What An Address, Mr. President!

That.  That was an inspiring speech.  President Obama came out swinging at the extremely slow and damaging idiocy which has now plagued America for so many years.  Obama seemed to take his fight to Congress through a quote by Emerson:

~Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential.  Without it, he is not yet man.  Without it, thought can never ripen into truth ~

President Obama made a call to action, and made it clear that he, himself, is ready to act.  This is a position that, in the past, has not been seen because he has been too willing for compromise.  I want to see him make good on that end.

Moreover, the president spoke a lot of truth.  The fact is, we are still, as a country, suffering; however, we are not as far gone as we were two years ago.  As a matter of fact, we can come out on top if we put our minds to working together, unified, for the overall good of each other.

As a concerned American, I am happy to see my president being passionate.  It is important at this day in time to have strength coming from the people who we look for to lead.  I truly feel that, for the first time in his presidency, President Obama is ready to take up his position as the true champion for the people (that he talked about in his last campaign) for the next five years.  I look forward to it.

Justice?

I just finished reading “The Decay of the Art of Lying,” by Mark Twain.  It’s a satirical essay which explores the issue of brutal truth.  The essay, in turn, forced me to think about the possibility of brutal justice.  In other words, is there such a thing as an extreme form of justice which, in fact, becomes unjust?

In our society, I have seen examples of this:  the war that takes away thousands of lives to stop one extremist.  Tax cuts for the wealthy few when the lives of the lower and middle classes are in jeopardy.  How can we bring true justice and peace when the monstrous, negative effects of these acts become somehow justified by a small benefit?  Perhaps justice means something different than what is normally considered as “just.”

Socrates says this of injustice, “Then to injure a friend or anyone else is not the act of a just man, but of the opposite, who is the unjust.”  The actions described in the examples above are unjust, yet they are seemingly acceptable.  I mean, until recently with the Occupy movement, there has rarely been anyone who willingly disputes the problem with these issues.  So what is to be done?  Obviously some action must be engaged towards this false form of justice, but how many people actually believe in fighting against the system?  Most of us tend to stand idly by and passively hope for such injustice to pass over them.  Is this an approved way to act?  William Coffin would say, “No.”  He wrote, “Not to take sides is effectively to weigh in on the side of the stronger.”

When we analyze and then apply Coffin’s thought to our present society, we find that so called “justice” is held by those who have access to power--the judicial system, the war profiteers, the one percent, etc.  Their strategy is one where the rich and powerful always come out on top, because they are, themselves, rich and powerful.  How do you beat this corrupted view?  We must push against it.  It’s time to take back the true meaning of justice and dish it out where it is needed.

How do you push back against such inundated corruption?  Write to your congressman, get involved with your local Occupy group, or initiate your own original idea.  Writing, blogging, and speaking your own opinions is a vital action to producing change.  Remember, the first important act is simply taking a side.  Jesus said, “I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold.  I wish you were one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth (NIV Rev. 3:15-16).”  We should all stand for something because we all truly matter.  Now let’s show the world.