Monthly Archives: May 2008

DON’T FORGET TO SAY I LOVE YOU

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Don’t forget to say I love you. That is something events like the tragic crane collapse in Manhattan this week reminds us. Two young men, their lives rich with life, were killed: Donald Leo, a 30-year-old crane operator who was going to get married this June 21, and Ramadan Kurtaj, a 27-year-old émigré from Kosovo. The New York Times reports that in addition to fighting for his life in Kosovo, Kurtaj “worked long hours on water and sewer lines so that he could send money home to his parents.”

When I read these stories my body stills, tears wet my eyes, and my heart breaks for those close to the loss. I remember a poignant note sent by a former Yankee catcher to a Yankee manager the day 32-year-old Yankee captain Thurman Munson was buried. Munson was killed when a plane he was flying crashed in Canton, Ohio on August 2, 1979.

The first game the Yankees played after Munson’s death was in Yankee Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles catcher was Rick Dempsey, a former Yankee and back-up catcher for Munson. The Yankee manager was Billy Martin. Dempsey wrote a note to Martin. In it he told Martin that he, like so many, loved Thurman and he, like so many of us, didn’t always remember to tell people he loved that he loved them. And so, in this note, he told Martin that he loved him.

Life, with all its bumps and bruises, is a beautiful thing. Sometimes the bumps and bruises part can rent so much space in our heads that we forget to notice the beautiful things, the wonderous things, the people in our lives that we love and who love us. So next time you’re talking with someone you love, don’t forget to tell them. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think there is any such thing as telling someone you love them too many times. Have you ever asked anyone to stop telling you?

MEMO TO BILL CLINTON: SHUT-UP

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Dear Bill,

Get over it and get help. Your whining and whimpering combined with your wife’s blatant displays of dishonesty and dishonor in her campaign are going to assure that history remembers her candidacy as a shameful thing, rather than the way it deserves to be remembered: a run for the presidency by a brilliant woman with a great deal to offer her country.

Does it not dawn on you both that her candidacy has done a good thing for this country? It has shown that a woman can run for president, be a real force in the process, and have a real chance of reaching the presidency.

So Bill, what are you doing? You’re actually running around whimpering that people are bullying the super delegates into voting for Obama? You actually said there was a vast left wing conspiracy looking to cover-up some untoward deed. You actually said, “Oh, this is so terrible: The people they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to cover this up.’”

All I can say is you must be one frightened little dude when you are on an airplane, what with the right wing conspiracy you complained about a few years back and the left wing conspiracy you say is afoot right now. Do you look back and forth at each wing when you are in a plane and tremble uncontrollably?

Here’s an idea. Why don’t you, Bill, put your country first, before you, before your wife, before any one person? See if you can’t borrow a bit of the extraordinary foresight of a Lincoln or Washington and understand how choices and actions now will affect this country in the future. Your wife’s candidacy sets a wonderful precedent for future American women and American men.

If you can’t develop this foresight, then, well, shut-up.

Sincerely,

Peter S. Kahrmann

REAL LOVE: AND SO IT GOES

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I love the idea of long walks, of holding hands, of leaning on each others shoulder, in play, and in tenderness. I love the idea of sitting quietly together, listening to music, laughing in-the-belly-hard at some comedy routine, or holding each other close if one or the other or both have been wounded in life. I think two people ought to draw close, not apart, when the road gets rocky. All these things are so deep-in-the-heart-and-soul important to me when it comes to the question of real love. And if I can’t answer this question honestly when I ask it of myself, how can I possibly answer it if I am asked by a woman?

And so it goes.

CLINTON SHOULD GET OUT – NOW

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Okay, so which is it? Long hours of hard work, lack of sleep and stress caused Senator Hillary Clinton to lapse into some kind of neurological malaise or her need to win is so strong she will pretty much say anything?

Whatever the cause of her recent statements, Clinton has twice raised the specter of her opponent’s assassination as a reason for her to stay in the race. Some, including members of the media, like AP writer Devin Bartlett, point to fatigue and frustration as the possible cause of yesterday’s reference to Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Bartlett writes, “Long hours, hard work, and scant hope of succeeding may be the cause of Hillary Clinton’s latest case of political tone-deafness.”

Well, here’s the deal. If the presence of fatigue, stress, and frustration skews her judgment this badly during a campaign, just imagine what the three amigos are going to do to her judgment if she gets into the White House. Then again, if your lack of a moral code allows you to sink so low as to raise the specter of your opponent’s assassination to further your political agenda, you shouldn’t be allowed in the oval office in the first place, not even with a guest pass.

Some say Senator Clinton apologized for her statements. No she didn’t. She said she regrets what she said and was simply pointing out historical fact. Yet she knows that likely millions of Americans are deeply upset and wounded by her comments, so where is the apology?

Lord knows, the behavior of the swift boaters against Senator John Kerry was despicable and so was President Bush’s treatment of Senator John McCain in South Carolina a few years ago. However, as low as the swift boaters and the Bush campaign (sorry for repeating myself) went, they never raised the possibility of their opponent’s assassination.

So which is it? Are Senator Clinton’s remarks driven by fatigue or political greed? I think we all know the answer. The solution, thankfully, is simple. Senator Clinton should put her country first and get out of the race – now.

AMERICA: A NATION AT RISK

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If Senator Barack Obama selects Senator Hillary Clinton for vice-president, his credibility as an agent of change dies on the spot. I believe most Americans are beginning to realize our democracy is at risk.

The bow of America’s ship must turn towards the democracy fought for by the founding fathers. America’s bow must turn towards a democracy that my grandfather fought for in World War I and my father fought for in World War II. With Clinton or McCain anywhere near the helm, this will not happen.

At this moment in our history, Senator Barack Obama is our country’s best and only hope in the presidential race. More than once I have listened to him and found myself daring to believe I may be witnessing greatness. The kind of greatness rooted in what America is supposed to be. The kind of greatness that is not rooted in any political party. If should not select Senator Clinton as his vice-presidential running mate. She has waged a campaign riddled with incidents of dishonesty and dishonor. Raise your hands if you’ve ever mistaken an eight-year-old girl reading poetry for sniper fire. She has twice raised the specter of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassinaton in June 1968 as a reason for her to stay in the race.

I believe Senator Obama may possess the depth of vision and capacity for change along with the ability to bring people together that this country, a country I love, so desperately needs and deserves. But, if he selects Senator Clinton for the VP post, I will stand corrected, heartbroken and nearly convinced that our days as a democracy are numbered. After all, George Bush and Dick Cheney are dictators in mind and, increasingly, in action.

Bush and Cheney have approved torture, tossed aside the legal system that served humanity perfectly well in prosecuting the Nazis. Have we all forgotten the 1945 Nuremberg trials?

Moreover, there are stains on the hands of many from both sides of the aisle for enabling the Bush and Cheney agenda.

If you think saying Bush and Cheney behave like dictators is a stretch, consider the following. They have approved torture, ignored the country’s constitution, knowingly sent young men and women to die based on falsehoods they helped design, rigged the system so their oil company buddies receive record profits, andirect their staff and the Department of Justice to ignore congressional supeonas. How are these actions any different from actions taken by past and present dictators?

The American people are sick to death of both the Republicans and the Democrats. Why? Because by and large the American people are Americans first, which is something they rightfully expect from there leaders. The American people are angry over the deep wounds Bush and Cheney have inflicted on all that is great about America. Bush and Cheney should ponder the words some have attributed to Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl Harbor, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

I hope and pray the ever increasing support for Senator Obama that comes from Americans of all political persuasions reflects a giant that is, thankfully, wide-awake.