Tag Archives: Hillary Clinton

Hillary’s History and Politcal Conventions in a Time of Crisis

Posted on August 1, 2016 | Leave a comment

The conventions have had a bit of time to fade into the background. Both campaigns have been unconventional and both candidates experienced something different about their conventions. In the DNC there was the contention between Sanders supporters and the Hillary majority that she might have wished was less than it was. In the RNC, Donald Trump was operating in a situation where Ted Cruz was booed off stage for not endorsing him and where not a single former President spoke to endorse him. Hillary had President Hubby and President Hussein. Trump did not have have George War Hero Bush, George Texas Rangers Bush, or Mitt Romney captain of the very loyal GOP block of moderate Mormons. But if both sides had memorable conventions the most historic was the Democratic National Convention where a woman we all know very well if we know politics was nominated as the candidate for the Presidency of the United States. I have no wife, no daughter and largely followed the conventions on both sides alone. I have a lot of female relatives and correspondents. But no matter what their political beliefs I would have to expect that most American women felt some kind of identification with Hillary. It has been a long road here and she has earned the nomination by dint of creating an unequalled record of engagement in the affairs to which it relates in our time. That does not mean I will vote for her. I have not decided whom to vote for but I do want recognize that as a student radical, constituent advocacy attorney, First Lady of Arkansas, First Lady of the United States, United States Senator from New York, U.S. Secretary of State and Presidential Candidate twice she has paid her dues. She simply cannot be denied that statement — no Democrat has ever had more sweat equity than she has…

She faces a candidate who is running on the plat form of building the Great Wall of the United States and encouraging an immigration policy led by wives for billionaires — although Marla Maples snuck in there somehow…. So we will see. She is likely to be the next President of the United States of America. She and her hubby do not make me happy about America’s future but unhappiness is a fairly permanent and pervasive thing for me. I began my Mon ay with a meeting with the police to reclaim a relatives lost dog who had innocently enough put another relative into medical (really dental care) and then escaped the makeshift tethering the owners had done as they left for the hospital. Sunday after the DNC which was yesterday I had a very pleasant dinner with family but there was a potentially serious injury on both the way out and the way home. Not traffic injuries but unrelated things. My life is full of little problems and medium size problems and big distractions but like most Americans I feel that I have a connection to Presidential politics. Madame President or President Trump seem the only alternatives likely and Madame President is more likely. I do care and have a few things to say now.

We all have images of what leadership should look like which are not simple portrayals of reality.

To safeguard liberty we must be able to adapt to the changing times.

The icons of our country are precious as are our diverse people. But changes of interpretation have been continuous.

Hillary Clinton a familiar face….

Hillary Clinton has emerged as the first truly serious Presidential nominee by a major party in American history. Victoria Woodhull’s candidacy in the Equal Rights Party in the nineteenth century was not a joke and has has been followed by many other minor party candidates but none of them had a realistic chance of winning. In addition, Geraldine Ferraro failed spectacularly on her ticket and Sarah Palin first lost with John McCain and then resigned the governorship of Alaska whereas before the national run she had reason to believe that she would be a reasonably successful governor and a fixture in Alaskan and regional politics for years to come. Both women had some real success and fame after their losing bids, but not enough to say in either case that the run was entirely good for their public and political status. Palin did better in the creation of other opportunities than Feraro. But neither had as much to lose as HRC. Her selfish political reason for running (along with whatever noble and other reasons she has) is that she has done everything else except the VP and the Presidency that would constitute a climb up this ladder. Hillary Rodham Clinton has a lot of valuable experience and also has a great deal of history to overcome. The Democratic National Convention was her time to try to cement her position leading the charge of the Democrats to regain the White House and also to show she can be an asset on down ballot elections. I think that it is fair to say that it has not gone all that smoothly. Thursday evening was the peak and the key of her efforts to legitimize and secure her position. The precedent had been set by Ivanka Trump introducing her father at the Republican National Convention, Chelsea and her mother would follow suit. But the crucial difference in a daughter introducing her mother was lost on nobody. The question many were asking was whether a woman’s moment could be an effective reality. I thought that as regards the evening as a whole the jury is still out and may always be out. But Chelsea did a fine job.

Thursday evening Chelsea Clinton looked the best I have ever seen her look on a big stage and she spoke with virtually flawless delivery and presentation as she introduced her mother. Then there was a video in the hall and a great deal of commentary by people who get paid to comment on most networks. Bernie Sanders supporters in yellow shorts emblazoned with a dove of peace and the slogan “enough is enough” were much in evidence and some were interviewed. Almost everyone was respectful of Chelsea and what she had to say. It was much like Ivanka’s introduction at the Republican National Convention, in that it was hard not to at least wish to allow the speaker in each case a chance to rejoice and be proud of their respective parent.

Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech was another matter. There were several times when chants of “Feel the Bern” had to be drowned out by her supporters chanting “Hill-a-ry” but that was not like a cheer at the right spot — it still disrupted her delivery. That was despite several points in the speech where she made overtures to Sander and his supporters including directly thanking him and adopting his cause. She also attacked Donald Trump a great deal.

Wednesday, I did watch the Democratic National Convention during most of the nearly two hours that they were broadcast on broadcast networks in what seems like a later version of primetime than I remember primetime being. But actually the speeches by Tim Kaine and President Obama had little trouble keeping my interest. While I was tired and my nerves were frayed from a hard day I was eager to hear what they had to say. Of course, it bears saying that I had a high level of interest when watching Donald Trump and Ivanka as well as Ben Carson and some others who spoke at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week. Both conventions have been contentious. Both seem to have achieved unity by their respective Wednesday evening speeches…. the contest between the parties can in fact take place.

I went out to dinner with an old friend on Tuesday evening and so we both missed the Bill Clinton speech. It is a tense time in the country and in the world as all times are but more so. The country is at its most partisan, the supremacy of these two parties no matter what is more clear than ever in a year like this if there have been any other years like this. Monday July 25, 2016 the Democrats got their convention started. Most people seemed to agree that the highlight of the evening for the party was the speech given by Michelle Obama, the First Lady of these United States. The news was not all good. there were scandals with the DNC, which has been hacked and has leaked emails some say show they acted unfairly in favor of Clinton and against Sanders. Those scandals with the DNC are bound to make some people wonder about what was in the Clinton emails lost from her private server when she was in the State Department. Donald Trump has certainly already tried to make the connection. But regardless of what this means for the long history of apparent improprieties among the Clinton network and its two principal actors there were more direct concerns early on. It seemed clear enough that not all Sanders supporters were in the mood to forgive and forget or to focus their anger on the hackers or any support the hackers may have received from Donald Trump or Russia. That is not likely to change completely even if it turns out that Russia is launching deliberate attacks on the Democratic party. Some evidence suggests there may be a pattern of such attacks.

They were already annoyed and now some of them are really angry. Debbie Wasserman Schultz had not planned to start the convention with her own public resignation from leadership. But her resignation and the hard work, symbolic gestures, speeches and other activities of the Democratic National Convention do seem to have worked to bring the discordant party together. We must see the struggle as one aided by the supposed sharp contrast between the parties and candidates. However, when that is said one wants to remind everyone of all the candidates have in common although there is no reason to believe that that matters all that much. This is a season of conflict and competition….

Some will rejoice at the tone of the Hillarious Democrats, peaceful and Kind compared to some in the GOP. But others will wonder if that is realistic. Trump is not seeking world war or genocide. He is more alarmed than alrmist. The events around the world kept conspiring to make alarm seem reasonable. Japan had is largest mass killing in over half a century without firearms and a saintly old priest was immolated by ISIS in a French church. The Convention seemed tone deaf to some outsiders. The message of universal tolerance, equal opportunity and average wonderfulness did not jive well with all the headlines. Of course the Democrats are in executive power that has two very different effects which play out across long periods of time. First, a certain amount of relevance is assured and more is presumed. It’s almost impossible to be as out of touch as a party out of power can be. On the other hand, the portion of the electorate seeking change is likely to want to change such a party into an out of power party. But, in our current situation –and unlike the way many but not all countries work– the roles of the parties are reversed on the legislative side of things. Dems are out there and GOP holds sway. Both sides experience the two effects listed above in a limited and complicated way…

So the country has a complicated set of signals being sent…. But one of these people is going to be President. Republicans just had their big political convention a few weeks ago at the longest description and it fades from memory. Hillary had her moment and now the Democrats are having their own chance for the Convention to fade in memory. The press is on for the vote. The election matters and I will return to it. But I do want to look at this moment as well.

Sex, Race, Money and the American Experience

Posted on July 12, 2016 | 7 comments

While there has been a good bit of conversation about the possibility that Hillary Clinton may become the first woman to assume the Presidency of the United States the United Kingdom has in fact elected a new female Prime Minister, the second in their history. If Hillary Clinton is elected then for at least a little while the two countries would have something more in common than merely female heads of government. She is also the current Home Secretary which is an analogous position to the that of the Secretary of State of the United States. both she and Hillary Clinton have been the beneficiary of elite educational institutions in their countries. Doubtless one could list many other similarities but in fact the two women strike me as profoundly different people produced in part by profoundly different political systems. The sexual contexts are not so profoundly different but upon looking closer at same sex marriage law in Britain and the USA one finds very different regimes and oppositions, likewise on abortion, sperm banking and literally a host of other issues. Whether it is better or not there is very often a capacity to compromise and reach legislative splitting of the difference in the UK. In addition rule by judicial review is much more limited. For those reasons as well as others May represents a different kind of feminist synthesis that the one Hillary Clinton has long been associated with in this country.

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Theresa May is a thoroughgoing enough politician who is committed to the electoral process and aware of it. Theresa May did not become presumptive Prime Minister in a general election but rather in the election for Conservative Party Leadership when David Cameron stepped down after failing to keep Britain in the European Union. This is not unusual, in the 24 times that the UK has changed Prime Minister in the last century half of those occasions did not involve a general election. The leadership election came about because Cameron had put too much political capital on the BRexit referendum to continue in office when the Leavers defeated him. However, as Britain has recently passed the Fixed Term Parliament Act, this change in leadership is not likely to cause a general election to be held early although it may… This is something not only unusual but new for Brits to adjust to, no row of whether or not to have a vote of no confidence is at all assured of amounting to much in the new set of rules. In the meanwhile the final two people produced by the first rounds of the Conservative Party leadership chase presented the rank and file membership with two candidates to choose from both of whom were female and they have chosen Prime Minister Theresa May. Assuming Royal Assent and Her Majesty asking the woman to take the job as she did for Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher back in the day, then May will take the job in a place in the Queen’s presence sometime after Cameron officially resigns following tomorrow’s (Wednesday, July 13) Prime Minister’s Questions. A bit of what she says about her own vision of her administration of Her Majesty’s Government can be read here. She appears to be sincere enough about bringing the benefits of her party’s vision for Britain to more people of more modest means. In America there is a lot of discussion about the wage gap between men and women and how it affects families. There is less discussion of increasing morbidity among men, declining employment among men and the myriad of other sexually related disasters afflicting primarily meant in this country — affecting men in distinction to women. One senses that in Britain they are facing the struggles we face with a feminism that is less anti-mail than our version is in a number of ways. That has to be put into the context of two female prime ministers and the fact that British suffragettes really fought violently to bring about change early in the twentieth century. They of course suffered real violence and the disorder of their movement would make and interesting comparison to the chaos I see in the Black Lives Matter movement — but that is beyond the scope of this post.

I am quite sure that the struggle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for leadership of our country will in part be affected by how Americans believe a man or a woman would respond to the violence, protests, police shooting and racial tensions which shape our experience of city streets and television viewing in these days. Doubtless whatever they do will be shaped in large part by their own experience as the man or the woman that in fact they are. Their views and actions will also be shaped by their experience as Americans. One factor in this Black Lives Matter centered current crisis is that the lens is very much exclusive of sexual assault against women. The lens is not inclusive of black grievances of sexual abuse under slavery, of white womanhood being subject to the attacks of black male sexual predation. The focus is on the protesting of acts of violence by police against black men who in most cases so far have a history of trouble with the law. In the case of a few like Philando Castille the man seemed to be a pillar of the community and not a violent criminal who was armed, did have many run-ins with police and was confused with a robbery suspect. Michael Brown and Alton Sterling seemed to have a number of violent criminal acts in their past. Black reactions to these deaths among the minority who lead Black Lives Matter has tended to be unreasonably indiscriminate at countless levels. the hate filled chants, throwing of blocks, fireworks and Molotov cocktails have added criminal violence to their vision of a policing ethic which would destroy the country in my opinion. But in all this chaos we have heard no reports of sexual assaults to speak of — why I am not sure. Perhaps there have been very few. This contrasts with my vivid memory of the Lara Logan assault during the Arab Spring protests. So far now all of this is taking place with a low level of direct connection to sexual violence at least. Nonethless the connections of racial and sexual politics in this country cannot be entirely severed. Philando Castille looked edgy but was one of the most securely the middle class persons celebrated by Black Lives Matter movement. Most of the victims it celebrates are not financially secure. The Dallas cop killer however was apparently prosperous and was involved in this movement.

Black lives matter

Sometimes it is easy to think of all the reasons why being a Catholic are compelling and all the reasons why I am glad to be one. Sometimes it is easy to think of a good number of reasons why I am glad to be an American. Sometimes not so much is obvious when I try to count the blessings of being a Catholic American. Then there are days when all of the problems and obstacles in my life seem to clearly outweigh any positive and hopeful energies that I might be able to muster. Yet even on those days it is not impossible to find some cause for rejoicing. I recently read the Papal encyclical which has the English language title the Joy of Love. A pdf version should be available here: papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia_en

Among Black Americans the marriage rate is low. It’s been shown to correlate to many problems in that section of the American population. The energy behind gay marriage masks the decline of marriage rates as a whole. Marriage plays many important roles in society. The professional agitators in leadership in many American movements today benefit from the single state of more people who are more attracted to protests. I’m aware of myself as being single in a way I never saw coming. Many people are single in such ways. The pope is urging the Catholic Church to find ways to make meaningful and personal weddings accessible to young couples in a context which encourages lower cost options. This is addressing the real role cost plays in keeping people from tying the knot. That’s especially true for church weddings. This is kind of a crisis, Pope Francis has addressed among others. I’m not going to quote all of his attempts to set forth a vision for Christian sexual and marital institutions,

: Michelle and I on our wedding day.

: My parents as a young couple

: two of my grandparents

: Summers family dining at the cloisters at Sea Island

: My sister Sarah and my father read for our wedding.

: Michelle and I say our vows.

: Michelle & the female side of the party at the wedding.

: My groomsmen and ushers and I at my wedding

Sexual politics is not a simple matter today in America and never has been a simple matter for anyone anywhere. politics has never been a simple matter and human politics never has been a simple matter. But I think these are more challenging times than most. I think that the Pope has some things to say that many Americans need to hear or read. But I think white Americans are really facing a moment for coming to a sense of sexual clarity and I think that the Pope has something to say to them, to us. The encyclical reminds us all of what a basic sexual ideal for our society or any other might be.

What does the drama of American sexual politics as evinced in the Pulse Nightclub shootings, the debates over same sex marriage and other tensions of our society have to do with the recent encyclical from Pope Francis? I myself think that the real emphasis we are losing on a livable sexual ideal is something that we need to consider as a great risk. To a remarkable degree sexuality in America in my lifetime has been typified by open conflict between the sexes. A resulting atmosphere of suspicion and distrust has colored relationships between persons most committed to building enduring relationships of trust and love. Approaching members of the opposite sex has seen new challenges emerge.

One group of Americans who have played and continue to play a role in our struggle to understand sexualtity or an informal and unofficial group of women who are the American sex symbols. They are usually not pornographic symbols and are not courtesans by and large. They vary tremendously in what they represent and how they love but they somehow make us aware of both challenges and ideals we face as a nation. at any given time their names and a faces and bodies speak to us of different struggles and hopes we have as sexual beings in this country. It is in their real lives and selves that we are sometimes able to picture what we wish our sexual identity to be and how it relates to womanhood, procreation and love among other things…

The future of this country is nonexistent without families and without a reasonably healthy sexuality. We will not resolve the tensions between blacks and the police or the tensions that resonate in our political dysfunction without recognizing where we have gotten and where we have come from and without thinking seriously about where we are going as regards the realities of sex, race, money and how those matter to American families. Likewise we will not get anywhere good without seeing all the ways Americans are eager to protect their families however flawed they are and also the real limits of that protection in every case. I include here a verse from an acrostic love poem that I sent after sending another and receiving no answer. It’s about flirting on the internet after a fashion. About finding the limits of seeking love without a close personal association in real life.

Now comes the time for a pause in my poetic email,

One thing is sending verse to the love one has at hand.

Too different is this shooting into the dark gaps across the land.

Even the madness of the laws of our time

That poem is not the issue but what our society believes about sex and how it portrays the appeal of sex is very relevant to what direction we are going in. My life is nobody’s sexual ideal. But my life is lived according to certain sexual ideals.

Ünderworlds of love and sexuality deserve to be remembered but the Pope reminds us of how love makes family and family shapes both society and the Christian faith. Sexuality is to be both ideal and ordinary for people of all races and cultures. That is the Christian vision he invites us to share.

Jesus himself was born into a modest family that soon had to flee to a foreign land. He visits the home of Peter, whose mother-in-law is ill (cf. Mk 1:30-31) and shows sympathy upon hearing of deaths in the homes of Jairus and Lazarus (cf. Mk 5:22-24, 35-43; Jn 11:1-44). He hears the desperate wailing of the widow of Nain for her dead son (cf. Lk 7:11-15) and heeds the plea of the father of an epileptic child in a small country town (cf. Mk 9:17-27). He goes to the homes of tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus (cf. Mt 9:9-13; Lk 19:1-10), and speaks to sinners like the woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee (cf. Lk 7:36-50). Jesus knows the anxieties and tensions experienced by families and he weaves them into his parables: children who leave home to seek adventure (cf. Lk 15:11-32), or who prove troublesome (Mt 21:28-31) or fall prey to violence (Mk 12:1-9). He is also sensitive to the embarrassment caused by the lack of wine at a wedding feast (Jn 2:1-10), the failure of guests to come to a banquet (Mt 22:1-10), and the anxiety of a poor family over the loss of a coin (Lk 15:8-10).

I end this reflection with another quote from an unsuccessful love poem. I will say that love poems were part of my life when love was more a part of my life– so they have not all been unsuccessful. But perhaps the difference was in the life context. This poem reflects on the changes in situations..

My youth is long behind me, an almost forgotten circumstance today

Young men’s loving words and bold lines are not mine to safely say.

Aside from my own life, I think we have to look at the vision for love in this country, for sex and for sexuality. Where is it heading and where should it be heading?

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Tagged Black Lives Matter, Feminism, Her Britannnic Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Hillary Clinton, Joy of Love, Margaret Thatch, money, Pope Francis, QEII, Sex, special relationship between the USA and UK, Theresa May

Clinton’s Campaign: Does She Have Credibility, a Creed and a Contest ?

Posted on July 5, 2016 | 1 comment

Will Secretary and Senator and Former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton be the first female President of the United States? It certainly seems likely. Here you can read my first post when she became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. Since the very first version of this post came out the Washington Post has run an article saying that her credibility is damaged, that article is here and it may or may not represent political reality. But the contention made here in all versions of this post so far is that there appears to be a small chance that she will be indicted, arrested and charged in the email scandal or in any matter to do with Benghazi. By small of course I mean that there is not a large chance. There appears to be a miniscule chance that Bernie Sanders will mount a successful revolt or set up a powerful third party challenge which would derail her path to the presidency. There is more or less no realistic chance that she will be stopped from being elected except by the victory of Donald Trump as the Republican Nominee over her as the Democratic Nominee in the general election. Almost no chance is not the same as no chance. Any number of things could happen including death of physical impairment. But the odds seem to be better than fifty percents that she will be the next POTUS. Few people have ever had more relevant work or official experience when approaching the highest office in the land. To be a Senator is a lot, to be Secretary of State is a lot, to be First Lady is a lot — to be all three is a staggering degree of experience. Of course I physically stagger more easily than some more physically gifted readers and so I go to that adjective and the related adverb more readily than they might. But if one does not stagger one at least must take notice of the degree to which she embodies tremendous experience. Compared to her:

Donald Trump has never held elected office,
he has never lived in the White House,
he has never lived in the executive mansion of a State,
he has never held an office appointed by a President,
he has never led a sustained policy discussion as Clinton did with healthcare,
he has never been officially invited to sit at the table to negotiate a formal treaty on behalf of the United States.

To safeguard liberty we must be able to adapt to the changing times.

On the other hand they do have some lack of experience in common:

Neither on has held a major post in a religious institution,
neither has served in the military,
neither has served in the workaday world of the intelligence community,
neither has lived on our borders or in border towns for any length of time,
neither speaks Spanish of French well, official languages of our neighbors,
neither has lived and worked as a citizen in the way business people, missionaries, journalists and volunteers do every day across this world as they forge an American identity abroad.

Ambassador Stevens was an unusually high ranking victim of violence abroad. In the last few days other Americans have lost their lives around the world but a glimpse into the kinds of decisions he faced is also a glimpse into kinds of decisions that Americans who believe in what they are doing abroad face every day. The following excerpt is from the recent report on the Benghazi incident:

While the end of the fiscal year funding deadline was looming, the Diplomatic Security Agent in charge at the Embassy in Tripoli was, nonetheless,
concerned about Stevens’ trip to Benghazi. Although his first planned trip to Benghazi in the beginning of August 2012 had to be canceled because of security,14 Stevens was adamant, however, about going in September.15 The Diplomatic Security Agent testified:
Previous to this—to his decisions to going up there, there was— we would meet weekly to discuss the security situation in Libya.…[
T]here was a specific meeting regarding what was happening in Benghazi. In that meeting, we reviewed incidents and probable causes, what’s initiating it. And a lot of discussion was that it was the conflict or the incidents up there were, you know, local population against local population and that that they weren’t specifically targeting Americans … up there. I expressed my concerns about the incidents that did involve us. And the basic response was that they … were anomalies.

We all have images of what leadership should look like which are not simple portrayals of reality.

Romney was a missionary in France during anti-American times, Bill Clinton visited Russia as a student in the Cold War years and there are other connections to tat least the same world Chris Stevens lived in that can be found in other political lives outside the military but not in the lives of Hillary Clinton or Donald trump so far as I know. Both have traveled a great deal. both have been at some risk but the proportion of risk to resources has never been equal in my opinion to the baseline many Americans abroad have experienced every day all of my life.

The other thing that they have in common is access to fame, fortune, privilege and the people in power. This is not an even contest between the two of them but neither does it really matter who has had more of such opportunity. These opportunities have defined both of their lives for a long time. One big difference of course is that Trump like all previous American Presidents is a man and Clinton is a woman. I visited that in the post where her candidacy was all but assured but I am not going to deal with it much in this post.

There are issues related to Clinton that have very little to do with the fact that she is a woman. Trump recently said he just knew very little about her religion and she responded by declaring her self emphatically enough to be a Methodist. My own take on some of the discussion of Clinton’s religion has been posted in this blog before and can be seen here. Of course there may be more to say as time goes on. One fact about the election of the first Clinton to the Presidency is that the result was likely determined by the most credible third party candidate in presidential politics in my lifetime — Ross Perot. He made it more than possible for Bill Clinton to defeat George Bush Senior. Thus Clinton did not face the kind of intense contest he would have otherwise. This kind of splitting is well established in British politics and may have been fostered in some way or another by the Rhodes Scholar, Bill Clinton as the biggest take home lesson from his time in Oxford. Some may see Trump as Ross Perot on steroids. He is the third party candidate who became the candidate of a major party and the main obstacle to Clinton’s election. that would still be true even if Romney or someone becomes a real third party candidate somehow. So how does trump match Clinton on matters of faith?

To see Clinton’s faith in political terms this season means to examine Donald Trump’s faith as well. He seems to be a person, like Clinton, about whom one could say a great many contradictory things based on pretty good evidence. That is not necessarily because he is deceptive or a hypocrite but may be because of the place he comes from in his life context. Interestingly enough he has made it clear that he supports Christmas as a national holiday and seeks to preserve it. That was the narrow subject of my original blog post about Clinton’s faith and the faith of other candidates. Christmas was of course never my only interest in the religious identity of candidates. I love Christmas very much and the Christian observance of it by this country is a tradition I think worth striving for and worth some sacrifice. However, it is interesting that the ugliest rumors and suspicions about Donald Trump involve the ways in which he reminds people of the NSDAP or Nazis and the Third Reich. While many Christians nothing like the Hitlerites have rallied around Christmas, there is also no doubt that the Nazis made Christmas and especially the control of Christmas tree sales and early focus of political activity. In further clarification, it is interesting to note that the list of candidates in the Democrats poll I posted in that article did include Biden but did not include Sanders. Even more interesting is that Trump does not appear among the six Republican candidates who appear in the poll I posted and reviewed in terms of the religion of the candidates. Huckabee was the leader in the poll and he was of course a Baptist minister who claimed the same hometown as President William Jefferson Clinton — Hope, Arkansas. So where does that leave the discussion of religion as I saw it back in 2014? It is not a perfectly relevant post in every way then. But here is the principal quotation from that blog post as it pertains to understanding Clinton’s faith in very general political terms. The first paragraph below deals with how Americans likely to vote Republican were thinking about Republican candidates in 2014 and how that related to Christmas and it observance by the Christians of this nation . However the remaining paragraphs relate to what Clinton’s religious identity is likely to be. It is perhaps best to look at the text:

There is a lot of shaking out to do if these numbers mean any thing before any Republican can claim the nomination. But it does indicate perhaps the streams of thought that are shaping the country as regards finding a religious root for values expressed by America’s “right” in politics.

What then about the left? Where does the other side of American political energy come down on our connecting with the roots of Christianity. Unlike the possible GOP nominees, Hillary Clinton has tended to tower over her challengers for the 2016 Democratic nomination. Some people are saying that candidates like Elizabeth Warren are poised to show explosive growth but it would take a lot of growth to challenge Clinton in the primary.

Joe Lieberman who ran with Al Gore was not a Christian but a Jew who seemed to tolerate a good deal of public Christmas. Mitt Romney belonged to what most scholars consider to be a post-Christian religion but it is one that celebrates Christmas as an American holiday and the birth festival of Jesus Christ. Many presidents have been devout Christians: Washington, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson, John Kennedy and half a dozen others are clearly men who in my opinion must be seen as Christians entirely. Whatever they did not achieve of the Christian ideal is not because they did not adhere to that faith and religion. Richard Nixon was reared as a Quaker and (though many American Quakers seem pretty much to be Christians) Quakers as a whole are not a Christian faith but one which grew up among Christians. It is hard to say what Nixon was when he was President. With men like Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and a few others it hard to say where they stood in terms of religious classification and identity.

So that brings me to Clinton. She is a favorite enemy of the Christian Right and other religious people in American politics and she may well deserve it. She has a background which is mostly verifiable: Clinton was reared a Methodist Protestant Christian, belonged to a Senate Prayer Group and has spoken at Prayer Breakfasts. Her profile may seem different to American atheists than to most other people. Here is an atheist site evaluating Clinton’s background and religious values. It is hard to know how she would deal with Christmas.

I have just finished observing the Independence Day holiday in a minimal sort of way. It is always a time that I like to think about what it means to be an American and posts about those thoughts can be seen here. But although those ideas have been posted here they have more often been shared in other places and my thoughts about America have been posted here on other holidays. Those holiday thoughts on Memorial Day have been here and on Veterans day have been here. While I have in common with Clinton and Trump that I have not a day of service in the military in my past it seems to be the military holidays that most inspire my patriotism. My observation of the Independence Day holiday was not entirely minimal by every standard and I did post quite a few notes and the lyrics of the National Anthem on my Facebook profile but minimal my observance certainly was in some measures. Neither Trump nor Clinton were very visible in my own perusal of our nation’s birthday. But one of them will likely be the American Head of State by next Independence Day. Unlike Christmas these holidays are not specifically Christian. I am a Christian and for me Christian prayer is part of these national holidays. I am not sure how the faith of either major candidate informs their celebration of these days. But faith and the most gung ho kinds of patriotism are linked by many as can be seen at links here and here. What else does America expect from a leader and does Clinton have it?

Clinton has a lot of government experience, but the range is not infinite. One of the big achievements of this week has been the placement of the Juno observatory in position as a satellite of Jupiter. Some of the reason many people around the world are interested in this project can be gleaned here. Neither Clinton nor Trump seems to be the kind to play an extraordinary role in blazing a pioneering trail into space. These kinds of brave explorations may shape the future or not but they do not seem to define the vision of either Clinton or Trump.

One question many people have about religion is whether or not someone who prays for help should be President. Perhaps prayer means one cannot do the job. But some contend Clinton had private emails because she did not want to disclose the degree to which she could not do her job. That story can be seen here. It is to be noted that this not entirely clear story comes from a publication as biased in favor of Clinton and against Trump as one can get. But the point is here only that Buzz Aldrin, a rocket scientist, astronaut and space planner is a noted public prayer promoter in his own life and not being known for religious acts makes nobody a scientist.

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Posted in 1, Christianity, France, Independence Day, Religious Holidays, Russia, United States Armed Forces, United States of America, Western civilization, White House

Tagged Benghazi, Bill Clinton, Christianity, Democrats, Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, elections, email scandals, Espionage Act, faith, GOP, Hillary Clinton, Presidential politics, White House

Presidential Politics and the Current American Mindset

Posted on June 9, 2016 | 2 comments

So will the US ban all Muslims from entering the country for a time? Will it seek to get along better with North Korea and not so well with the UK? Will it deport tens of millions of aliens to Mexico by relative force across the country? Do those visions fairly represent Donald Trump?

Will it lie, deny, distort and obfuscate as long and as much as can be imagined when challenged on any wrongdoing in the White House? Will it sing the official praises of those who who sell human body part of members of our species deliberately dismembered? Will it find ways to blame working class white men and unidentified big businesses for larger and larger parts of the country’s problems no matter what the evidence may be? Is that a fair vision of a potential Clinton presidency?

This blog post does not attempt to answer any of those questions. This post does assert that while I am doing other things I am still committed to the political commentary in this blog. It is a little different than the commentary any where else. It is very much my own. Some of that commentary begins just now.

We all have images of what leadership should look like which are not simple portrayals of reality.

It looks like there will be a race for the White House between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. There may be surprises or a third significant candidate but it appears that those two will lead the charge for the major parties in this country. This post is a chance to simply link together a few thoughts and references for this blog which began during the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama. I still have a few more posts in my series Emerging Views but this post is about the developing presidential election and what all of that will mean for this blog and other aspects of life, culture and politics. While this blog is obviously a particularly small voice in the world of news and information it is not clear that America has the kinds of voices today which Time and Newsweek represented in the 1980s and 1990s. Those were far from perfect times and those two famous weeklies were far from perfect media outlets. Perceptions of bias and the wrong kinds of selectivity were often stated and were justified. But these news and culture magazines did seem to capture a sense of where American political energy and interest were in a way which no handful of media outlets do today. Rush Limbaugh, the ABC, NBC,Fox, CBS, Yahoo and Google News programs taken together cover a lot waterfront. I am not sure they bring together a sense of the country as those two magazines and handful of their peers once did. I wonder where and how this great debate and discussion will play out.

To safeguard liberty we must be able to adapt to the changing times.

Before there were blogs forming a blogosphere there were letters to the editor in journals and magazines and I had quite a few published. That includes on published in Time. I recently wrote two long letters to Time although they really do not publish much in that way. Here they are reproduced nearly in entirety. The first discusses the state of political discussion in America from a particular point of view.

Nancy Gibbs and Colleagues

Time Editorial Staff

225 Liberty Street

New York, New York 10281-1008

Ms. Gibbs (not to insult those who actually read this),

I am responding in part to the cover of the May 23 issue on Rana Forohaar’s careful rendering of her book into a lead article on capitalism. There is some alarming material in the article in the sense that it raises concerns that pose a threat to all of us. But the tone is perhaps other than alarmist. The cover was sort of evocative of covers that have appeared over times past with a contemporary take and for whatever mix of nostalgic and critical reasons I liked the cover and its kind of conversational approach to saving the U.S. economy. I also saw much of the same use of concepts of gate-keeping, source identification, making comparisons between varied crises and challenges for perspective and all these little traits reminded me of Time over the decades. But this time my reading was influenced by another experience that I will only mention and leave to any reader’s imagination as to how it influenced my reading of Time. The experience involved an interaction with an institution In some ways not at all like Time, yet both have played a role in the great and American intellectual commons which is distinct from a world or civilization based heritage or any regional or sectional intellectual ferment. That institution is one of the officials in the particular sport of television. I published a review in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television in the early nineties and since I have no plethora of academic publications that is yet another reason for me to be more interested in the NIelsen process than most. Thus I found it stimulating.

Just about the time your issue was hitting stands and libraries I had a chance to participate in the Nielsen ratings. It gave me the opportunity to think a bit more clearly about the ways in which all that we know as mass communication is changing and about how our society is changing. I deal a good bit with issues of social change and and communications and I do it in my blog, Facebook profiles and other places which are possessed of much longer comments on these events than you have time to read from an over the portal source. A look at my Twitter feed and profile would quickly tell you two things: I do have some influential followers although the number is small and I just added Time to those I am following as I started typing this email. It is not that I never viewed your tweets — I just don’t remember to add people and institutions to my list. My Linked In profile which should be available herealso show some other connections. The relatively long and bizarre path through life depicted there is not a fiction, doubtless there are some errors and some of longstanding.But every thing in it is at least close to the truth or has simply evaded my limited attentions as an editor of the profile.

Time has bigger fish to fry than my little corner of the media world. Your recent issue of May 23 seeks to address Capitalism, feminism with Megan Kelly, mental health with Kristen Bell, Jodie Foster discussing the meaning of her movie and how Sadiq Khan hopes to combat extremism. You do this in a way which is fairly coherent, clever and informative and makes someone like me want to write you a letter even though no letters to the editor appeared in the issue about which I write. But it is clear is it not that there are forces almost of the type found in YA literature which challenge Time’s capacity to marshal an argument, stage a debate and aid in the creation and dissolution of any consensus in these United States. Much of this is blamed on Culture Wars by some who keep up with news from the eighties and nineties. However, this year it is notable that energies channeled into supporting Hillary Clinton, Donald trump and Bernie Sanders all find focus in places near your offices in New York City. They really do not seem to be cultures at war. More like a single culture not able to deal well with the people who make up the culture. I on the other hand am one of the real outsiders compared to New York and D.C., Jackson’s demise as a face on currency in favor of a Broadway promotion of Hamilton will hurt tourism associated with the Battle of New Orleans and I will feel it more than most — although being too disadvantaged to feel it much. I did live in New York for a year as a child and in a vague and general way I am part of the numerous constellations of enclaves the best of New York journalism used to seek to stay in touch with but I think finds it more difficult to do these days. I believe Time is bringing to bear a great number of important questions and people are reading Time and yet I am not sure the influence on a national dialog is very great. The recent past was not perfect but there was a conversation going on about its imperfections when your mentors were young. But the costs are not trivial, I care about fur trappers, cowboys, loggers, oilmen and stevedores. Most of all farmers and fishermen have made up large parts of my life and I consider myself an ardent environmentalist. Likely any relationship with New York journalism would experience plenty of frictions from that area of tension alone.

The magazine you lead is really defined in part by a set of relationships with Newsweek, Life, Business Week, National Review, U.S. News and World Report and a handful of journals just as much as it is defined by its relationships with readers, advertisers, interviewed talent and newsmakers. It is easy to see that Life andNewsweek are relatively defunct, National Review is less than it was under the leadership of the late William F. Buckley and the others are struggling at least as much as Time to find their way forward in the current era and into the future.

I am fifty-one years old and had a letter to the editor appear in Time in the days when voice mail was means of communication that was in vogue. That was sometime around 1993 and I was more optimistic, less bitter and more hopeful of a positive future for myself and the people, communities and values I care about in an emerging American society. I think the tone was perhaps more strident and angry than the tone of this email but I was less alienated. This year is a special year for many observers of and participants in American culture, with its communication focused at actual vocal human beings in attendance at the excited and seemingly burgeoning rallies for Trump and Sanders and the coverage of those events. This makes this political season a year about a different kind of dialog. But this is not coming out of nowhere,Black Lives Matter, Occupy, pro and anti Confederate Flag rallies, Hispanic identity rallies, anti-immigration rallies, the rallies at the Papal visit and with the Pope near the border all form a compelling national dialog. In addition David Duke’s endorsement of Donald Trump reaffirmed that the pure blogosphere ( in which Duke is a player) can make a difference at least for a moment in the news cycle. My own blog is right here. Or you can drag and paste https://franksummers3ba.com/ into your browser. Isn’t it also time to admit that many of the mass shootings are acompanied by political statements which are fairly serious, reasoned attempts by Muslims, White Supremacists, East Asian Americans, military veterans, African Americans and the victims of bullying. They feel alienated and that there is no real recourse in our major social and political process. The focus on guns and mental illness to the exclusion of everything else these people are expressing is perhaps a real sign of profound bankruptcy as regards our national conversation. I myself would like radical change and I outline it in my blog. But how change is achieved matters almost as much as what changes one seeks.

One of the mysterious casualties of Hurricane Katrina and a host of other troubles was the loss of a daily New Orleans newspaper in the Times Picayune. The Advocate from Baton Rouge seeks to make up the slack, but I do not think this will be without some dire consequences down the road.The decline of newspapers has been discussed all my life. I worked for or with and have been published in a variety of papers that there is only a small chance anyone in the initial review of this letter will know. Among these newspapers are the Abbeville Meridional (principal voice of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana since the 1850s), Gannett’s Daily Advertiser, The Vermilion ( student paper for UL now then USL)and Bonnes Nouvelles ( the Vermilion Parish edition of a chain owned by connected members of the Dardeau family).

My Facebook friends list has the publishers and journalist of many Catholic and also of many regional outlets. The list also includes the principal editor of the Queer Times and a number of space related blogs. Yet I cannot help but wonder if I am more alienated from the center you represent than ever before. Would it be to risky for Time to interact with me given perhaps some position or other in my blog? The question is not purely rhetorical. I admit I would still love to have a byline in Time. I do not pretend that I am the only and best qualified person wanting to publish in your pages. I think your recent issue did a credible job. I enjoyed it although less perfectly than in the past and did not read every word. But I do wonder is Time very committed to a sort of national conversation? Committed in the way so many others are to so many other things? If not, then who is?

—

Frank W. Summers, III
Frank “Beau” Summers

The next letter I wrote to Time was related to an article I had read in their pages related to the South China Sea and the brewing tensions there. It is less to the point of this post than the first but it is not irrelevant:

Timelords (is that the correct form of address?),

Fiery Cross Reef is vital to Chinese military interests. There artificial island should be expanded with a more naturalistic artificial coastline. We need a very civilized rival somewhere in the world to justify maintaining our investment in traditional military assets. We need traditional military assets to have a long term future. The Philippines and the United States have a vital interest and real claims in the region are indeed held by several powers as described in the article.

The total story is a complex one. But where are the calls for the kinds of dispute resolution which the vast and costly international legal system and the United Nations could possibly actually resolve?

There are not yet any real bad guys in this story. It may turn out in the long run that a real belligerence must arise in this region. I wish that were less likely than it is… However, if the United Nations, the various systems of mediation and other institutions are worth anything then many people should be calling for them to be fully used here.

I also believe artificial islands must become major priorities for many of the world’s great powers. Learning to address the issues related to such projects ought to be both an American and a global priority.

Sincerely,

Frank Summers

Foreign Expert

People’s Republic of China

2004 to 2005

Students & in English Corner meeting on Campus SDIBT Yantai.

America has a lot on its plate right now. It is not mostly China which challenges us in the world. Our policies from Syria, to Iraq, to Israel, to Afghanistan and on to Europe are at least subject to serious question. This blog has been questioning policies throughout the Obama presidency. It has also been the place to put forward some policy proposals — many of them radical which may be up for discussion or may be ignored but are not being deleted from this site. It has also made many correct predictions and some dire predictions about the possibilities of the Obama Presidency that may not turn out to be the case. While that was always hoped for by me and others around it nonetheless does undermine the credibility of the blog if things do not get significantly worse than they are before January. My own life in these years has arguably been more and more ineffective with a few bright spots and counter trends not disproving that general direction. But while I have problems and many others do as well I am not sure mine are the problems that resonate with the electorate per se. At least they are not likely be determinative of the outcome of the election. Yes I need better opportunity and more money but not in the same way as some other people whose needs better represent more voters.

America has many challenges to face and this blog is full of my thoughts bout meeting those challenges. but so far there is little evidence that this blog will be a major factor in shaping the key discussions of these matters at the heart of our political discussion. I myself am more than a little weary and the worse for wear. But I began this blog to express a point of view and influence the American mindset and I will continue to try to do that.

The earliest post on this blog was provided by Word Press but I could have deleted it. I am not sure if I edited it at all it appears here.

It is reproduced here:

Hello world!

Posted on August 18, 2009 | Leave a comment

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

My next blog post was a kind of manifesto lifted from a series of Facebook notes just a few months earlier in its release on Facebook. You can read it here if so inclined. The idea of a very personal blog with a political view is quite manifest but not so much presidential politics. In fact specific politics as the term is often are not much in evidence in that post.

The next post, which appears here, lays out some geopolitical ideas, visions and policies. It takes tongue in cheek a limitless ambition and scope as part of the nature of this blog. I had nothing much to say about presidential politics in the manifesto.

The first post dealing with presidential politics in this blog links here. It was a reposting from a now long neglected or abandoned user blog I had on Politco.

I reproduce the long introductory segment of it here below. I cannot say that none of my views have changed or evolved but many have not:

I feel a certain amount of sympathy for Barack Obama. I choose to start with that line because I consider myself to be one of the people most opposed to Barack Obama within the spectrum of legitimate politics. However, I don’t think that there is any doubt that we have reached the point where Conservatism can be looked at as something which has merited the term “crisis”. America is in a crisis and I believe that it will prove to be a very grave crisis. However, conservatism is in a far greater crisis. For argument’s sake let us say that the terms right and left, Democrat and Republican describe a real political dynamic which matters in this country. I would argue that on the right in this country we have lots of politicians who use the label“conservative” but actually we have a collection of Libertarians, Tax Avoiders, Moderate Neo-Fascists , Ultra-Reformed Protestant Theocrats, and Anglophile Antiquarians who collectively squeeze a weak and demoralized conservative group of Americans who hardly matter at all. Some of these five never discussed groups would be Conservatives if there really was a Conservative Movement for them to be part of , on the other hand many fundamentally despise Conservatism.I voted for George Bush the first time and almost certainly would have voted for him the second time if I could have made it to Beijing’s American Embassy in time to vote. However, I missed that election. I voted for McCain-Palin in the most recent election. I also voted for Mary Landrieu a Democrat this year. Through my life I have voted for a collection of Democrats, Republicans and Independents. My sympathy for Barack Obama comes into play in this regard. Like Obama (and a lot of other people) I have had to make the best choices I could at any given time. By the time I was old enough to vote I had forged a lot of bonds and relationships which included fundamentalists, communists in other countries, resentful Moslems, white supremacists, black radicals and lots of other people who don’t fall into the neat safe categories that President mills like mid century Yale Law normally produce in quantity. If I were to have made a run at the US Presidency there would be people some folks would like as little as I like Rev. Wright and David Ayres. Despite all that colorful background I have lots of self-respect and more oddly yet, I think of myself as an authentic American Conservative. Arguably, I am one of the only American conservatives who could be optimistic about the Obama example. Because if such an oddly positioned person of such a background as Barack Obama can be President of the United States then maybe I could at least get elected parish assessor, city dog-catcher, county councilman, water-district representative or something else somewhere in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Somehow I don’t think Obama’s election signifies anything nearly that hopeful for someone like me. I am able to accept that there is not likely to be a government paycheck in my future. That is unless you include the kinds of fellowships and part-time job checks form school boards and universities which I have gotten in the past. I don’t hate liberalism but I know that Liberals are more likely to take a political interest in those with odd and quirky backgrounds than conservatives are. I am able to say that I have won a few elections. I won a seat on Dorm Council in College, I was elected as Outstanding Graduate in my department , college and university for that particular commencement exercise at a different school. Then In China a few years ago I organized elections among my student for various class and subgroup offices. Then there are a couple of elections where I was elected to post that I can’t discuss here by groups that like their privacy. None of those races seem very much related to the Presidency or even a governorship however. In most of these races my political philosophy was not a central aspect of what people were electing me for or voting against. Many people hold office for other reasons than political philosophy. People vote for friends, members of their race or class, to keep seniority in a legislature or because they are personally opposed to the candidates opposition. But in the big leagues there are always some questions of political philosophy that become important. I would argue that Conservatism is usually not on the menu.I think that a coherent expression of American Conservative political philosophy would require at least one very long book. If someone hasn’t read any of the books which have helped to from my opinions then an article or two would not make the great sweep of ideas stand clear. Here I am going to do something very different. I am going to propose ten unthinkable planks in a platform in an aggressive conservative movement. I don’t think that conservative means passive. Some of these would even require constitutional amendments. I believe that these planks would probably unpopular and are largely undemanded but that is because Conservatism is largely dead. I think that passing something along these lines would be essential to setting our country on a good conservative path. I believe struggling for something like this would be essential for rebuilding a conservative movement.

What is the mindset or set of mindsets which will shape American destiny in the coming election cycle? Where are we headed as country? This blog will still be involved in tracking these questions and any answers that it can find.

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Posted in 1, blogs, Geopolitics, Israel, media, Palestine, Peace Plan in Israel, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, Sarah and Todd Palin Family, time, United States Armed Forces, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, White House

Tagged Democrats, Donald J. Trump, GOP, Hillary Clinton, politics, Republicans, The US Presidency, time

Interrupting the Series for a note on Presidential politics

Posted on June 7, 2016 | 2 comments

This is a historic day and I am interrupting my pattern of posting lately to comment on the news of the Presidential race which I have not been doing much. Hillary Clinton may well be the Democratic Presidential nominee. Bernie Sanders still seems to disagree and he may be right but the occasion deserves to interrupt my series of posts — much as I hate to do so. Especially as the last post is the most popular I have had in a while. Even more so because Dudley Leblanc is a politician I have a great desire to write about.

Well according to most People-in-the-know, Hillary Clinton is the first presumptive nominee of a major political party in the United States who is also a woman. That is a milestone. If we had a female head of state we all know that means something new as opposed to the old days when mane ran everything. We will join the Buzz Lightyear company of Catherine the Great’s Russia, Elizabeth I’s England, Cleopatra’s Egypt, Deborah’s loose Hebrew Confederacy, Theodosia’s Empire and other avant guard and sci-fi periods of human endeavor so new and newfangled we can hardly imagine them. Empress Qi-xi’s (Pinyin varies four ways including Cici) China. I think it could be seriously said that America is truly overdue for a woman head of state and government. I have no mastered the Census bureau data but my observation leads me to believe that there are quite a few women in this country.

Early December 2014?
Whenever this is it is Clinton’s race to lose at that moment.

However, if she is elected and perhaps before I will be critiquing American feminism which she represents as I never have before — so long as I have health and access to a computer. To some degree I have given things a pass in my small opposition voice which I will no longer give a pass to if Hillary is head of State and government. I voted for McCain-Palin and have voted for several women for many offices who came from both major parties. At one time I kept track of my voting record and found that I voted more often for women when there was a man and a woman in the same race than I did for the man or men in the race. Hillary Clinton is not anyone I have ever trusted, felt great empathy with or been very supportive of in any way I can remember. But I can at least recognize this moment of achievement even if there are some other points of view about whether she has secured the nomination –there really are such arguments to be made (it is not a fantasy and in fact this year comes closer to what I consider a real election than any other I can remember taken all in all).

The voting booth remains a powerful part of our society.

Clinton looks more presidential than she ever did before. I believe that is something real and it matters. To some apparently horrible people like me she has always seemed bitter, pinched and truculent. Worst and most sexist of all we did not like that about her. An unforgivably, while we were disliking that tone she was a woman. Now she seems more open and gracious.

The link below reminds anyone reading of what I was thinking about in political terms on this date a few years ago… Its name bears showing too.

https://franksummers3ba.com/2010/06/07/bp-oil-spill-politics/

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Posted in 1

Tagged Democrats, Hillary Clinton, The US Presidency, women

Presidential Politics and Personal Lives

Posted on August 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

Compared to many of my blog posts this post will have few links. This whole blog is filled with references to my personal life and I often draw connections in my writing between my personal life and whatever political issue I am discussing. You can use search engines on the site to connect this blog post to the rest of my blog. If you do you will not need links and guides to see that my personal life shapes my political views.

I think that to some degree all American voters and all the constituents of the United States of America do much the same thing in terms of making connections and are also influenced. People vote in favor of access to legal abortion in an unrestricted way so they or someone they know can possibly procure and abortion more often than not. People vote against broad legal access to abortion because they don’t want a clinic nearby, they fear their daughters will be sexually mistreated more often in a world where dealing with pregnancy that way is easy or they have lost an unborn child that was their girlfriend or wife’s choice and they felt abused. Some are young women who do not want to encourage irresponsible men to be more irresponsible are to send a message to the broader society that young women do not care about their unborn babies. Not all the pro-life movement is made up of people influenced that way but there are many of them. The personal connections are complicated and not the core of the speeches, blogs and banners that fuel rallies and movements related to abortion, guns, war, welfare, the minimum wage and many other things. Those personal stories can be heard but they are not on center stage publicly. This post is partly about how we voter are influenced by our view of our personal lives and how politicians personal lives are involved in their pursuit of office. Even for those of us not seeking public office many of our personal experiences are shaped by events or trends that make the news and get into political speeches. Journalists and politicians would not be doing their jobs if that were not true. Where we live and what we do for a living determine which sorts of things are most likely to influence us. That is part of what is meant in the old saying that “all politics are local”.

Hurricanes have been a part of life here since before I went to China and since I returned. But some have really shaped my life in a variety of ways.

There was a time when thoughts about personal lives of Presidents and candidates for the White House were different than now. That time most recently was from perhaps when Jimmy Carter was embarrassed by his brother’s antics though the time when Gary Hart was found with a woman not his wife in a compromising position and until the Clinton dalliance with intern Monica Lewinski. People were eager to say in those cases and other that the personal lives and especially the family and sexual lives of political figures were perhaps outside of our concern to some degree and cloaked in some kind of privacy expectations. But Clinton had done a lot of things that got people upset in various part of the political world and among various segments of the electorate and the affair with Monica Lewinski was the thing that almost got him impeached. Since then Elliot Spitzer and the escorts, Anthony Wiener and the sexting, the kissing freshman Congressman from Louisiana named McAllister (more or less) and the news of Congressmen making homosexual advances in men’s rooms, racial segregationist Strom Thurmond having a mistress of color, the sexual escapades of President John F. Kennedy, Barney Frank consorting with a male escort and other such sexual conduct have been widely agreed to be relevant. In addition the jokes one tells, the clubs one belongs to, one’s mental and physical health over the last half century and whom one may have met at a party are all agreed by almost everyone to be the public’s business if one chooses to run for office. What a woman tolerated from a mate is also seen as very much a political quality of some kind. So far in this race their seems to be a problem with Hillary Clinton and choices she made in determining what is or is not a personal email. There seems to be an issue with very few voters as to whether the intention of the fourteenth amendment was to so universalize all rights that it trumped the native clause for Presidents. This must be what Ted Cruz believes even as he challenges the same fourteenth amendment in providing birthright citizenship for many. There seems to be a problem with Joe Biden being too sad about his son Beau’s death to be sure that he can run for President of the United States. But while many personal qualities and experiences have been discussed the personal lives of the candidates have really not yet been at the center of things.

We are most of us never going to run for office but if we do run we will find that in a very real sense we have always been running and everything we have done was part of our political campaign. Every meeting was a political gathering. But I am not writing this post primarily to protest against that trend. or to defend privacy and personal space and limits to public curiosity. This is a post of another kind.

Meeting at Big Woods with Filipino friends who are US citizens now.

I am putting together a sort of series of blog posts on presidential politics during this presidential primaries season. In this series I am examining a series of questions and issues related to the election of the President of the United States. In each of these posts I have explored some aspect of the context and significance of the presidential race and related it to some positions and traits of at least some of the candidates. In this post I am planning to discuss both the personal lives of Presidents and Presidential candidates on the one hand and the personal lives of American citizens and voters. This is the great personal part of politics which most of us at one time or another have wished was not part of the political process at all but which is nonetheless part of the process anyway.

The odd thing about each of our personal lives is that they are so very individual and specific to us. The recent appearance of Donald Trump on the political scene has reminded people that those running for office can take personal offense at many things. Trump has also reminded the world that given the resources and the inclination a political contender can bring the battle of personal insults and disparaging remarks to bear on those who normally deal in inflicting such pain.

Many people seem to relate to this kind of personal belligerence on the part of Donald Trump rather well. In fact throughout the world and across the ages there has always been a tendency to follow leaders who could dish out pain in return for the grievances inflicted upon them. Of course there are many other factors that make up the kind of person most likely to be a leader.

Three years ago today I had an interview on the phone to try to get disability benefits. I had just had a very traumatic experience on August 7, 2012. Perhaps it was a cousin to a heart attack or perhaps it was a mild heart attack but the truth is that I reached a point where my health was so bad and the pain after getting treatment was so great that I could not function. Now things are different. Not good and maybe not better but different. I am coming to this election a more completely disenfranchised man in terms of life in general but still on the downward trajectory of many years. But my beliefs are formed not by my narrowing experiences of decay and decline but by other experiences. Each day is part of a whole life and I write and blog about the politics that life has conditioned me to see. I think we all ought to ask which presidential candidate has the experiences and not just the job experience that will make a good and great president. The truth is that I think millions of Americans are already examining these candidates just that way.

Christmas is a Coming and a 2016 Presidential Preview

Posted on December 14, 2014 | 3 comments

An image showing the basis of all this Christmas celebration.

It is still a bit too early but “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!” This post mixes Christmas wishes with political discussions. That is surely not every one’s cup of tea. It is not always mine. But this blog combines such themes as they are combined in the passage of time in my life. This blog post is another one of those. In some ways it is perhaps an admission that neither one’s Christmassing nor one’s political life are all that they should be. I have been opposing much of Obama’s agenda in this blog and it certainly seems to have slipped back a few notches in the most recent election. This Christmas we as Americans can see that the world is in flux. We can hope to find our way forward through these holidays and the coming year without a great catastrophe but we can also know that there are crises afloat and afoot. Americans can find some solace in the stresses endured by the Holy Family on that first Christmas.

Mom with a Christmas tree in a previous year. Today she is scheduled to buy a tree.

I have not had an exemplary early Christmas and Advent and by some measures I am spoiling whatever moral or religious value it had be sharing it with you. This year I made some new ornaments to replace the missing ones in the old set my parents hang on the Jesse tree which is one of the only objects I still have from when I was married. I also put a few dollars into the Salvation Army kettles out and about, donated a few gifts to the toys programs at dollar stores and discount stores and posted a bit about Advent. I also went to religious services and participated in the Advent rituals around the wreath and Jesse tree at home.

The celebration of Christmas rates some substantial coverage on the White House’s official website. You can link to some of that coverage here. Wikipedia takes note of the White House Christmas tree tradition here. So, perhaps mixing up the elements of a Christmas blog post and an early presidential politics blog post is not such an odd idea after all.

Santa Claus is a powerful Christmas symbol in America today. Santa is certainly part of the landscape of my holiday.

Even for a conservative Catholic Christian like me it is getting closer to the time when one might say “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”. I have used the word “Advent” in two blog posts (as well as the word Christmas in one of them). None of these posts have been as seasonal as some other I have posted here, here and here in previous years. It is also early be discussing the Presidential election of 2016 but I am doing that as well.

We all have images of what leadership should look like which are not simple portrayals of reality.

The reality of our political life is such that the Presidency is currently our biggest symbol and most important feature of our political life. What we have in our society is a dearth of many of the symbols of the cohesion and sharing of our social values with one another in the way that a great holiday can unite a nation and a society. So Christmas and its presidential aspects have a lot to do with our awareness of ourselves as a people and as a society that stands out as existing in some real way in the world. With ISIS executing American hostages almost continually, Russia flying more military sorties than it has since the Soviet Union was at the height of its Cold War assertiveness, the North Koreans mobilizing large cyber resources against us and real decay of US stature in Europe we are either likely to say what does our Christmas unity matter or we are likely to say that the unity we express is not the most important national concern. That is of course unless we are like millions of Americans who have very little concern for foreign policy. It is also true that some of us think of Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Mankind as a particularly relevant sentiment in times like these. The Angels greeting which came with that sentiment at the first Christmas was joined to their adoration, “Glory to God in the Highest!” Many Americans will be going to a variety of churches to honor God as they celebrate Christmas. Others will go to other places of worship to celebrate other holidays – including Chanukah which is a holiday Jesus’s family would have known. But Nativity scenes and even Christmas trees have become a set of lightning rods in the controversies about Christmas in public life. That discussion in return has become a big part of the discussion of religious expression in public life. What Presidential contenders will think about faith is increasingly a political issue that can be seen from many points of controversy.

Me in a shot by one of the proprietors on my phone as I walked into the Donors Dinner.

While the President plays the role he does in pardoning turkeys, lighting the National Christmas tree and seeking to embrace a holiday theme that resonates with the nation it is not impossible to think of the Presidency of the United States as part of our Christmas landscape. When we do there is a sense of the way that our society does and does not function which forms part of our vision of both the holidays and the politics of our nation. So who is likely to be the next President of the United States of America?

Christmas has long been a political and legal battlefield. The assault on Christmas has been part of the story but so has the defense of Christmas in public life. In the chart featured below which may still have some currency even though I believe it is based on data from before the 2014 Congressional elections we have two Republican contenders for the Presidency in 2016 who have about equal shares of prospective primary votes. One is Mike Huckabee who regardless of what he might say if asked about Christmas is a former Protestant Christian ordained minister who clearly has a likelihood wanting to keep the tradition of honoring the birth of Christ as a nation. The other is Rand Paul who, regardless of what he might say about Christmas is deeply committed to a libertarian point of view and politics. Such libertarians often find themselves in alliance with Atheists, some other religious groups and liberals of particular strip in undermining America’s traditional Christian holidays.

Early December 2014?

There is a lot of shaking out to do if these numbers mean any thing before any Republican can claim the nomination. But it does indicate perhaps the streams of thought that are shaping the country as regards finding a religious root for values expressed by America’s “right” in politics.

What then about the left? Where does the other side of American political energy come down on our connecting with the roots of Christianity. Unlike the possible GOP nominees, Hillary Clinton has tended to tower over her challengers for the 2016 Democratic nomination. Some people are saying that candidates like Elizabeth Warren are poised to show explosive growth but it would take a lot of growth to challenge Clinton in the primary.

Joe Lieberman who ran with Al Gore was not a Christian but a Jew who seemed to tolerate a good deal of public Christmas. Mitt Romney belonged to what most scholars consider to be a post-Christian religion but it is one that celebrates Christmas as an American holiday and the birth festival of Jesus Christ. Many presidents have been devout Christians: Washington, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson, John Kennedy and half a dozen others are clearly men who in my opinion must be seen as Christians entirely. Whatever they did not achieve of the Christian ideal is not because they did not adhere to that faith and religion. Richard Nixon was reared as a Quaker and (though many American Quakers seem pretty much to be Christians) Quakers as a whole are not a Christian faith but one which grew up among Christians. It is hard to say what Nixon was when he was President. With men like Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and a few others it hard to say where they stood in terms of religious classification and identity.

So that brings me to Clinton. She is a favorite enemy of the Christian Right and other religious people in American politics and she may well deserve it. She has a background which is mostly verifiable: Clinton was reared a Methodist Protestant Christian, belonged to a Senate Prayer Group and has spoken at Prayer Breakfasts. Her profile may seem different to American atheists than to most other people. Here is an atheist site evaluating Clinton’s background and religious values. It is hard to know how she would deal with Christmas.

Early December 2014?
Whenever this is it is Clinton’s race to lose at that moment.

Christmas and even religion are important but most religious people realize that religion connects to how they see all the world and does so in complicated ways. Real issues like how to evaluate science, how to evaluate ethical policies and how to make peace are informed by our religious background, point of view and activity. We see this with political issues from funding homeless shelters, to stem cell research to the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. But it goes beyond that.

I am a Christian and many of my blog posts are explicitly Christian. But my thoughts about science are in connection with my religious thought. So my scientific areas of discussion do seek or do have a harmony with my faith. Here, here and here are some examples. So my choices of how to use resources here and elsewhere are in connection to my religious values. I do accept and embrace pluralism in America. I see a kind of pluralism in America and the structure of the universe.

The truth about all of life is that it is a bit interactive and interactive and multifocal. That means that what we do affects what we see done and there are many other active people and forces creating the continuous drama that is the universe, playing out the great game — or whatever other metaphor might work for you. Increasingly one may disagree with what the meaning of different part of the drama or game may mean, how much they will matter or who should care. For example some scientist are feeling sure that they have just recently found the key to working out the meaning and structure of dark matter in the universe.

I am very interested in Astronomy but probably my use of space exploration money would place low priority on this research until a better theoretical framework was developed. That also has something to do with Christmas. So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Whether or not you are a Christian or an American I think the American experience of the holiday has something to say to us all. Chinese New Year and Chanukah are different indeed but they also represent a reaching for unity, meaning, celebration and often family. Not just a reaching for money, power and resources. A society with no spiritual moorings seems very close to shipwreck to me. I hope we will never see America in such a condition.

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Tagged 2016 Elections, atheism, Chanukah, Christ, Christianity, Christmas, Democrats, family, Hillary Clinton, holidays, JEB - Bush, Jesus Christ, National Christmas Tree, partisanship, politics, POTUS, Rand Paul, WHite House Christmas

How Lame are these Ducks?

Posted on December 11, 2014 | Leave a comment

I am eager to make up a round-up of sorts and get to Christmas errands and Christmas related blog posts. But this is not exactly a typical rounding up of facts from current events in the world and my life. This is about the acts of the USA in these days and what they might mean. Winter following late autumn or fall is always the season after our federal elections and before the new Congresses and White House administrations take office. It is often very appropriate to the tone of the institutions. However, the current situation in Washington D. C. does not seem frozen, inactive and bleak to me this is perhaps a different face of winter.

The icons of our country are precious as are our diverse people. But changes of interpretation have been continuous.

America is facing a crisis and the US Congress seems to realize that this is the case and seems to be seeking to act responsibly. The trillion dollar agreement the Congress has achieved and which now goes to the vote is one sign of the real work, real effort and real politics going on there. In addition, the Healthcare.gov website at the heart of Obamacare seems to be working much better this year. Washington has hosted the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and real meetings have been going on all over the town to prepare for the new Congress. Overall, this is a bit more like the Winter Olympics than it is like a blizzard caught up in smog of a big city’s early winter in many years gone by. The ducks that are the Congress and the White House do not seem so blind. In addition, the new report on torture during the Bush Administration shows that these two institutions can still inflict some political pain and are willing to do so. This seems like a serious group of important institutions about their business. But is that the whole story? If not the whole story then how much of the story is it?

Julia Mancuso skied for two silvers to add to her Gold from Turino's 2006 games.

American Julia Mancuso skied for two silvers in Russia to add to her Gold from Turino’s 2006 games.

In addition to the facts I mentioned above there are other factors to consider. Among these facts are the fact that the Democrats suffered the most severe partisan battering in their history of 225 years in Congress with only two possible exceptions. Both of those exceptions occurred long before the age of radio and television — much less this evolving period of social networking. Further, America has been able to lend very little real support to the Democracy movement in Hong Kong in recent weeks which have been crucial weeks for that group. By “support” I mean also the kind of mature advice and critical diplomatic triangulation that an old democracy and China’s largest single trading partner might be expected to provide. Despite the role the United Kingdom must play in such matters and despite the varied views of Americans toward all things Chinese this is an area of substantial interest to the United States. It is also true that things have not gone all that badly so far and many Americans have been engaged under varied guises and in many capacities. Nonetheless, America is once again more flat-footed and out of sync in the world of foreign affairs in part because of the degree of flux and transition and in part because of the policies which drove people to vote for change and transition.

This is me acting as faculty advisor and guest speaker to an English Corner meeting in China.

In addition to these events in China there is the rise of ISIS, the failed rescue raid and the less failed on an Al Qaeda camp including the death of Luke Somers and the South African humanitarian. There is the death sentence of a Christian woman in Pakistan for blasphemy and all the horrors associated with that situation. The world is spinning on and Russo-Ukrainian situation, the Syrian crises, the Egyptian crises, the brewing political turmoil in Britain and much more so in other parts of Europe are not suggestive of a time in which there is room for a lot of error and indecision. In addition we have school shootings that are certainly a real disaster and crisis despite our disagreements about how they ought to be addressed. Then we have the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner ever whose story combines school shootings and religious extremism in Pakistan. Our President is a Nobel Prize winner and Hillary Clinton is one of the world’s most prominent feminists but our support for Malala’s cause in these days has been more muddied and muted than not. That is because of failed policies and the electoral judgment on those polices. One can imagine a neo-con WHite House being more engaged.

So, on longer look the Lame Ducks are not so lame as they could be but they are showing signs of lameness nonetheless. America’s challenges never sleep. The transitions we make have to be made in realistic terms and in awareness of all that is going on. Stagnation is deadly but believing that change is without cost can lead to disasters as well.

Four People To Watch in the Second Post 9/11 Decade

Posted on January 17, 2011 | 4 comments

This is the last installment of names in my list of one hundred names of People to Watch in the Second Post 9/11 Decade. I am glad to have this basic list done and in an uncertain world it is surely possible that this will be the end of the project. However, before September 10, 2011 I hope to put out a ranked list of the Ten Most Watchable People in the Second Post 9/11 Decade. However, there is something a bit more absurd about doing that there is about this already presumptuous project. That and the post discussing those who almost made this list are extensions from and developments upon the basic project which is simply to finish this list. For me I always finish any significant project with the sense of having made my life a little more complete my eventual death a little less frightening. However, I do think the list has some real value in itself and I will set out a bit more clearly what that value may be at the end of this post.

My first post on this list appeared in its original version September 11, 2010 and had twenty-five names:

Series Link 1. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/the-last-year-of-the-9-11-decade-has-begun/

President Barack Hussein Obama , Josef Ratzinger, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Her Britannic Majesty, Elizabeth, HRH Charles Prince of Wales, David Cameron, Sarah Palin, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Glen Beck, Hillary Clinton, President Nicolas Sarkozy, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Carl Svanberg, UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon, Hu Jin Tao, Timothy Geithner, Al Franken, Barney Frank, Vladimir Putin, Bobby Jindal, Bill Richardson, Bill Clinton and Osama Bin Laden

The second portion had fifteen people to watch:

SL 2. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/fifteen-more-people-to-watch-in-9112011-9112021/

Barons Rothschild, Britney Spears, Carl A. Brasseaux, Philip Lord Norton Baron of Louth, Carlos Slim Helu, Charles Bolden, Taylor Swift, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, Kate Middleton, Catherine Princess of Wales, Princess William of Wales, Princess Catherine, Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza (born Luís Gastão Maria José Pio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança e Wittelsbach, Ms. Gail J. McGovern, Me, His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Prince William of Wales

The third portion of my list had ten people watch:

SL 3. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/ten-more-people-to-watch-from-9112011-9112021/

Gaudencio Borbon Cardinal Rosales, Queen Sofia of Spain, Su Graciosa Majestad Sofia la Reina Catolica, Oprah Winfrey, Bill O’Reilly, Julie Ann Yannatta, Vitaly Alexandrovich Lopota, Amy Grant, Ratan N. Tata, Mark Zuckerberg and Jean-Cristophe Niel

The fourth portion of my list had five people to watch:

SL 4. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/five-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

Liu Zhijun: 刘志军, King George Tupou V, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Julie Taymor

The fifth post had thirteen people to watch:

Charles Alan Murray, Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr, Professor Ei-ichi Negishi, Drew Brees, Angela Dorothea Merkel(- Kasner), General Stanley Allen McChrystal, Danica Sue Patrick, Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French, Marilyn Vos Savantt, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi, Madame Nicolas Sarkozy, Air Defense Commander Shigeru Iwasaki and Amy Hungerford

SL 5.

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/thirteen-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

My sixth post in this series had eight people to watch:

Howard Lutnick, His Serene Highness Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi), Elbert Leander “Burt” Rutan, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i ( سید علی حسینی خامنه ای), Dr.Tracy E. Caldwell – Dyson(Ph.D.), Lang Lang, Natalie Portman ( נטלי פורטמן‎, Natalie Hershlag), John Christopher “Johnny” Depp II

SL 6.

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/eight-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-9-11-decade/

My seventh post added thirteen more people to watch. In it I also published a final decision to make the list one hundred names long.

Joanne “Jo” Rowling, OBE, J. K. Rowling , Nicholas Sparks, Nicholas Charles Sparks, Maria Ioannidou, Μαρία Ιωαννίδου, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, Дми́трий Анато́льевич Медве́дев, Buzz Aldrin, Dr. (Col. {retired})Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., Dalai Lama, Zachary Richard, Chett Chiasson, Dr. E. Joseph Savoie, ” ‘Tit Jo’” Savoie

SL 7.

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/nine-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

My second to last post had eleven names:

Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Bill Ford, William Clay Ford, Jr., Michael Fred Phelps, Patriarch Kirill I, or Cyril I Кирилл, Патриарх Московский и всея Руси, born Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev, Владимир Михайлович Гундяев, His Suinine Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus , General David Howell Petraeus, Commander International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) , Father Adolfo Nicolás Pachón S.J., S.T.D. , The Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Serena Jameka Williams , Shakira, Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, Letizia Moratti née Letizia Brichetto-Arnabold , Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall,Camilla Rosemary née Shand, previously Parker Bowles

SL.8

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/eleven-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

1. Ben Shelley is the recently elected President of the Navajo Nation. Born in a Navajo Hogan in Thoreau, New Mexico, was in the terms of Navajo familial and tribal structure born into To’aheedlinii and for Ts’ah Yisdk’idnii. His maternal grandfather is Ashiihi and his paternal grandfather is Totinii. In the United States of America there are approximately 275 Indian land administered as Indian reservations (reservations, pueblos, rancherias, communities, etc.). The largest is the Navajo Reservation of some 16 million acres of land in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Many of the smaller reservations are less than 1,000 acres with the smallest less than 100 acres. On each reservation, the local governing authority is the tribal government. The diversity of these people and the complexity of this system and the need for all of its members to be included in the Societal and constitutional transformation of the United States is something that is hard to reduce to a few words. But tHe President of the Navajos is someone who must be taken into account in all of this and in lager hemispheric issues as the United States begins to refocus on its own region if it adjusts to survive. Navajo Nation President Shelly graduated at the top of his class from Snowflake High School. Leaving his home and the lands of the Navajo Nation for a time Mr. Shelly pursued higher education in Chicago, Illinois, where he received a technical degree in business management and certification in heavy equipment mechanics. For more than ten years Mr. Shelly used the knowledge and skills he acquired to operate his own opened and managed his own small business on the Navajo Nation for over a decade. In tribal politics Mr. Shelly began his public service as a Navajo Nation Council Delegate from Thoreau Chapter. Elected in 1991, he served as a member of the Transportation and Community Development, Economic Development, Intergovernmental Relations, and Budget/Finance Committees. In mainstream New Mexico politics Mr. Shelly also served twelve years as a McKinley County Commissioner and Chairman of the McKinley County Democrats. After serving four years as chairman of the Navajo Nation Council Budget and Finance Committee, Mr. Shelly was elected by the Navajo people and sworn into office on January 09, 2007 as the Vice President of the Navajo Nation.He now leads the Navajo People as the Navajo Nation President as he was sworn in on January 11, 2011. I lived and worked for a good part of one winter in and around Thoreau and the nearby parts of Navajoland. I have friends who largely grew up in that area and the pople are part of novels by Hillerman and Bova and others set in the present and the future. Issues of religion, language, history, economics and race all go beyond any easy comment here but Mr. Shelly is poised to play a role in any future restoration and renewal of this nation and probably could speak well with fellow list member Bill Richardson on very important challenges.

2. Helene Valerie Hayman née Middleweek , Baroness Hayman, was born 26 March 1949 inWolverhampton and is the first, current and only Lord Speaker of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. As a member of the Labour Party she was a Member of Parliament from 1974 to 1979/ This was am arguably crucial time in the history of the party which allowed her to be really recognized by the rising “New Labour” of Blair tenure at the head of Her Majesty’s Government and for that and other accomplishments she became a Life Peer in 1996. Outside politics, she has been involved in health issues, serving on medical ethics committees and the governing bodies of bodies in the National Health Service and health charities. In 2006, she won the initial election among the Peers of the House of Lords for the newly created position of Lord Speaker. She has had to and done well in leading the House through varied reforms and a change of government. Baroness Heyman has also worked extensively with such outreach programs and communications programs as the Peers in education. Further, she hosted his Holiness Benedict XVI and delivered a historic and well-crafted speech when he visited Westminster Palace last year.

3. Phyllis Miller Taylor Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Taylor Energy Company LLC since the death of her husband, Patrick F. Taylor, in 2004. In 2005 she was the one and only listed billionaire on the Forbes magazine list who was a citizen and resident of Louisiana. She has fallen off the list in recent years possibly because of philanthropic giving which has long typified her life. She has been described even by relatively callous and objective reporters as ” dedicated”, “compassionate” and “visionary”. Phyllis M. Taylor has been very active in the realm of philanthropy over the past 25 years. Phyllis Taylor serves as Chairman and President of the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation which is the philanthropic organization she founded with her late husband in 1985. The most famous achievement of this institution is its promotion of the Taylor Plan/TOPS which helped create educational opportunity for millions inLouisiana where students have been able to attend college because of these plans. Students who excel in secondary education are given money for tuition in college as long as they meet minimum maintenance standards. TOPS However, the Foundation she has long worked with also supports law enforcement, the military, and other worthy causes. In 2008 the Louisiana legislature recognized The Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) and the late Pat Taylor’s contribution to the implementation of the program by changing the “T” in TOPS, an acronym, from “Tuition” to “Taylor.” The Taylors used their own money as a seed and their own time to nuture the seed in creating this program making state-paid college tuition available to academicaly qualified students. Twenty-one other states have adopted versions of the “Taylor Plan.” Phyllis Miller Taylor was born in Abbeville the town where both my parents and three of my grandparents were born and which is my hometown. This is the Parish seat which is in the heart of Vermilion Parish where I currently live. Taylor earned a bachelor’s degree at University of Southwestern Louisiana where I earned my bachelor’s degree and a post-graduate law degree at Tulane University which I twice attended but not where I got my only graduate degree. She clerked for my grandfather the late Louisiana Chief Justice Frank Wynerth Summers and she is my cousin. In this region were are neither very distant cousins nor close cousins but in most of the US today we would be considered distant cousins. We have seen eachother at family reunions and other events but have never been close. In the tradition of her late husband, her true passion is to ensure that tomorrow’s generation has the opportunity to obtain a college education. The TOPS program developed by Patrick Taylor and promoted by the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation has been her main preoccupation. This program uses accountability and prior achievement to create much better returns on investment than comparable programs offered by the US government since before and after its founding and establishment as a Louisiana endowment. Although the details are more obscure than those related to TOPS she is also known to have invested much of her own time, money and energy in rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina. Still working on these projects after the major media had moved on to other stories, Taylor told an interviewer in regional media “Katrina has given the Greater New Orleans area a chance to remedy and remold many aspects of the area that would never have been possible otherwise. My concern is that we take advantage of this opportunity and get it right, rather than focus on the time it takes.” During the worst period Taylor Energy moved its company offices to Lafayette which is the parish bordering on Vermilion. Taylor and several of her employees stayed in Abbeville where she was born and reared as wells as other employees eslewhere in Acadiana. Taylor employees were located temporarily in a three parish area, Vermilion, Lafayette, and Iberia. It was wonderful to stay at the Caldwell in Abbeville for that time and revisit, on an extended basis, my home town. Discussing that time in the same interview mentioned above Taylor said, “I was not able to take advantage of all that is available since we had many issues within the Company operations to consider, but I did my best. Many of the Taylor Energy employees explored the area fully and fell in love with the place. For me, that was a great chance for them to learn a bit about where I came from.”

4. Robert De Niro, Jr. was born August 17, 1943 and is an American actor, director, and producer. His father was a well-respected expressionist painter who was well-educated and whose own father was an Italian-American but whose mother was Irish American. Serious artistic respect runs in the family. This living DeNiro is widely considered one of the greatest actors of his generation and just a day or so before this posting he received the Cecile B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association ans that is a high ranking lofetime achievement ward presented at the Golden Globes. DeNiro’s first major film role was in 1973’s Bang the Drum Slowly. In 1974, he played the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, where he created a legendary niche for himself with an iconic character in a role that won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He made the first of a number of significant films Martin Scorsese in 1973 when he played in Mean Streets. Later DeNiro worked with Scorsese and earned an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film, Raging Bull. Other Scorsese films for which he was nominated but did not win were Taxi Driver (1976) and Cape Fear (1991). In addition, he received nominations for his acting in Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978) and Penny Marshall’s Awakenings (1990). This was one of the many roles he has done which was outside of the urban American tough guy. Outside of the Oscars he earned four nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy: New York, New York (1977), Midnight Run (1989), Analyze This (1999) and Meet the Parents (2000). He has made a large number of appearances in film and has succeeded as a director as well as an actor. However DeNiro makes this list largely because he founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002 with Craig Hatkoff and Jane Rosenthal. This festival is part of Deniro’s identity as a New Yorker and was founded in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the many faced loss of vitality and hope in the TriBeCa neighborhood and the rest of Manhattan. The festival has featured hundreds of films and is making the world more aware of New York’s significant role in world of film. DeNiro has tied himself into the story with which this seies and this list is intimately tied.

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Eleven More People to Watch in the Second Post 9/11 Decade

Posted on January 15, 2011 | 3 comments

This is the second to last installment of my list of People to Watch in the Second Post 9/11 Decade. This is really the very most specific list of people of this sort which I could possibly have created in the time I have had available and there are no names on it by accident. After this list portion I will have reached 96 names. These names will have a final cohort of four more names and then the list will be complete at 100 names.

My first post on this list appeared in its original version September 11, 2010 and had twenty-five names:

Series Link 1. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/the-last-year-of-the-9-11-decade-has-begun/

The second portion had fifteen people to watch:

SL 2. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/fifteen-more-people-to-watch-in-9112011-9112021/

The third portion of my list had ten people watch:

SL 3. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/ten-more-people-to-watch-from-9112011-9112021/

The fourth portion of my list had five people to watch:

SL 4. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/five-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

Liu Zhijun: 刘志军, King George Tupou V, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Julie Taymor

The fifth post had thirteen people to watch:

SL 5.

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/thirteen-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

My sixth post in this series had eight people to watch:

SL 6.

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/eight-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-9-11-decade/

My most recent post added thirteen more people to watch. In it I also published a final decision to make the list one hundred names long.

SL 7.

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/nine-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/

This second to last installment of names on the list has eleven names on it. A brief biographical sketch of each person appears below.

1.Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, its chief living revelator and prophet. He has held this office since 2008. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is often referred to as the LDS Church or Mormon Church. Monson’s presidency is headquartered in the largest city built largely by Mormons — Salt Lake City, Utah. The LDS or Mormon Church reports a worldwide membership of 13,000,000 as of June 25,2007, with over 6.8 million residing outside the United States. It is the fourth largest religion in the United States. According to statistics released by the Church, 47% of its members live in the United States and Canada, 36% in Latin America, and 17% in other parts of the world. This central Mormon Church is not the only Church in Mormonism and has denounced polygamy for historical reasons and there are other communions not in union with Monson which have not done so and also have other differences with Monson’s much larger church. Church is growing by about 300,000 members per year, worldwide. The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints seeks to publicize its central belief that Jesus is the Christ. Monson and the LDS assert that Church doctrine revolves around Christ’s atonement as the defining event in world history. Their doctrine is in fact by technical analysis a kind of syncretism of modern (19th century) popular science, varied pagan traditions, Islamic influences in Freemasonry and real study of the Christian and Jewish Scriptures and traditions. This is all recast in terms of American history and archaelogy. Mormons such as Monson see this as a restoration of something lost restored through the prophet Joseph Smith; and continued through the voice of succeeding prophets and leaders of the Church and say that doctrine rests upon the principles taught by the Savior during His ministry; relayed through ancient prophets as recorded in scripture; . The doctrines of Christ are believed to be eternal. Currently Mormonism is finding many ways to influence the world including the Marriot Hotel chain, Glenn Beck and non LDS Mormons such as the fictional Hendricksons of Big Love on HBO and the actual people in the show Sister Wives on TLC. Mormon missionaries are a powerfully active force in the world. Monson was born August 21, 1927 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Mormon American parents G. Spencer and Gladys Condie Monson. He grew up in a fairly typical Utah Mormon background and lifestyle during that upbringing he received ordination to what Mormons call the priesthood as almost all Mormon young men do. In 1945 Thomas Monson joined the US Naval Reserves. In the year 1948 he reached three significant milestones, he graduated cum laude from University of Utah, became professionally associated with the Mormon publication the Deseret News and late in the year on October 7, 1948 he married Frances Beverly Johnson. The Mormons lack the formal distinction between clergy and laity which most Christian communions and many other religions employ and yet resemble the most clerical and organized religions in much of their level of structure and organization. Monson continued an established rising and climbing in this structure as in 1950 he became bishop of Sixth-Seventh Ward of Temple View Stake in Utah. and relatively shortly thereafter in 1955 June became counselor in stake presidency, Temple View Stake, Utah. 1959–1962. Among other duties undertaken he served as president of Canadian Mission headquartered in Toronto, Canada and then really reached the upper ranks when he was ordained an Apostle on October 10, 1963 at age 36. He became clearly in line to succession to his office in 1985 November 10 Called as Second Counselor to President Ezra Taft Benson. 1994 June 5 Called as Second Counselor to President Howard W. Hunter. 1995 March 12 Called as First Counselor to President Gordon B. Hinckley. 1997. His other personal distinctions include the University of Utah’s Distinguished Alumnus Award., long service as a member of the National Executive Board of Boy Scouts of America and receiving several distinguished Boy Scouts of America Awards. Monson served on President Ronald Reagan’s President’s Task Force for Private Sector Initiatives. Other awards include: the Minuteman Award from the Utah National Guard, Continuum of Caring Humanitarian Award by Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph Villa. Distinguished Utahn Award from Salt Lake City and Utah Valley Management Society Chapters. Distinguished Public Service Award from Washington, D.C. chapter of BYU Management Society and others.

2. Bill Ford, William Clay Ford, Jr. is the Executive Chairman of the company that bears his name and largely “put the world on wheels”. He is fulfilling an ancestral legacy as he proceeds into the 21st century. It has been notbale in that in recent periods of economic and financial turbulence Chrysler had long ago been recued by the government of the United States , then became part of German carmaker Daimler Corporation and then got more help recently. General Motors has emerged from its beleaguered past by destroying much of its infrastructure, going into bankruptcy and receiving a huge government bailout. Ford has paddled and navigated its own canoe in all this and has had many succeses unique among the Big Three of American Automakers. “The ongoing success of Ford Motor Company is my life’s work,” Bill Ford has said . “We want to have an even bigger impact in our next 100 years than we did in our first 100.” Mr. Ford joined the Ford Board of Directors in 1988 and has been its chairman since January 1999. He serves as chairman of the board’s Finance Committee and as a member of the Environmental and Public Policy Committee. He also served as chief executive officer of the company from October 2001 to September 2006, when he was named executive chairman. As CEO, Mr. Ford took the company from a $5.5 billion loss in 2001 to three straight years of profitability. He has described his vision for the company as “I want us to be a company that makes a difference in people’s lives; one that delights its customers, rewards its shareholders and makes the world a better place.To do that we are focused on delivering desirable products, a competitive cost structure and a sustainable business model.” Mr. Ford joined Ford Motor Company in 1979 as a product planning analyst and later held a variety of positions in manufacturing, product development, sales, marketing and finance.He served on the company’s National Bargaining Team during the 1982 Ford-United Auto Workers labor talks, credited with starting an employee involvement movement that revolutionized the industry . Investing in himself in 1983 Ford undertook a 12-month course of study as an Alfred P. Sloan fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He came out of these studies and was elected chairman and managing director of Ford Switzerland in 1987. He has led influentialcommittes and operations for Business Strategy for the Ford Automotive Group in 1990 and his team set guidelines and made recommendations for low-volume manufacturing plants in developing countries which have contributed to F0rd’s independent survival. Ford became general manager of Climate Control Division in 1992, and was very successful. He established the company’s first wildlife habitat at a plant location and the first automotive plant in the world to use 25 percent post-consumer materials in all of its plastic parts which contributed to his reputation as someone whocared about the environment. This was increased by his winning in his division the President’s Commission on Environmental Quality Award for effectively making a green change by replacing a hazardous chemical in a production process with water. Between that assignment and his current post he hled varied important executive posts at Ford.

3. Michael Fred Phelps was born on June 30, 1985 and is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008. Michael Phelps is the son of Fred and Debbie Phelps. He is a third child whose parents had two older daughters, Hilary and Whitney. Michale has been well-known for his love of the Baltimore Ravens football team and he and his family have lived his life in Maryland, just outside of Baltimore. His father, Fred was a state trooper, and his mother Debbie was a middle-school teacher named twice as Maryland’s “Teacher of the Year.” Michael Phelp’s father was a good athlete and so are his two sisters. Michael followed his sisters into swimming at an early age. Hilary was a promising swimmer of the butterfly without reaching national prominence or sticking with it a long=lasting obssessiont. Whitney swam competitively for a much longer time . Sister Whitney tried out for the U.S. Olympic team in 1996 at the age of 15 and Michael was among those in attendance cheering her on. Whitney didn’t qualifyand her career was shortened by problems with herniated disks. In his medal counts achievement Michael Phelps has twice equaled the record eight medals of any type at a single Olympics. That record was set before his own birth by Soviet gymnast Alexander Ditayin at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games. His five golds in individual events tied the single Games record set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics also before Michael was born and it wasequaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Phelps has all to himself the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics, his eight at the 2008 Beijing Games surpassed American swimmer Mark Spitz’s seven-gold performance at Munich in 1972. Phelps Olympic medal totalis second only to the 18 Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina won over three Olympics, including nine gold. Phelps’s other honors include: World Swimmer of the Year Award six times, American Swimmer of the Year Award eight times and the 2008 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year award. His medal count is at least fifty-nine medals in major international competition, fifty gold, seven silver, and two bronze including the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. . Phelps has founded and largely endowed the Michael Phelps Foundation, seeking to grow the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles. Setting in the US Anti-Doping Agency’s “Project Believe” program, Phelps is regularly tested to ensure that his system is clean of performance-enhancing drugs. There have been those who were scandalized by his alleged use of recreational marijauana. Phelps has been a physical specimen of unique capacities, a culturaly sensitive ambassador of his generation of Americans and a workaholic in his sport. What he may turn out to be in the future remains to be seen,

4.Patriarch Kirill I, or Cyril I Кирилл, Патриарх Московский и всея Руси, born Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev, Владимир Михайлович Гундяев was born in November of 1946 is a Russian Orthodox bishop who has been Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus‘ and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1 February 2009. Prior to becoming Patriarch, Kirill was Archbishop (later Metropolitan) of Smolensk and Kaliningrad beginning on 26 December 1984; and also Chairman of the Orthodox Church’s Department for External Church Relations and a permanent member of the Holy Synod beginning in November 1989. The Russian Federation is trying to find its way forward in the post-Soviet era and so is this Church. I will stay away from statistics in this sketch because the great questions are too unresolved. How strong a church, how relevant, how official and how dynamic is entirely unclear. However, the possibility of a mjor role for this patriarch in the emerging order is very real.

5.His Suinine Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus was born April 30, 1946. King of Sweden has been King of Sweden since 15 September 1973, when his grandfather Gustaf VI Adolf died. He is the only son of the late Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Vasterbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His father Gustaf Adolf was killed in an aeroplane crash on the afternoon of 26 January 1947, at Copenhagen Airport, Denmark. Unlike many other European monarchs who have extensive styles, King Carl Gustaf’s formal and complete style is simply His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden. The King’s heir apparent, upon passage on 1 January 1980 of a new law establishing equal primogeniture (the first such law passed in European history), is Crown Princess Victoria, the eldest child of the King and his wife, Queen Silvia. There is always an element of mystery as to the real significance of any king. However for all apperances he is past the prime in the cycle of Monarchy althou this can change. The struggle tosurvive and be relevant relates to the stripping away of powers in the constitution the change which allows females to inherit the throne equally, the simplification of Titles and the decision not to enter the European system. In all this it is still clear that the king is an important figure who also holds significance for Norway’s future and influences things in Denmark as well as in the larger world. Officially as of about 2007-2008 figures the Swedish economy looked like this: GDP (purchasing power parity): $338.5 billion . GDP (official exchange rate): $455.3 billion. GDP – real growth rate: 2.7%. GDP – per capita (PPP): $37,500 . GDP – composition by sector: agriculture: 1.5%: industry: 28.8% ; services: 69.7% . The Swedes have a domestic national labor forceof about 4.839 million. Unofficially, this is a great country with tendrils of influence throughout the world that are hard to trace and track. This King of Sweden will be a factor on the world stage as long as he lives.

6. General David Howell Petraeus, Commander International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) was born November 7, 1952 and is a United States Army general who served in other four-star assignments including 10th Commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) from September 16, 2008, to June 30, 2010, This was the technical peak of his carreer so far as his current post is lower on the charts. He was returining to a new theater in what some might see as a single war since he had served as Commanding General, Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I) from January 26, 2007, to September 16, 2008. He was confirmed by the Senate on June 30, 2010, as commander of MNF-I where Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq. He took over command from temporary commander Lieutenant-General Sir Nick Parker on July 4, 2010. A product of very fine and expensive educational programs that typify the ideal of his generation of generals. Petraeus is a West Pointer with Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy from which he graduated in 1974 in the top 5% of his class. He improved this impressive start in academic rank to become the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College class of 1983. He subsequently earned an M.P.A. in 1985 and a Ph. D. in International Relations in 1987 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Petraeus was Assistant Professor of International Relations at the United States Military Academy and also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University. Some news reports have speculated that Petraeus may have interest in running for the presidency partly because he visited a school known for hosting the presidential debates, New Hampshire’s Saint Anselm College. However, the culture does not seem generaly friendly to generals becoming Presidents of the United States these days and Petraeus has denied such ambitions. he may play a significant role in the transformation of America should constitutional and social transformation occur.

7.Father Adolfo Nicolás Pachón S.J., S.T.D. , The Superior General of the Society of Jesus was born April 29, 1936 was born and is the leader of the Society of Jesus—the Roman Catholic religious order, also known as the Jesuits. For almost 500 (about 470) years, the Jesuits have made their mark on the world. Across the globe they are known as educators dedicated to “finding God in all things,” exploring wide-ranging cultures and academic fields. As the largest male religious order of the Catholic Church, the Society of Jesus is present in virtually every country in the world, currently organized in roughly 100 Provinces and Regions. In addition to being present to most local churches and cultures, the Society is an international body, and has always sought ways to strengthen our ministries via international collaboration. One form of that collaboration is the close relationship between two Provinces that we call twinning. In addition, in our day the Society has created structures called Conferences which bring together Provinces in major geographical areas so that they might work together more effectively, both within Conferences and among Conferences. Finally, the General Curia in Rome, guided by our Superior General, Most Reverend Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., coordinates the worldwide work of the Society. Most Reverend Adolfo Nicolás, S.J. is generally addressed as Father General. The position carries the nickname of Black Pope, after his simple black priest’s vestments, as contrasted to the white garb of the Pope. The current Superior General is the Reverend Father Adolfo Nicolas. Father Adolfo Nicolás Pachón, S.J., S.T.D. is a Spanish priest of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the thirtieth and current Superior General of the Society of Jesus. Adolfo Nicolás was born in Villamuriel de Cerrato, Palencia, and entered the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits, in 1953 in the novitiate of Aranjuez. He studied at the University of Alcalá, there earning his licentiate in philosophy, until 1960, whence he first traveled to Japan and became familiar with Japanese language and culture. Nicolás entered Sophia University in Tokyo, where he studied theology, in 1964, and was later ordained to the priesthood on March 17, 1967. From 1968 to 1971, he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning their doctorate in theology. Returning to Japan, Fr. Nicolás became professor of systematic theology at his alma mater of Sophia University, teaching there for the next thirty years. He was Director of the East Asian Pastoral Institute at the Ateneo de Manila University, in Quezon City, Philippines, from 1978 to 1984. It was during those years that my father and I studied in a special intensive scripture residential seminar called “Scripture Ventures” which is not in the official registrar’s definition of an EAPI or Ateneo de Manila course but which had a number of significant scholars and faculty from both of those institutions. I also knew many Jesuits in that relatively small world of the Province of Manila. I certainly heard of Fr. Nicolás Pachón who is fluent in English and conversant at least to some degree in at least one Filipino dialect. However, I do not believe that I ever met this man in those years when we were moving in close proximity. If that is incorrect I apologize. He moved on to Japan not so far off from the time my family temporarily dug up all its roots in the Philippines, Fr. Nicolás and later served as rector of the theologate in Tokyo from 1991 to 1993, when he was appointed Provincial of the Jesuit Province of Japan. Nicolás remained in this post until 1999, and then spent four years doing pastoral work among poor immigrants in Tokyo.

8. Serena Jameka Williams was born September 26, 1981 is an American professional tennis player who has been one of the most remarkable successes in professional athletics in recent decades. She is made more remarkable by being a black professional tennis player, part of a duo of sisters who have achieved a great deal and being an American where tennis has great media appeal. Serena Williams is former World No.1 and at this posting is ranked World No. 4 in singles and No. 5 in doubles with sister Venus Williams. She has been ranked first in the world in singles tennis by the Women’s Tennis Association on five separate occasions. Despite numerous injuries she is considered to be one of the greatest women’s tennis players of all-time. Serena has won 27 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all-time list: 13 in singles, 12 in women’s doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player of either sex to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously.Only four other women have ever done so. Williams has won two Olympic gold medals in women’s doubles. She has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history. Serena has played older sister Venus in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of these matches and eight of these were Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, which was the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam finals. The pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles together. Serena has also been a successful businesswoman. However, part of the story of Serena Williams is her resentment of the differing kinds of attention available to players like the Russian-American Maria Sharapova whose delicate white beauty joins with her athletic skill to create a different appeal on the court to many tennis fans. Still young enough to be a voice in a possibly changing America, Serena Williams also can bring a sense of family, business and black politics in an America which may find it necessary to reassert some more tradtional city club and country club points of view in much of the world including parts of tennis.

9. Shakira, Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born February 2, 1977) and is a very well established Colombian singer, songwriter, musician and dancer who is continuously emerging as a greater factor as a record producer and philanthropist. Shawkira emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America early in the 1990s. Shakira has won many important industry awards incluing: two Grammy Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards and twelve Billboard Latin Music Awards. Her crical appeals has been demonstrated in that she has been nomited for at least one Golden Globe award. Commericaly, her success is huge: Shakira is the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, and the second most successful female Latin singer after Gloria Estefan, with over 60 million albums sold worldwide.. Shakira’s U.S. album sales are just below 10 million. These things alone would show alone with a lot of anectdotal evidence that she has managed to bridge the chasm that separates most of the Americas from access to the success of the media industries of “American” pop culture, But there is more evidence: Shakira is the only South American recording artist to reach the number-one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, and the UK Singles Chart. Shakira was ranked the 76th artist of the 2000–10 artist of the decade by Billboard. Shakira is to be given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well. Born in Baranquilla, Colombia, and raised in self-described poverty but with certain humane advantages Shakira began to perfrom in school sponsored shows. Her school offered venues for her as a live performer, singing rock and roll, as well as pieces with Latin and Middle Eastern influences with her own original twist on belly dancing. Shakira is a native Spanish speaker and also speaks fluent English and Portuguese. She had a period of commercial failure in the locla recording industry until she was able to gain some control over production and the her success began. Her third album was the first success she had in sales as in 1995 she released Pies Descalzos, making her a huge success in Latin America and Spain then with her 1998 album ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones? she earned the respect of music critics throughout the Spanish Speaking world and beyond. Since then her works have included the successful US releas of music video “Whenever, Whenever” 2001 and the accompnying album in English Laundry Service, later in the middle of the decade two more albums called Fijacion Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2. were very successful including the best selling song of the 2000s, “Hips Don’t Lie”. In the fall of 2009, Shakira released her sixth album She Wolf worldwide. Shakira is positioned to help forge a new cultural consensus as America digs into its full self and find a new way forward.

10. Letizia Moratti néeLetizia Brichetto-Arnabold and is Mayor of Milan and therefore also Chairman of the Board of Directors of La Scala Moratti was born in Milan. She is married to the oil magnate Gianmarco Moratti (brother of Massimo Moratti and has two children, Gabriele and Giada. Her carreer as a businesswoman who has worked ininsurance and telecommunications. Moratti was president of the Italian state television company RAI from 1994 to 1996. In 1999-2000 she undertook positions which made her responsible for the growth of Rupert Murdoch’s group in Europe, these of course are the companies that are related to the Fox networks in the United States. Serving as Education minister in the second and third Berlusconi cabinets from 2001 to 2006 she emerged as a powerful political influence and figure in Italy. She ran as a candidate for Mayor of Milan in the 2006 municipal election as the candidate for a party like structure called “House of Freedoms”. She won the election, with over 52% of votes. The Mayor of Milan is the ex-officio Chairman of the Board of the La Scala Opera and helps to direct its powerful cultural and academic institutions. her experience in media and culture as education make her a formidable player in that worldwide culture game in which she is entitled to be a major player. She is close to her father who is a fromer disabled prisoner of war in world War II. She has been accused of ties to facist elements despite seeking to build bridges across politics and also renounceing Nazism and Fascism formally on several occasions. In a possible world wide reaction to constitutional changes in the United States of America she could be a mjor player indeed.

11.Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall,Camilla Rosemary née Shand, previously Parker Bowles was born on July 17, 1947) is the second wife of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and is the current holder of the titles Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay and Countess of Chester. Although Camilla automatically became the Princess of Wales upon her marriage to Prince Charles, she prefers to be known by the lesser title of Duchess of Cornwall, avoiding confusion with the Prince of Wales’ first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales.” She uses this title everywhere except Scotland, where she is styled Duchess of Rothesay. She carries a great deal of baggage with her and in some ways is a symbol in which themes of milennia, centuries, decades, years and minutes always form very convoluted knots. She is known as one who however culpable or inculpable made life very difficult fro the mother of the likely future King of the United Kingdom of England and Scotland. There is for example in my mind no doubt as to the privilege of Christian Kings to practice polygamy but her own story would make a very tortured mess of that doctrine. There is little doubt that in the modern world in the West people would cheeer to see old lovers end up together after suffering reversals and think it noble. But do they like that somehow it ties to a tortured soul’s life and a princess dead in traffic abroad? No matter what she does or chooses hers will be a troubles image and tales for many. What makes her more platable than otherwise is that she seems to know how diificult it all can be to take and to know what she did for duty, what for love, what for convention. It is a path she seems to walk with some care and dignity in times that are darkening and troubled everywhere as regards marriage and family.

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Tagged . Philip Lord Norton Baron of Louth, Air Defense Commander Shigeru Iwasaki, Al Franken, Amy Grant, Amy Hungerford, Angela Dorothea Merkel- Kasner, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i ( سید علی حسینی خامنه ای), “Tit Jo’” Savoie, Barney Frank, Barons Rothschild, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bill Clinton, Bill Ford, Bill Gates, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Richardson, Bobby Jindal, born Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev, Britney Spears, Buzz Aldrin, Camilla, Camilla Rosemary née Shand, Carl A. Brasseaux, Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus, Carl Svanberg, Carl XVI Gustaf, Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi, Carlos Slim Helu, Catherine Princess of Wales, Charles Alan Murray, Charles Bolden, Commander International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, Danica Sue Patrick, David Cameron, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Dr. E. Joseph Savoie, Dr.Tracy E. Caldwell – Dyson(Ph.D.), Drew Brees, Duchess of Cornwall, Владимир Михайлович Гундяев, Дми́трий Анато́льевич Медве́дев, Патриарх Московский и всея Руси, Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., Elbert Leander “Burt” Rutan, Elizabeth, Father Adolfo Nicolás Pachón S.J., Gaudencio Borbon Cardinal Rosales, General David Howell Petraeus, General Stanley Allen McChrystal, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Glen Beck, Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Her Britannic Majesty, Hillary Clinton, His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, His Serene Highness Albert II, His Suinine Majesty, Howard Lutnick, HRH Charles Prince of Wales, Hu Jin Tao, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, J. K. Rowling, Jean -Cristophe Niel, Joanne “Jo” Rowling OBE, John Christopher “Johnny” Depp II, Josef Ratzinger, Jr., Julie Ann Yannatta, Julie Taymor, Kate Middleton, King George Tupou V, Lang Lang, Letizia Moratti née Letizia Brichetto-Arnabold, Liu Zhijun: 刘志军, Madame Nicolas Sarkozy, Maria Ioannidou Asthe, Marilyn Vos Savantt, Mark Zuckerberg, Me, Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French, Michael Fred Phelps, Ms. Gail J. McGovern, Natalie Hershlag), Natalie Portman ( נטלי פורטמן‎, Nicholas Sparks, Oprah WInfrey, or Cyril I Кирилл, Osama Bin Laden, Patriarch Kirill I, President Barack Hussein Obama, President Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, previously Parker Bowles, Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza (born Luís Gastão Maria José Pio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança e Wittelsbach, Prince William of Wales, Princess Catherine, Princess William of Wales, Professor Ei-ichi Negishi, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Sofia of Spain, Ratan N. Tata, S.T.D., Sarah Palin, Serena Jameka Williams, Shakira, Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, Sovereign Prince of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi), Steve Jobs, Su Graciosa Majestad Sofia la Reina Catolica, Taylor Swift, The Dalai Lama, The Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Thomas S. Monson, Timothy Geithner, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A), UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon, Vitaly Alexandrovich Lopota, Vladimir Putin, William Clay Ford, Zachary Richard

Tag Archives: Hillary Clinton

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