Author Archives: Peter Sanford Kahrmann

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About Peter Sanford Kahrmann

Writer, disability rights advocate, civil rights advocate.

CLINTON, DISINGENUOUS? SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

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The Democratic National Committee decided that the Florida and Michigan primaries will not count because each state moved their primaries up in the schedule. Because of this, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack O’Bama did not campaign in either state. When each state held it’s primary, Clinton came out on top. The Associated Press reports that Clinton now wants the delegates from each state to count, never mind what the Democrat National Committee, which includes her fellow New York State Senator Charles Schumer, decided.

Clinton now says, “It’s a mistake for the Democratic Party to punish these two states,” she said. “I don’t see how a Democratic nominee goes forward alienating two of the most important states.”

Spare me. If Senator Clinton, or Senator Obama, for that matter, felt the DNC’s decision was wrong, the time to speak was then, not now, when you are behind in the delegate count, and are willing to twist any reality and bend any rule to win. Any member of the human race who thinks Clinton would be saying this if Obama had won the Florida and Michigan primaries lives in a fantasy world far more than twice removed from Mother Earth.

When the idea primary do-overs for both states is raised, which would afford each candidate the chance to campaign in both and interact with the public, the Clinton campaign does a sloppy, stumbling soft-shoe and moans about inconvenience and cost.

I think the DNC was dead wrong to punish Florida and Michigan because they moved their primaries up. I think both states were unfairly punished. The DNC decision was, at best, dictatorial. But for Clinton to poo-poo the idea of do-overs, which, to my mind is the only reasonable choice on the table, and suddenly don some pseudo conscience and pretend she is offended by the DNC’s decision is both offensive and disingenuous. So what else is new?

AMERICANS REJECT FEAR AND EMBRACE OBAMA

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One of the reasons Senator Barack Obama’s campaign has become one of the healthiest movements in recent American history is this: the American people are sick and tired of politicians trying win their votes by traumatizing them with fear.

With all our dysfunctions, we Americans are family, and as one member of the family, I am dead tired of watching family members being traumatized with fear because someone wants their votes. Bush and Cheney, our co-American dictators, have used fear tactics that would impress some of the nastiest dictatorships throughout history. Now we have Senator Hillary Clinton inflicting an ad on the American people that blatantly tries to convince viewers that without her in the White House, their children are in mortal danger. The ad blatantly plays into the nearly universal desire to keep children safe. Radio talk show host Don Imus recently wondered just how low the Clinton’s will go to win the nomination. Answer? As low as it takes to win.

Americans are sick of it.

We are all members of the American family. We are all in this together. It does not make a difference to me if a member of my American family lives in Texas or Ohio or Pennsylvania or Rhode Island or my home state of New York. It does not make a difference to me if a member of my American family is Republican, Democrat, Conservative or Liberal. It does not make a difference to me if a member of my American family is gay, straight or bi-sexual. It does not make a difference to me if a member of my American family is Black, White, Asian, or Hispanic. It doe not make a difference to me if a member of my American family is Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist or agnostic. I do not like it when members of my family are being put through the blood chilling experience of fear because someone wants their votes.

The American people must pull together and send a powerful message to Washington D.C. that political fear tactics must stop. And it seems to me that the groundswell of support for Senator Obama shows we are doing just that. Yes, there are fear tactics being used to derail him too. Falsely linking him to Farrakhan or accusing his minister of being anti-Semitic when the Anti-Defamation League has said this charge has no basis in fact. It will not work this time. We Americans may be a wily bunch, but we are not stupid and when we have had enough, we have had enough.

News reports and polls from around the country show that Republicans, Independents, Democrats and others are aligning themselves with Senator Obama, not because Obama is a Democrat, but because he appears to be the one candidate for the presidency who is not using fear to manipulate. He is the one candidate for the presidency who is truly seeking to unite.

Please consider something for a moment. When Americans think of Lincoln, they think of a great president. His political party is an afterthought. When most Americans think of Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, they think of great presidents. Rarely do we think of the political parties they belonged to. Why? Because they were presidents who put the American people first. This is what my American family deserves now. An American president who will put the American people, all the American people, first.

Obama has my vote.

MCCAIN, HAGEE, HEARTBREAK AND FEAR

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I am heartbroken and appalled at Senator John McCain’s acceptance of support from John Hagee, a minister who links the Catholic Church to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany and a man who believes New Orleans had it coming to them when Hurricane Katrina inflicted an ineffable amount of carnage and death on that city.

While McCain is a man whose courage I deeply admire, my respect for his moral judgment has fractured. I had thought that if the presidential race comes down to a race between senators McCain and Obama along with Ralph Nader, my country, for the first time in a long time, will have three candidates of real principle to choose from. I do not think so anymore.

Mr. Hagee is the President and CEO of John Hagee Ministries based in San Antonio, Texas. When it came to the New Orleans tragedy he said , “I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that.”

In his book, Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee wrote this about the Catholic Church: “Adolf Hitler attended a Catholic school as a child and heard all the fiery anti-Semitic rantings from Chrysostom to Martin Luther. When Hitler became a global demonic monster, the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII never, ever slightly criticized him. Pope Pius XII, called by historians ‘Hitler’s Pope,’ joined Hitler in the infamous Concordat of Collaboration, which turned the youth of Germany over to Nazism, and the churches became the stage background for the bloodthirsty cry, ‘Pereat Judea’…. In all of his [Hitler’s] years of absolute brutality, he was never denounced or even scolded by Pope Pius XII or any Catholic leader in the world. To those Christians who believe that Jewish hearts will be warmed by the sight of the cross, please be informed—to them it’s an electric chair.”

On top of all this Hagee is hellbent on attacking Iran. Why did John McCain accept his support? I can think of no answer to this question that does not scare me, and ought to scare every American.

THANK GOD FOR MIRRORS

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Thank God for mirrors, they remind me I am still here. When you are struggling with depression and your body has been jumped by the flu, it is easy to believe that you are alone in the world and, if you are not careful, doubt that you even exist in the first place. My fight with the flu is approaching two weeks. My struggle with depression has been going on somewhat longer. How long, I am not exactly sure. What is its cause? I would say loss and the recognition of betrayal.

In a memoir I am working on there is a line the begins, “Loss wields a merciless scythe…” And so it does. It happens to us all and is sometimes, too many times, generated from unexpected quarters. But it is part of life, not the end of life. If you find yourself in a battle with depression, it may feel like everything is gone. It is not. Look in a mirror, you are still here. And that, my dear reader, is a good thing. You may not think so or feel so at the moment, but hang in there, it is true, the world is better off with you in it.

Thank God for mirrors, they remind me I am still here. And that is a good thing.

TO TOUCH HUMAN HEARTS

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I know I walk on shifting sands trying to describe my desire to touch as many human hearts during my journey through life as I possibly can. Any success I’ve had or may be having in this endeavor eludes me. Current American culture does not offer an easy welcome to the chords of intimacy, gentleness, kindness, love, gratitude or remorse. Too often we are emotionally and spiritually tone deaf, driven instead by a distorted understanding of success. An understanding that says success can be and should be measured by the money you make, the clothes you wear, the car you drive, the shape of your body, the home you live in, and so forth.

While each of us has some say in what we inject into the bloodstream of our existence, a say in what we inject into the bloodstream of the lives we touch and the world we live in, we do not have total say. Nor should we. There is a healthy and necessary form of humility that comes with knowing this, that comes with knowing that the all of things is not up to each of us. It keeps us right-sized, and that’s okay. Promise.