Hi Everyone,
Well, I meant to write this post more than a week ago, but I had to devote more of my time to schoolwork. The good news is that I'm on Spring Break now, so hopefully I can do more posts this week. So, Barack Obama is now 69 days into his presidency. It may still be early for this, but I want to take this opportunity to assess, as best I can, how President Obama is doing.
(For another progress report on President Obama, the inspiration for this segment, click here.)
In my composition class this year, my professor has been issuing progress reports once every few weeks. I decided to do the same for the new commander-in-chief. Now, I may not be the best person for this job. I must admit I am excited about Obama being president and I do hope he can do what he set out to do. But his platform was accountability, and he asked that we hold him accountable. So now it is my turn. I will now grade how Obama is doing in his new role as President of the United States.
To simplify the process, I will break down the grades into these categories: economy, foreign policy, security, health care, environment, leadership, ethics, and vision. At the end, I will take all of the grades and then combine them into one overall grade.
Economy: C+. 78%. The economic plan so far, in the form of the stimulus and the President's upcoming budget, is a step in the right direction. Some glimmers of recovery are starting to appear in some places. Some people have been able to keep their jobs, and last week, the stock market went up again. However, the final product of the stimulus was more watered down. Some of the things that may have had the most stimulating effect were removed. As Obama noted, though, the economic recovery does not end with this stimulus. I suspect more effort will be exerted in the recovery effort. Hopefully, some of the things that could have a stimulative effect, that would help people recover, that were taken out this time will find their way in somehow.
Foreign Policy: B. 84%. Obama's attitude about foreign policy seems different from Bush's, even though some beg to differ. His move to end the Iraq War as soon as possible is a welcome shift, since it has gone on for so long. His redirection of attention to Afghanistan has raised alarms from some on the left side, but I don't think we can just give up on Afghanistan. The idea of not using solely military force, but getting diplomacy into foreign policy is a good one. The challenge in Afghanistan will be nothing small. Next, we have Pakistan. Taliban and some al-qaeda operatives have crept in and established bases in the rugged, often lawless terrain on the Afghan-Pakistani border. A spot called the Swat Valley, formerly a tourist haven in the north, is now under Taliban control. By the way, Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Iran is in a similar place, so is North Korea, with its rocket being tested. There will be many proving grounds for Obama's foreign policy prowess.
Security: B+. 87%. Using the "Bush Barometer" (the abscence of a major terrorist attack since September 11, 2001) Obama is doing fine. I feel more secure with the task of my security in the calm hands of Barack Obama than I would have in the hands of, say, John McCain. The central challenges of security for Obama will be in Iraq, Guantanamo, and in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Boy, all the sudden, we're starting to hear a lot about Pakistan. In Iraq, the challenge will be to ensure that the country is stable enough for the Iraqis to take over as quickly as possible. For Guantanamo, the challenge will be to decide who is a threat, who needs to be dealt with, and who does not need to be dealt with. The challenge in Afghanistan, similar to the objective in Iraq, now involves Pakistan, as I mentioned. Since Pakistan, like us, has a large military and nuclear weapons, so Pakistan is a must in the security department. Think of Pakistan being for security what Ohio is for every election. It is the must win place. Let's hope the President has as much luck here as he did in Ohio.
Health Care: B-. 82%. President Obama seems like he's serious about getting health care to as amny of us as possible. Health care is central to his paln of economic recovery, since the current system is run so inefficiently that it costs a lot, but does little for us. Obama has continually convened with experts in the department and seems to be in the process of getting ready to put out the ultimate plan. So far, this plan is in its early stages. Already we are beginning to hear talk of the plan heating up. The health care plan is sure to be the next big battleground for the president's plan. This grade will be made in the ability to shape this vision and bring it to pass.
Environment: B+. 88%. So far, Obama has been working hard for the environment and on the issue of energy. His skepticism on offshore drilling during the campaign was an example. Just today, he signed an act to help protect lots of public land. It's great to have the government finally getting serious about confronting environmental challenges, and rethinking our energy strategy. I like the idea of "green jobs". Joe Biden explained how the administration intends to use these green jobs not only to tackle environmental issues, but also to create jobs, and help to rejuvenate the middle class, as is Vice President Biden's priority. These ideas, and investing in new, cleaner energy sources, are all good ones. Let's hope we can do enough, in time.
Leadership: C+. 76%. For someone with as little executive experience as he, Obama is handling the toughest job, at the toughest time, very well. His amazingly calm demeanor has given him an edge here. As everyone else in this crisis seems to be trying to blame someone, Obama is coming up with a plan, and doing what he can to carry it out. It's a theme emerging, everyone going crazy, fuming, blaming, and Obama continues to do his thing. Like when the revelations of the disgraceful AIG bonuses surfaced, everyone was going ballistic, and he calmly took responsibility. However, the failure to secure nominees for several cabinet-level positions brought this grade down.
Ethics: A-. 90%. There have been some hiccups in the ethical aspirations of this presidency. For instance, some of the nominees and Administration members have made mistakes on their taxes to the tune of 1,000s of dollars. Also, the high number of white house councils and overseers on certain matters, like urban affairs, has raised red flags in some people's minds. I understand these concerns. However, compared to his predecessor, Obama's record is like a breath of fresh air. For one thing, when the revelations of the taxes issues came up, Obama admitted, in no uncertain terms "I made a mistake". A big step forward. According to politifact, Obama has gone back on 3 promises, kept 20, is currently working on fulfilling 48, and has yet to act on the majority of them. Since his first term has only just begun, it is to be expected that most of his promises have yet to be fulfilled. Pressure will need to be applied from us to keep him going in this right direction, and thus ensure that we all benefit.
Vision: B. 84%. This category has to do with the ability to bring one's vision to pass, to make dreams into realities. Obama, of course, has a hugely ambitious vision. He has set a high bar for himself, so executing the vision will be no easy task. So far, his vision has been watered down slightly, in the form of the stimulus, and the fact that Obama's high hopes for a bipartisan attitude has been a lot harder than he had hoped. He continues, though, to go out and work toward these goals with no less energy or determination. The best thing, in this observer's opinion, to do, would be to think about the vision, listen to some criticisms and weak points of it, and refine it if need be, but continue with this principle, because this is a great principle to start from. Thakfully, Obama's approach is not that different from the one I described.
Overall: B. 84%. Overall, Obama faces a monumental challenge rarely presented to a leader. These challenges confront us all. We are in this together, whether we like it or not. At this time, we need a person in charge who puts people before ideology, who can put aside his own gain for the good of everyone, but who can still act definitively. Barack Obama has a narrow tightrope to walk in this balancing act that is this method of leadership. However, if the campaign was any indication, Obama has the ability to tap into this yearning for something better, something we know is why America stands out. This is why I came to support him. The extraordinary weight of our challenges now is matched by the extraordinary nature of this man, Barack Obama, and how he got to where he is. Hopefully this will translate to the kind of way forward we need for this country.
This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Tonight's Anniversary, and the Evolution of Peace
Hi Everyone,
Well, you are all probably aware of the anniversary we observe tonight. Six years ago tonight, shock and awe was visited on Iraq. The reasons for this and the controversy surrounding the War in Iraq are not the central issues of this post. My purpose is to take this anniversary to talk about the opposite of war: peace.
As some bumper stickers proclaim, "Peace, An idea whose time has come". That is a pretty accurate assessment of the process going on. I have spent a lot of time pondering questions of war and peace and good and evil. And something has occured to me, and what occured to me is the central theme of this post.
It occured to me that peace, like many other things in life, has had to evolve over time. Like democracy, even, which had only existed in a few scattered places in the past, but then began to fully bud with the foundation of the US, so too has peace had to go through an evolution process, often a long and imperceptible growth process.
In the past, fighting was a very simple way to settle problems. It is an instinct, a primitive urge, which is probably why children often get in fights. Back then, in the caveman days, all they could do was swing their fists or maybe swing a club at someone. Without many other ways of communicating, this was an easy way to settle disputes.
As societies developed, these fights involved more and more people, hence the development of war. As time went on, these wars got larger and larger. The tools of war became more sophisticated, and thus, more destructive. People moved from clubs and rocks, to swords, to guns, to rifles.
Last century, the 20th Century, was one of almost continual warfare (the word continual means literally nonstop). In 1914, World War I broke out. At this point, a new level of warfare was reached. What makes this significant is all the new technological advancements in ammunition: tanks, poison gas, machine guns, so on. The business of war was far more catastrophic at this point.
In the aftermath of this war, which cost millions of lives and left a generation and the continent of Europe in shambles, some new depth was reached. People with the most toxic, the most hateful ideas were able to seize power. They utilized the most ruthless methods, put so many under subjugation that soon, another war broke out, World War II.
The human cost of this episode was far more horrible, far more evil, than anyone could imagine: a machine of death, a Holocaust which crushed 6 million lives, truly hell on earth. This was, without a doubt, the darkest chapter in human history. And still another depth had been reached. By the end of the war, scientists had discovered a new weapon: the atomic bomb.
For nearly 50 years after 1945, the world was slowly torn apart by a Cold War. For all that time, the US and the Soviet Union pushed their ideologies and those who would toe the line for it in poor nations around the world. In places like Iran, Guatemala, Hungary, Cuba, and more significantly in Vietnam and Afghanistan, the Capitalist and Communist superpowers backed leaders, often brutal ones, were backed to forward ideology, regardless of consequences.
Then still another frontier was reached on the weapons front: nuclear weapons. For four decades, the prospect of a total war involving these new weapons was a terrifying reality. One of these superpowers was also an incredibly grim and repressive regime, which embraced an extremist view of the world and put down anyone who didn't accept it. This was the reality of life for nearly 50 years from 1946 to 1991.
And that was the 20th Century. The 21st Century has gotten off to quite a start. So far, we've had 9/11 and this new conflict, the War on Terror. Plus, now we have a whole new level of warfare: biochemical weapons, dirty bombs, anthrax. These are things that are worse than you could imagine in your worst nightmares, and people make them. They're out there. And all those nuclear weapons the Soviets used to have, they're out there too. All this adds up to make the next few years, perhaps the next few decades, a very treacherous landscape for us to navigate.
So we know what the stakes are, judging from this. So what's gone well? How has peace evolved? Well, pacifism has been an underground movement as early as WWI and probably earlier than that. During Vietnam, the revelation that one's own leaders could be wrong and could lie shocked many people, and galvanized a generation of people to resist war, en masse, for really the first time. Again, the revelation that the government has been corrupted has stirred up a painful, but worthwhile, questioning process, particularly in me.
Earlier, I likened the development of peace to the developing of democracy and our own country. Just as those men took a gamble that a government of, by, and for the people could work, so too can we now bet that a more peaceful, more just, more compassionate world, can exist. Until the time of the founding, a large, impoverished mass of peasants ruled by a single monarch was the accepted norm of government. Philosophers everywhere predicted that a democracy would fail. But a collection of people bet that they were wrong. And neither they nor the naysaying philosophers would live to see their bet pay off. But it did.
Do I, or anyone else have all the answers for how to make this peace possible? No. The world remains a threatening and dangerous place. There are threats that still need to be addressed. We need to stay strong and do what we have to to keep the decent people safe. Sometimes this requires the use of military and warfare. This is the central challenge of trying to create peace. Pacifism is a wonderful wish, but it is still only a wish. What do we do about the world as it is? Because it is this way, with some scumbags who would give anything to harm our country and others still roaming around out there. So how do we get from here to there?
No answer will be easy. This sort of "world peace" that many people talk about, while possible in theory, is likely to be along, long way off. But, again like the Founding Fathers, their vision and dream didn't materialize right away. It didn't even materialize fully in their lifetimes. Their vision is still evolving. But while the Founding Fathers' dream took long to evolve, and had its flaws, who today can doubt that there is something to it.
I don't wanna get really preachy here, but I just wanna share this thought, cause I think it's important. My point is that often, people have written goals off as impossible. Sooner or later, there was that impossible reality staring them in the face. It seems that when people decide that as the saying goes, "Where there's a will, there's a way." I often end up repeating this to myself.
So why do I keep bringing up the Founding Fathers and America? Again, I don't mean to get overly preachy, but it seems to me that this country can be as helpful for this purpose as anyone else. Remember how I detailed how I have fallen in love with my country again. For all of its flaws and mishaps, I think this country still is one of the most conducive to the peace, justice and compassion I spoke of earlier. Is there work to be done? Yeah. But as Martin Luther King said, "The moral arch of the universe does bend toward justice." It does, and wherever the path ahead takes this observer in the coming years, I will do what it takes to turn these lofty words and dreams and quotes into hard, solid reality.
This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.
Well, you are all probably aware of the anniversary we observe tonight. Six years ago tonight, shock and awe was visited on Iraq. The reasons for this and the controversy surrounding the War in Iraq are not the central issues of this post. My purpose is to take this anniversary to talk about the opposite of war: peace.
As some bumper stickers proclaim, "Peace, An idea whose time has come". That is a pretty accurate assessment of the process going on. I have spent a lot of time pondering questions of war and peace and good and evil. And something has occured to me, and what occured to me is the central theme of this post.
It occured to me that peace, like many other things in life, has had to evolve over time. Like democracy, even, which had only existed in a few scattered places in the past, but then began to fully bud with the foundation of the US, so too has peace had to go through an evolution process, often a long and imperceptible growth process.
In the past, fighting was a very simple way to settle problems. It is an instinct, a primitive urge, which is probably why children often get in fights. Back then, in the caveman days, all they could do was swing their fists or maybe swing a club at someone. Without many other ways of communicating, this was an easy way to settle disputes.
As societies developed, these fights involved more and more people, hence the development of war. As time went on, these wars got larger and larger. The tools of war became more sophisticated, and thus, more destructive. People moved from clubs and rocks, to swords, to guns, to rifles.
Last century, the 20th Century, was one of almost continual warfare (the word continual means literally nonstop). In 1914, World War I broke out. At this point, a new level of warfare was reached. What makes this significant is all the new technological advancements in ammunition: tanks, poison gas, machine guns, so on. The business of war was far more catastrophic at this point.
In the aftermath of this war, which cost millions of lives and left a generation and the continent of Europe in shambles, some new depth was reached. People with the most toxic, the most hateful ideas were able to seize power. They utilized the most ruthless methods, put so many under subjugation that soon, another war broke out, World War II.
The human cost of this episode was far more horrible, far more evil, than anyone could imagine: a machine of death, a Holocaust which crushed 6 million lives, truly hell on earth. This was, without a doubt, the darkest chapter in human history. And still another depth had been reached. By the end of the war, scientists had discovered a new weapon: the atomic bomb.
For nearly 50 years after 1945, the world was slowly torn apart by a Cold War. For all that time, the US and the Soviet Union pushed their ideologies and those who would toe the line for it in poor nations around the world. In places like Iran, Guatemala, Hungary, Cuba, and more significantly in Vietnam and Afghanistan, the Capitalist and Communist superpowers backed leaders, often brutal ones, were backed to forward ideology, regardless of consequences.
Then still another frontier was reached on the weapons front: nuclear weapons. For four decades, the prospect of a total war involving these new weapons was a terrifying reality. One of these superpowers was also an incredibly grim and repressive regime, which embraced an extremist view of the world and put down anyone who didn't accept it. This was the reality of life for nearly 50 years from 1946 to 1991.
And that was the 20th Century. The 21st Century has gotten off to quite a start. So far, we've had 9/11 and this new conflict, the War on Terror. Plus, now we have a whole new level of warfare: biochemical weapons, dirty bombs, anthrax. These are things that are worse than you could imagine in your worst nightmares, and people make them. They're out there. And all those nuclear weapons the Soviets used to have, they're out there too. All this adds up to make the next few years, perhaps the next few decades, a very treacherous landscape for us to navigate.
So we know what the stakes are, judging from this. So what's gone well? How has peace evolved? Well, pacifism has been an underground movement as early as WWI and probably earlier than that. During Vietnam, the revelation that one's own leaders could be wrong and could lie shocked many people, and galvanized a generation of people to resist war, en masse, for really the first time. Again, the revelation that the government has been corrupted has stirred up a painful, but worthwhile, questioning process, particularly in me.
Earlier, I likened the development of peace to the developing of democracy and our own country. Just as those men took a gamble that a government of, by, and for the people could work, so too can we now bet that a more peaceful, more just, more compassionate world, can exist. Until the time of the founding, a large, impoverished mass of peasants ruled by a single monarch was the accepted norm of government. Philosophers everywhere predicted that a democracy would fail. But a collection of people bet that they were wrong. And neither they nor the naysaying philosophers would live to see their bet pay off. But it did.
Do I, or anyone else have all the answers for how to make this peace possible? No. The world remains a threatening and dangerous place. There are threats that still need to be addressed. We need to stay strong and do what we have to to keep the decent people safe. Sometimes this requires the use of military and warfare. This is the central challenge of trying to create peace. Pacifism is a wonderful wish, but it is still only a wish. What do we do about the world as it is? Because it is this way, with some scumbags who would give anything to harm our country and others still roaming around out there. So how do we get from here to there?
No answer will be easy. This sort of "world peace" that many people talk about, while possible in theory, is likely to be along, long way off. But, again like the Founding Fathers, their vision and dream didn't materialize right away. It didn't even materialize fully in their lifetimes. Their vision is still evolving. But while the Founding Fathers' dream took long to evolve, and had its flaws, who today can doubt that there is something to it.
I don't wanna get really preachy here, but I just wanna share this thought, cause I think it's important. My point is that often, people have written goals off as impossible. Sooner or later, there was that impossible reality staring them in the face. It seems that when people decide that as the saying goes, "Where there's a will, there's a way." I often end up repeating this to myself.
So why do I keep bringing up the Founding Fathers and America? Again, I don't mean to get overly preachy, but it seems to me that this country can be as helpful for this purpose as anyone else. Remember how I detailed how I have fallen in love with my country again. For all of its flaws and mishaps, I think this country still is one of the most conducive to the peace, justice and compassion I spoke of earlier. Is there work to be done? Yeah. But as Martin Luther King said, "The moral arch of the universe does bend toward justice." It does, and wherever the path ahead takes this observer in the coming years, I will do what it takes to turn these lofty words and dreams and quotes into hard, solid reality.
This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.
Obama is here!
Hi everyone,
Well, you probably heard by now, but if you live in the So Cal area, President Barack Obama is in your midst. Yesterday, Air Force One arrived in my town of Long Beach. Lots of people crowded around Long Beach's airport to witness the arrival. I turned down an opportunity to skip out of class early to see the plane fly overhead.
However, Air Force One remained, and to the best of my knowledge still remains, on the tarmac at Long Beach Airport. Last night I took a look, and a crowd turned out just to look at the plane. Wow, all this guy has to do is park Air Force One at an airport, and a huge crowd turns out. Talk about a celebrity.
I just wanted to share this update, since it has unfolded so close to my home. During the campaign, all those candidates were in Ohio and Florida. None of them came anywhere near Long Beach, and Mr. Obama's predecessor probably wouldn't ever set foot in Long Beach. So not only seeing Air Force One in person for the first time, but having it come to my home town, was quite amazing.
That afternoon, as I was working on homework, I heard the loud rumbling of helicopters go overhead. Rushing outside, I spotted two helicopters, and a third one that could only have been the Marine One chopper that the president uses. So ultimately I did get to see the President fly overhead. I don't know where they went after yesterday's epic meeting down in Costa Mesa, but this was an exciting development, and I got some pictures I wanted to share with you guys. I'll have more material for you tonight.
This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
I'm Back!
Hi everyone,
Well, I know I've been gone over a month now, so in this post I will just welcome you back to the blog. This is why I was gone: I got into a lull in activity for a few weeks, then I had some personal stuff I had to deal with, so I took another week off. Even guys like me need time off sometimes. Then I returned to thinking about the big issues, but still couldn't get any ideas out. So here I am.
Anyway, if you've all been missing me, the wait is now over. So you can expect some good new stuff out of here. When it will surface, I can't say exactly, but it will be soon enough here. I am now back to giving you my analysis as a true outsider. I'm not so vain as to think that I have all the solutions to everything; I don't. But I will be looking at things, giving my perspective on it, and listening for your conclusions.
This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.
Well, I know I've been gone over a month now, so in this post I will just welcome you back to the blog. This is why I was gone: I got into a lull in activity for a few weeks, then I had some personal stuff I had to deal with, so I took another week off. Even guys like me need time off sometimes. Then I returned to thinking about the big issues, but still couldn't get any ideas out. So here I am.
Anyway, if you've all been missing me, the wait is now over. So you can expect some good new stuff out of here. When it will surface, I can't say exactly, but it will be soon enough here. I am now back to giving you my analysis as a true outsider. I'm not so vain as to think that I have all the solutions to everything; I don't. But I will be looking at things, giving my perspective on it, and listening for your conclusions.
This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.
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