DARRYL WILLIAMS

State of the Union?

I am sure at this point that all of you have seen the state of the union address that was given by President Obama and also the Republican response that was aired after the president’s speech.

Now the speech that the president gave was a great speech as for as speeches go. The overall message that I took away from his speech was that we are all Americans and anything that is happening in America affects us all as Americans. It dos not matter if you are Republican, Democrat, Black, White, Asian, Christian, Jew, Muslim , Gay, Streight or any of the many other categories that we fall into as Americans.

The president emphasized the fact that all of us are Americans and we must work together to fix all of Americas ails. This country was not built by any lone category of people and the solution to our problems is all of our responsibility.

Everything that we are experiencing now as a country is the result of what we did or failed to do collectively to prevent the economic crisis the country is experiencing. It’s not about a blame game it is about solutions and that is the message that the president wanted to get out to the American people.

After the Presidents insightful and motivating speech, the republican response was that the president did not talk about the economy and Jobs but talked about spending more money. The truth is that there is nothing new to add to the topic of the economy and jobs that has not already been spoken about to some degree or another.

The American people are tired of all the talking about what we all know are the issues. The American people want solutions. This is what the presidents chose to focus on for good reason. The solutions that are required will mean that our elected officials will have to work together and do the job that they were elected to do.

We all were angrily disappointed when this was not done and our country was on the verge of an economic crisis when a budget was not passed. The result of which was that the United States credit rating went from a AAA rating to a AA+ because our elected officials let their egos get in the way of doing the job that they were elected and are also being paid to do.

It goes with out saying that some of the solutions that the President has put forth will require that money will have to be spent. We all know that sometimes you have to spend money in order to make money sometimes. The state of our economy does not change this fundamental fact.

The republican response to President’s state of the union address was predictable. It was also tragic because the very thing that the President said that we needed to do was the very thing that the Republic response did not do.

The response boasted blame, criticized and was in opposition to the President, Democrats, bipartisan cooperation and what the American people want.

I know that old habits die hard but if those habits are hurting the American people then we need to change that at the ballot boxes.

Peace and Soul

Darryl Williams

Bully

©Darryl Williams

I hope that all of you that are reading my words have been experiencing all of the things that God has for you. It is my wish that all of you live the best possible life that you can live and be the best human being that you can.

I want to talk to all of you about something that has been in the in the news lately and has been the subject of many talk shows over the past few years. It is the subject of bulling. There seems to be a story every other month or so about a child who has committed suicide because were victims of a bully or bullies.

I recently saw a television show in which a teenage girl was on trial and was being accused of negligent manslaughter because she had bullied another girl at her school by saying things about her in a blog. This young lady posted on her blog that the other student was gay. Now here is the twist the blog was not about the young lady being gay. The blog was about the young lady not being out and that she was a coward and a wimp for not being proud of her sexuality.

When the blogger was questioned on the stand she stated that she had really close friends that were gay and she thought it was insulting to all gay people for anyone to hide who they are. She said that she was just trying to send a message that it was okay to be who you are and to be proud. She did not think that what she did would cause here school mate to kill herself.

Now I found this very interesting that we live in a world that on one hand a child can be bullied for being gay and on the other hand a child is being bullied for not being gay. What that tells me is that we have a generation of children that are growing up in a world that is far different than the world that we grew up in.

This generation of children is exposed to a very complex set of situations and circumstances that come in many forms. They have access to network television, cable, movies and the internet that advocate individual rights and to be tolerant of the diversity especially when it comes to sexuality. Our children are also exposed to the views of the parents and other adults who are racist, homophobic and bigoted. These leads to our children being put under an enormous amount of stress and then they act out by bulling other children because of the inadequate that they are dealing with.

Children bully others because they want to divert attention away from themselves for some reason or the other. My experience has shown me that the reasons can be as diverse as the children themselves.

The one thing adults can do is to be very conscious about our opinions about others when children are present. This includes our own children, grandchildren and the children of anybody else’s. There are many reasons that our children bully other children. A lot of these reasons come issues and conflicts that stem from home.

I think that any child that bullies has a situation at home that creates or either allows a child to be a bully. The message is for all adults to just be conscious of all they say and do around children.

Peace and Soul

DarrylWilliams

Lier Lier

It seems that the dirt diggers are in full swing for the upcoming presidential election. In the news the story is republican candidate Herman Cain has been accused of sexual harassment by two women. One of these women sued and a settlement was reached.

When the allegations were first brought to the attention of Herman Cain he denied that no such thing happened and accused he opposing republican runners along with the Democratic party of causing trouble for him.

As time passed his response to the allegations changed with each day. He then miraculously remembered a settlement but still claimed his innocence. In the mist of all of this another woman surfaced and said that she was also a victim of his sexual harassment. She stated that she did not task any legal action however.

The problem that I am having is that anyone who enters the political arena and especially someone that is trying to secure a presidential nomination must know that many skeletons are going to come out of the closet. Some of the things are going to be true and some not but the thing that seems to make sense is to tell the truth. It would seem that someone on his team should have devised a strategy to address all of the possible things that can come up during the mudslinging that was bound to take place the least of which should have been having putting all of the things on the table and telling the truth about the mistakes that have been made.

All of us are human beings and have made mistakes in our lives. The best thing about making a mistake is to learn from the experiences. Most Americans are sympathetic to circumstances that another person goes through when they are honest about it and show how they have changed as a result of their mistake. It is offence that any one that wants to be president could be as dumb as to assume his skeletons would not be brought out of the closet and in addition would think that Americans are stupid enough to just go along with anything he just says.

This one seems like just what the country needs right now. I mean come on really.

Peace and Soul

Darryl Williams

Bring Home the Troops

I hope by now all of you have heard the announcement that President Obama made indicating that The troops that are in Iraq will be pulling out at the end of the year which will be Dec 31 2011.

Most Americans are elated at the idea that our troops will be coming home so that we can end the billions of dollars that are being spend on the war that is going on there. In addition nearly five thousand U.S. service members have been killed in the war to date.

There is also the issue that the government in Iraq needs to be prepared to take over their country and govern it in a democratic way that best meets the needs of its people.

As you might have expected there has been criticized of President Obamas announcement. The loudest of this criticism has come from the republicans. Is that a surprise to anyone? Now the biggest criticism has been that Al-Qaida and the Taliban have a big presence in Iraq and also the countries that boarder Iraq. This is true however Iraq has a government and a military and they should be given every opportunity to be responsible for the security of its boarders.

The Iraq government will have the needed intelligence support of the United States as well as the other ally nations to help them to meet their security challenges. The only way that government that is set up in Iraq can know if it can work is if it is actually given the chance to do so.

There are always going to be terrorist they will never go away. It does not matter if the United States has troops there or not. The blessing is that the United States and other ally nations have an extensive intelligence system set up to combat the terrorist treat.

Also most Americans are not aware of the fact that the agreement that will bring all th troop’s home was an agreement that was set up by President Bush and Iraq officials back in 2004 or 2005.

In a nut shell the United States and Iraq are honoring the agreement that they both made as to what would be best for their country which was set up before Obama took over as President.

I will always speak up for what I think is right regardless if it’s from a Democrat or Republican because I only have to be in agreement with God. In this instance the Republicans are resorting to the behavior that has become expected of them at that is to criticize and bad mouth everything that President Obama says, wants or do. It has become quite a cliché.

It seems that in light of the Republican fueled economic recession, celling debt fiasco and now the opposition to the President Obamas jobs bill the republicans are grasping at straws. The American people are not pleased with a lot of things and at the top of the list are the behaviors or the republican politicians with regard to what best for America.

Peace and Soul

Darryl Williams