Speaking before graduates at the commencement ceremony of Moscow's New Economic School the current president of the United States said this:
To whom, then, does he believe the future belongs? Those who scatter on a field of battle and bury their heads in the ground?
It is now as it has always been that their exists in the world both good and evil. Gathering armies to defend goodness from evil is what gives good people a fighting chance to make a future founded upon goodness.
Russia wants the United States to abandon a missile defense program in Europe. These are not missiles designed to attack, these are missiles designed to defend against an attack. The robber in the alley wants you to put down your gun first and our current president thinks that this move is a good first step to a more peaceful world? To whom does the future belong in that alley if you put down your gun first?
But this is not a new idea for Barry Obama. Here's what he said in a student newspaper while attending Columbia University in 1983.
have first hand knowledge of war. Military
violence has been a vicarious experience,
channeled into our minds
through television, film, and print.
The more sensitive among us
struggle to extrapolate experiences of
war from our everyday experience, discussing
the latest mortality statistics
from Guatemala, sensitizing ourselves
to our parents' wartime memories, or
incorporating into our framework of reality as depicted by a Mailer or a Coppola.
But the taste of war-the sounds
and chill, the dead bodies-are remote
and far removed. We know that wars
have occurred, will occur, are occurring,
but bringing such experience down into our hearts. and taking continual, tangible
steps to prevent war, becomes a difficult
task.
Two groups on campus, Arms Race
Alternatives (ARA) and Students
Against Militarism (SAM), work within
these mental limits to foster awareness
and practical action necessary to counter
the growing threat of war.
Though the emphasis of the two groups differ
they share an aversion to current government
policy.
These groups, visualizing
the possibilities of destruction and
grasping the tendencies of distorted national
priorities, are throwing their
weight into shifting America off the
dead-end track.
Generally, the narrow focus of the
Freeze movement as well as academic
discussions of first versus second strike
capabilities, suit the military-industrial
interests, as they continue adding to
their billion dollar erector sets.
When Peter Tosh sings that "everybody's asking
for peace, but nobody's asking for
justice," one is forced to wonder whether
disarmament or arms control issues,
severed from economic and political
issues, might be another instance of
focusing on the symptoms of a problem
instead of the disease itself.
The belief that moribund institutions,
rather than individuals are at the
root of the problem, keep SAM's energies
alive. "A prerequisite for members
of an organization like ours is the faith
that people are fundamentally good, but
you need to show them and when you
look at the work people are doing across
the country, it makes you optimistic."
Perhaps the essential goodness of
humanity is an arguable proposition,
but by observing the SAM meeting last
Thursday night, with its solid turnout
and enthusiasm, one might be persuaded
that the manifestations of our better
instincts can at least match the bad
ones.
Our ship of state is in danger with such a dreamy fool at the helm. Smoke another one Barry, but let the ROTC boys, not Cheech and Chong, stand guard over our lives, please.
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