Liberty and Justice for All!

A new issue has come up on the issue of the inauguration prayer that will be provided by Evangelical Rick Warren for Barack Obama. People are worried that Warren will say Jesus as part of the prayer.

This brings me back to my days when I lived in Kenner and would attend the Kenner City Council meetings. Councilman Marc Johnson would always say the invocation and he would always end it with “In Jesus name we pray” or he would “thank God for sending us Jesus to die on the cross”. I made a request that he consider making a prayer that was more applicable to every citizen of Kenner. Basically, I would have liked to have said “amen” at the end of the prayer but was unable to because it violated my beliefs. The request was taken out of context by Councilman Johnson (who thought I was telling him how to pray, I wasn’t, I was asking him to do me a favor, not telling him to do anything). The request has also been taken out of context by several nola.com posters in the “Kenner Town Hall”. They tried to use this as “proof” that I am “anti-Christian” (even though I had previously thanked the City Council for honoring Pope John Paul II). They have said that I tried to stop the prayers at the meeting, when all I did was try and suggest that the prayer should be inclusive to everyone in Kenner (since Kenner Government is supposed to be representative of every Kenner citizen). They suggest that I “chastised” Councilman Johnson when, again, all I did was make a request that I thought would help bring the citizens of Kenner together. *

Anyway, Pastor Warren’s response was:

I’m a Christian pastor so I will pray the only kind of prayer I know how to pray

Of course that is not an answer to the question. The article does bring up that evangelicals want their pastors to mention Jesus when they pray and when they don’t that it somehow hides their beliefs.

This is of course absurd. I am a New Orleans Hornets season ticket holder. Before every game they have an invocation that is typically led by Christian preachers. One of their games was even “faith and family” night. At every single game that I have attended, not one of those preachers mentioned the name Jesus. So it seems clear to me that very religious people speaking in front of an audience of diverse faiths are absolutely capable of giving inspirational messages that are applicable to all and not just to one group. Nobody is going to think that Pastor Warren is “hiding” his religion, it would be impossible for him to do so because everyone paying attention will know who he is and what he believes.  

* The reason I bring up the Kenner story is because some people in that forum do read this blog and that discussion with Marc Johnson will be brought up when it isn’t even relevant to the conversation. Me bringing up Warren requires me to preemptively explain what happened in order to cut my “detractors” off at the pass.

The pick of Pastor Rick Warren has caused an uproar amongst Obama supporters, especially gay rights activists, because of Warren’s extremist conservative views on gay marriage and abortion. Ironically, Warren is also getting blasted for his participation in the Obama inauguration ceremony.

The problem here is this. As an Obama supporter I knew that Obama was not perfect and had flaws. One of those flaws was his view on gay marriage (a flaw that all major Democratic candidates shared).  Unfortunately, many Obama supporters got so caught up in the idea of Obama and getting rid of Bush and Republican rule of our nation that they failed to come to terms with the difference that Obama has with them.

Take for example Joe Cutbirth who says in I voted (twice) for Obama and Apparently I Lost:

Rick Warren’s selection is a thumb in the eye of every lesbian and gay citizen of this country, and an insult to kind and decent Americans who believed that Obama’s presidency was the beginning of a new era in our history.

I am as loyal a Democrat as they come, but I am saying right now, today, publicly, on the record, that this is so troubling to me - and frankly to a lot of other people, gay and straight - that I will not vote for Obama in 2012, if I do not have the right that day in whatever state I am living in this country to marry the person I choose.

Forgive my bluntness but this is just dumb. Imagine if Bobby Jindal or Sarah Palin gets the GOP nod in 2012. Is Cutbirth really saying that he would vote for either of those two extremists over Obama? Or is he saying that he would just stay home or vote third party, helping Jindal or Palin get elected? Again, this is another example of some Democrats and their willingness to cut their noses off to spite their faces.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am vehemently against proposition 8 and support true equal rights for homosexuals, including them getting the same label to their civilly recognized unions that heterosexual couples have. And I am not saying that people should not be critical of Obama. I will be one of the first to be critical of Obama when he is wrong (and I am openly critical about his stance on gay rights).

What I am saying is that instead of being so darned emotional about your candidates, that some people really need to stop, breathe, and think about this issue for a moment. What effect does Obama picking Warren have on policy? The answer is nothing. Barack Obama has made an overture to people that he disagrees with (something he promised to do in his campaign, if Mr. Cutbirth paid attention to that) and he did so without having to sacrifice anything relating to policy. The more Obama reaches out on symbolic issues to the religious right, the less he has to do so on policy issues while still looking bipartisan.

And perhaps, just perhaps, if Obama shows a willingness to listen to the other side… maybe some people on the other side will return the favor. Imagine that.

Update:  After an email exchange with Mr. Cutbirth I feel rather secure that he would not support either Jindal or Palin for President. And he just wants to see the leadership support the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment (understandable). The one thing I just don’t understand is that he seems to want to hold Obama to supporting gay marriage as a condition for him supporting Obama in the future. However, Obama never promised to support gay marriage so holding him responsible for doing something he didn’t say he would support seems a bit odd. This just goes to show you that even people who agree on many issues can still have major disagreements.

Seems as if the conspiracy theorists have failed. One would hope that they would shut up now, but I won’t hold my breath. No explanation was given.

This lawsuit contended that since Obama had dual citizenship, that he would not be qualified for President. However, as I have said before, why would we allow the laws of other nations to define our citizenship laws? If Canada decided one day to grant every US Citizen Canadian citizenship, would that mean that nobody would be qualified to be President? Of course not! So the laws of Kenya should not get to deny Obama his right to be President either.

This is a little bit of an “I told you so” post. Back in December of 2006, a small group of Democrats formed a group called “Louisiana for Obama”. At the time I had concerns about Obama because I was not sure he would be able to win. I, of course, came around and wholeheartedly supported Barack Obama and his candidacy.

However, my main concerns back then was that we had plenty of time to support the Democratic candidate for President but unless we helped turn Louisiana more blue, that whoever the Democratic candidate was, he/she would ignore Louisiana. I said:

Shouldn’t we be worrying about the governors race instead of the presidential election? Forming a solid coalition to make sure that Louisiana remains Blue after the Governors election would serve us better in the short term and the long term. In the short term it helps us by preventing Bobby Jindal from getting the office and in the long term that group who works together in the governors race of 2007 can then put their efforts behind the Democratic Candidate for 2008 (whoever he/she is)

I also responded to someone who disagreed with me by saying

All the time that we could spend in generating support for Obama SHOULD be spend generating support for a candidate that can effectively defeat Bobby Jindal in the governors race. THAT is the most important race facing all citizens of Louisiana right now. We should be forming a grass roots effort
to both educate people about what Bobby Jindal really is about and to support serious Democratic candidates to force a runoff and ultimately win the governors race, keeping it in the hands of a Democrat.

Once we accomplish THAT goal, we will have laid the groundwork to support whatever Democratic candidate comes out of the woodwork and claws his/her way to the top of the pile and can then give that candidate all the support he/she needs in Louisiana to make some noise in the 2008 elections.

But in reality, we should not even be worrying about who will be the next president because we all know that the national party will not put much effort into Louisiana until we turn it more “blue”. How can we turn Louisiana more blue? It starts at the local level. In the upcoming state elections we need to get democrats to run for the State House and Senate seats. We need to get behind fresh and new Democrats who can help spread the word and tilt the State legislator towards the Democrats.. Those democratic candidates could ride the coattails of the candidate for governor we would back.

We then need to win 1 or 2 more house seats.. Perhaps if the balance of power in Louisiana is prepared to vote for a Democrat we can seriously work on getting electoral votes to a Democratic presidential candidates. But as it stands now.. The road to the presidency does not stop through Louisiana and it wont unless we get Democrats at lower levels to win those elections first.

If you disagree with me and you think that forming a grassroots effort behind Obama is the way to get Louisiana more attention then by all means, do what you need to do. However, I personally think that you are focusing your efforts in the wrong direction and we could do much better by working to take back our state first and protect it from two words I fear.. Governor Jindal.

So what happened? No serious effort was made to support a candidate for Governor, Jindal won, and the Democratic candidate ignored Louisiana in the election.

So what can we as Democrats learn from these last two years?

A) Change in Louisiana needs to start from the bottom up, not from the top down. Is it any surprise that in an election where Democrats gained seats in Congress that we lost seats in Louisiana? You cannot focus your effort on high level candidates if you lack the support structure underneath.

B) We need to campaign with our heads more and our hearts less. I am not saying that we should lose our compassion (one of the things that makes our party great). I am saying that we need to stop falling in love with candidates and we need to work with our minds to promote the best candidates. Obama didn’t win because of his compassion. Obama won because he ran a smart campaign that was able to effectively promote his ideas.

C) We are not going to get anywhere as Democrats in Louisiana if we continue to support lousy candidates and run bad campaigns. Bill Jefferson made the runoff because we failed to clean our own house and explain to the voters why Bill Jefferson is doing us much more harm than good. Helena Moreno made the runoff because too many other people wanted the prize. Had one or two of the “other candidates” decided to drop out for the good of Louisiana and the good of the Party once they figured they would never stand a chance to make it, then we could have had much better choices in the runoff.

The bottom line is this. Lets learn from our mistakes and move forward using our brains and pushing for ideals WHILE keeping our feet firmly planted in reality. And maybe, just maybe, had we worked to help keep Louisiana blue in 2007, we could have kept it blue in 2008. But now Louisiana is redder, making our jobs much harder.

Words really cannot express what I feel right now, but I will do my best. Over the last 8 years we have had to suffer through a lot. From the loss of lives on 9/11 to the loss of our civil liberties in the name of national security, we have risked our national soul. We have lost countless lives in Iraq, we have lost respect across the world, and we risked losing our national soul.

In a country where just 50 years ago we treated black people as second class citizens, in a country where 125 years ago we did not even treat black people as people, we have now taken a huge leap forward in both tearing down the walls of racism.

(I should note as I type this, several classless people in the McCain crowd booed McCain congratulating President-Elect Obama).

However, the election of Obama is not simply about race relations. At the end of the day, President-Elect Obama is not a good black man, Senator Obama is a good man, period. Race has nothing to do with his winning. He won because he had the better ideas on how to move this country forward. On taxes, healthcare, the war, Obama was the candidate who had it right. He will bring the intelligence and integrity that is sorely needed to, and has been sorely missed in, our White House.

(The McCain crowd booed again).

Barack Obama will restore America’s place in the world as a leader, not just through military strength but through diplomatic strength as well. As this campaign has gone on, I found myself amazed with how much I actually agree with Obama on many issues. And I am just so completely overjoyed that a majority of American voters have come together and agreed that he is the best person for the job.

In this year where my Wife and I are bringing a child into this world, I am just full of hope and pride, since we will be raising him in a country that has turned the page on these last 8 years. We have turned the corner and I have faith when the question is asked in 2012 “are you better today than you were 4 years ago”, that I will be able to say “yes”.