If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,
'Twould not be you, Niagara - nor you, ye limitless prairies - nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite - nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,
Nor Oregon's white cones - nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes - nor Mississippi's stream:
This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name - the still small voice vibrating -America's choosing day,
(The heart of it not in the chosen - the act itself the main, the quadrennial choosing,)
The stretch of North and South arous'd - sea-board and inland - Texas to Maine - the Prairie States - Vermont, Virginia, California,
The final ballot-shower from East to West - the paradox and conflict,
The countless snow-flakes falling - (a swordless conflict,
Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's): the peaceful choice of all,
Or good or ill humanity - welcoming the darker odds, the dross:
- Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify - while the heart pants, life glows:
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,
Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails.
by Walt Whitman
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Let's hope the swelling of Obama's sails will be for the good and not the ill. But I have my doubts.
I am in one sense thrilled that we elected an African-American to be our President, but I had hoped he would be one that would embrace the intents of our founding- that he would represent the fulfillment of the promise of the USA. Instead, we elected a man whose ideology repudiates the founding principles.
Equality under law is not good enough for Obama. He insists that the State can grant rights (not the Creator) and among these rights are "economic justice" (redistribution of wealth) and health care. I probably don't need to say anything about economic justice as we have history to see how well that works. It implies that the State owns fruit of our labors and so has the right to take and give. That is a terribly unjust system, but the universal health right, to me, would lead to even more injustice.
Life and Death are already known to be the governments business according to the Left. If born alive babys cannot have the protection of God's Laws (as the State's Law trumps God's Law) who else will not have the protection of His Law? The elderly? The terminally ill? The disabled? If the State can grant the right of Health Care, the State will also have the right to kill off the ones who would be a drain on the system?
And my other concern is Obama's plan for a "civilian force that is at least as powerful and well funded as our military". What is he saying????
I'm done for now. Rant over.
Ron
PS. I really like Walt Whitman.
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