Speaking Up About Politics

I thought to open this blog by asking a couple of questions. And, yes, they are personal and they are political. To the extent there is bias built into the questions, let me say that the ability to think for oneself has never seemed more important. I hope to reach an audience that doesn’t necessarily have the same political predisposition as I. If that is you, I appreciate and thank you for your response, and your response will become part of my own independent consideration of the issues .

Here are the questions:

• The first community any of us experiences is the family. Does that micro-community, even when presided over by a very devoted and charismatic leader – father or mother –work well for everyone, or anyone, if allowance for personal differences, negotiation and compromise are not employed?
• Is it reasonable to think about our world on planet Earth today as a macro-community that parallels the communities that we have personally experienced (family, schoolyard, world of work, etc.)?
• Given the population of the world now (as opposed to a mere 20 years ago) and the technology available for instant communication, immediate substantive interaction (i.e., I can sign an agreement online that becomes effective immediately or I can buy flowers in my U.S. town today that were grown in Indonesia and picked yesterday), and the potential for sudden and indiscriminate annihilation of masses of people, what is political leadership?
• Is a protective leader one who proclaims ‘I will not back down,’ and approaches every political interaction with his or her mind made up about what the outcome must be?
• Is it a wise leader who thinks he or she already knows what the solution to a problem should be?

I think these are timely and important questions as we live through these next several weeks in the United States. I intend to try to ask these questions as I watch the political circus and think about what I want the outcome of the 2008 election to be.

• One final question. Do you support separation of church and state?