Family Life

As I left my house this morning, I noticed a picture(above) in the New York Times. The story was about John McCain and his family's military legacy. The picture, however, was of Sen. McCain standing at a podium during the 2000 election. Behind him and to his right are his Caucasian birth children; however, behind him, literally in his shadow is his adopted Bangladeshi daughter, Bridgette. I wonder whether this is just a coincidence or McCain (with the help of his campaign manager of course) made an attempt to "soften" his image. The picture was taken not to long after the infamous South Carolina underground smear campaign in which McCain was accused of fathering an illegitimate black child. Unfortunately, some people were dumb enough to believe these lies that could not be farther from the truth. Even though McCain was wronged greatly, I question his decision to put his presidential campaign literally in front of his family.

King Speech

Last night, while I read the transcript of MLK's 1967 speech against the war, I also listened to Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On". Many of the same issues are discussed in both. As I listened and read, I realized that almost nothing has changed since the era of Vietnam. The country is still plagued with "superficial patriotism". We engage in a "war on crime" here on the home front, but we still let ourselves be duped into a murderous, fruitless fight overseas. How can we expect to help other nations when we, ourselves, need help. There are some striking (and down-right frightening) similarities between now and then. It's been forty years. Why haven't we learned our lesson?