BUT FIRST THE GOOD NEWS
His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan on Meet The Press yesterday morning:
MTP: “What’s the image of the United States in the Middle East today?”
KING ABDULLAH: “Fantastic.”
MTP: Really?
KING ABDULLAH: I have been following, by chance, President Obama around the world. I was in England a day or two behind him, I was in the Czech Republic. I just come from Japan on the way here to Washington. Wherever you go, and all the leaders that I’ve spoken to in the Middle East . . . this president provides hope. Now, there was tremendous sympathy internationally for the United States and anger after 9/11, but today there’s a collective hope that there’s a new America. And a new America means new values for, for the world. What everybody believed America to stand for is what I think Obama encompasses . . .
☞ “Hope unbelieved,” wrote Jim Wallis, “is always considered nonsense. But hope believed is history in the process of being changed.”
Lots of work still to be done, but it’s nice to think we’re headed in a better direction.
And now back to some of the challenges . . .
SIX-LEGGED FROGS
It’s not just the oceans. Here is a PBS Frontline special on the way we are poisoning the rest of our water. “We know what needs to be done,” says one of the interviewees; “it’s a matter of lacking the political will.” Ah, but that’s where you and I come in. If we get informed, and come to care, we can effect change.
Watch the first 20 minutes? You’ll surely get the gist.
HOUSE MINORITY LEADER JOHN BOEHNER JUST DOESN’T GET IT
Here is a quick assessment of the Minority Leader’s grasp of global climate change, as revealed on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”
He thinks the objection to carbon dioxide is that it’s a carcinogen? He thinks flatulent cows emit carbon dioxide?
What is it with so many of our friends in the loyal opposition? As noted in that PBS Frontline special, Nixon vetoed establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. Only by overriding his veto was the EPA born. And then Reagan came in and crippled it. And George W. Bush? Don’t get me started.
A DIFFERENT WAY OF LOOKING AT THE NEWS
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