into a little local news item from a few days ago that follows what I perceive as a better course of action. Don't remember if it was the state senate or a local council meeting - the person who was up to pray at the time declined to pray because he had been told he could not mention Jesus Christ in said prayer. He refused to remove Christ from his prayers and said that he would rather not make a mockery of prayer by trying to be inclusive. So someone else prayed to "god" - which god, no one knows, but thank goodness we had a nice, non-offensive prayer. Wouldn't want to tick anyone off...oh wait, those people who believe in Jesus ought to be pretty annoyed with the religious discrimination that is prevalent in America today. Basically, you can be any religion OTHER than Christian. And you can force other people to recognize your beliefs, and cater to them, provided they are something OTHER than Christianity. I would imagine that if this man had wanted to pray to Allah, he'd've had no one telling him to do otherwise...not even the Christians, because no one wants to be the intolerant bad guy. And that's another thing...since when did having the guts to say what you believe make you intolerant? Why is one group of people supposed to acknowledge all these other groups and "agree to disagree", but the other groups do not have to afford the same courtesy?

Maybe I'll get to something frivolous tomorrow (or later today).