Interesting Media Tidbits
Here are some links to interesting content I've heard over the past few days on NPR, and elsewhere:
Rev. Richard Cizik on Fresh Air from 2 December 2008. Cizik is the vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, a powerful lobbying organization that represents 45,000 churches. Although he sounded very passionate about his positions, he also sounds like he is rational and willing to work with others and compromise to take small steps toward progress, rather than either giant steps or no steps at all. One example during the show was that he is willing to work to reduce the number of abortions on the way to the efforts of conservatives to eliminate abortions all together. Perhaps I am naive in thinking that progress can be made or that he is not "talking out both sides of his mouth", but I was moved to hear someone who classifies himself as a conservative Evangelical agree with me on several issues, namely, reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and thereby abortions and finding ways to stop global warming.
The Man Who Left Finance for the Monastery from Day to Day 2 December 2008. A former international banker walked away from it all to do something to help his community. The line that struck me the most was when he mentioned commuting to work and not having a single person say hello. When he goes to work at the monastery now, he said, he always has people say hello. I just thought it was great to acknowledge that something as small and as great as human decency and acknowledgement is much more important than monetary wealth. Something to consider as we enter the season of giving and as we are all feeling the pinch of our retirement accounts shrinking.
Coming up Thursday night on CNN: Scream Bloody Murder, a documentary about several of the recent genocides which have been blankly disregarded, including Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur. Take time, if you can. Viewer discretion is advised, per CNN.com.
A show produced locally here in So Cal called Cross Talk today focused on "The Bush Legacy". Unfortunately, the show is not available for download, however, I wanted to remark that the show occurred. After some talk with dslwc about what becomes history after the events have occurred and the dust settled, with respect to the September 11, 2001 Terror Attacks on the World Trade Center in particular, I wanted to remark that it is critical that we remember the history of today. It is important that we put it down for posterity. Perhaps that is what so many writers and historians have been doing since the dawn of time. Will we ever get it right? Possibly not. Will our children and grandchildren ever understand what it was like to live through and see the times we have? Probably not. Just as I cannot imagine or comprehend all of the difficult and powerful and awesome things my parents or grandparents have seen. But an effort needs to be made. We need to remember the good and the bad things that happened as a result of GW Bush's leadership. There were some callers-in to the show who expressed several of my sentiments on the theme. Several talked about his entering the war without proper proof of cause, some called him an outright liar. Some said they felt safer, having not had a terror attack, other than the one on September 11, 2001. Some could not express themselves extremely clearly, but knew we were worse off now than we were four years ago. Those callers were perhaps the most frustrating, for both the listener and the host of the show. I suppose my most concrete memories of what Bush's Legacy will mean for me are: I did not vote for the man, and therefore, was never thrilled about his leading our country. I wanted Al Gore to win with a burning white-hot passion in my environmentalist-tree-hugger of a heart. In spite of that, the things for which I do value GWB are: he responded strongly and relatively quickly to the shocking event of September 11, 2001, vowing to find out who did it and uniting us with the world, for at the very least a brief time. He has made some great efforts in the battle against AIDS. I cannot think of much more that has been positive. Among the negatives, are shrinking rights including haebeus corpus, government wire tapping, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, abuse of executive power, the failed responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (though I do not believe these are purely the fault of GWB), decreased respect for our world (which includes relaxing regulations on endangered species, corporations, and deregulation of the financial system). Perhaps one of my biggest negative reactions to GWB has been his policy of refusal to talk to anyone who is not explicitly a friend. He has offended and alienated former allies the world over. We have lost our reputation as a world leader, and I think it may take some time and effort to get that reputation back. Ultimately, though, I believe that Bush's leadership has led us to Barack Obama as our next President. Hopefully time will tell that this is perhaps one of his best legacies.
Rev. Richard Cizik on Fresh Air from 2 December 2008. Cizik is the vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, a powerful lobbying organization that represents 45,000 churches. Although he sounded very passionate about his positions, he also sounds like he is rational and willing to work with others and compromise to take small steps toward progress, rather than either giant steps or no steps at all. One example during the show was that he is willing to work to reduce the number of abortions on the way to the efforts of conservatives to eliminate abortions all together. Perhaps I am naive in thinking that progress can be made or that he is not "talking out both sides of his mouth", but I was moved to hear someone who classifies himself as a conservative Evangelical agree with me on several issues, namely, reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and thereby abortions and finding ways to stop global warming.
The Man Who Left Finance for the Monastery from Day to Day 2 December 2008. A former international banker walked away from it all to do something to help his community. The line that struck me the most was when he mentioned commuting to work and not having a single person say hello. When he goes to work at the monastery now, he said, he always has people say hello. I just thought it was great to acknowledge that something as small and as great as human decency and acknowledgement is much more important than monetary wealth. Something to consider as we enter the season of giving and as we are all feeling the pinch of our retirement accounts shrinking.
Coming up Thursday night on CNN: Scream Bloody Murder, a documentary about several of the recent genocides which have been blankly disregarded, including Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur. Take time, if you can. Viewer discretion is advised, per CNN.com.
A show produced locally here in So Cal called Cross Talk today focused on "The Bush Legacy". Unfortunately, the show is not available for download, however, I wanted to remark that the show occurred. After some talk with dslwc about what becomes history after the events have occurred and the dust settled, with respect to the September 11, 2001 Terror Attacks on the World Trade Center in particular, I wanted to remark that it is critical that we remember the history of today. It is important that we put it down for posterity. Perhaps that is what so many writers and historians have been doing since the dawn of time. Will we ever get it right? Possibly not. Will our children and grandchildren ever understand what it was like to live through and see the times we have? Probably not. Just as I cannot imagine or comprehend all of the difficult and powerful and awesome things my parents or grandparents have seen. But an effort needs to be made. We need to remember the good and the bad things that happened as a result of GW Bush's leadership. There were some callers-in to the show who expressed several of my sentiments on the theme. Several talked about his entering the war without proper proof of cause, some called him an outright liar. Some said they felt safer, having not had a terror attack, other than the one on September 11, 2001. Some could not express themselves extremely clearly, but knew we were worse off now than we were four years ago. Those callers were perhaps the most frustrating, for both the listener and the host of the show. I suppose my most concrete memories of what Bush's Legacy will mean for me are: I did not vote for the man, and therefore, was never thrilled about his leading our country. I wanted Al Gore to win with a burning white-hot passion in my environmentalist-tree-hugger of a heart. In spite of that, the things for which I do value GWB are: he responded strongly and relatively quickly to the shocking event of September 11, 2001, vowing to find out who did it and uniting us with the world, for at the very least a brief time. He has made some great efforts in the battle against AIDS. I cannot think of much more that has been positive. Among the negatives, are shrinking rights including haebeus corpus, government wire tapping, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, abuse of executive power, the failed responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (though I do not believe these are purely the fault of GWB), decreased respect for our world (which includes relaxing regulations on endangered species, corporations, and deregulation of the financial system). Perhaps one of my biggest negative reactions to GWB has been his policy of refusal to talk to anyone who is not explicitly a friend. He has offended and alienated former allies the world over. We have lost our reputation as a world leader, and I think it may take some time and effort to get that reputation back. Ultimately, though, I believe that Bush's leadership has led us to Barack Obama as our next President. Hopefully time will tell that this is perhaps one of his best legacies.