I want this book

I got an excerpt of Lee Iacocca's book "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?" Since I believe in copyright, I won't reprint it here, rather link you to Google Books where you can read an excerpt. Skip ahead to page 3, "Had Enough?"

I agree with this man. I've certainly had enough of where our country is going. It's all reduced to sound bites and a beauty pageant. Personally I would have liked to see Dennis Kucinich get further in his campaign, but if he were tapped to be Obama's or Clinton's running mate, I dare to say I'd be willing to vote that ticket today. I'm probably making many enemies here in Georgia by coming clean about my political leanings, but hey, like assholes, we've all got opinions. My opinion is that middle class America is suffering. I am middle class America. Yes, I have an advanced education, but because I choose to work with and on behalf of children, I will remain middle class.

I've had enough of career politicians. I like Shirley Franklin, Mayor of Atlanta. She is getting ready to leave office soon with the next Mayoral Race in 2009. She has been in public office but Mayor was her first elected position in public office.

Going back to the Lee Iacocca book, perhaps what drew me to his book was his statement, "We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution." What has happened in our country with regard to all this talk of amending the constitution to be so EXclusive of rights is akin to local terrorism. The fact that we have Huckabee running for president and talking about amending the Constitution to meet God's standards, "[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards." PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE AMERICA - do not elect this man into office. Hearing talk like that about the Constitution of America scares me to my core. Gone will be the 1st Amendment. SCOTUS will be pillaged and filled with religious-agenda justices. Precedent will be raped, maimed and left for dead for cases protecting our civil liberties.

Huckabee can say what he wants, that's the beauty of this county. But I can make my statement too - I am outraged at the level to which our government is endorsing particular religious beliefs. Don't tell me what to believe. Don't tell me what GOD's standards are... you don't have the monopoly on what, who, or how God is or what the true meaning of spirituality actually is. The answer is that we each have a relationship with God of our own. I don't need someone to tell me how to believe in God. I don't want to live in a society that is full of divisive hate.

I got an e-mail from someone, forwarded blindly about Barak Obama. It make a lot of noise about his so-called Muslim background. It was sent by one of "God's crusaders" so to speak. I wanted to vomit. In no time in my life had I ever received such a piece of concentrated HATE SPEECH about someone. Those who cast judgment on others for not being of THEIR particular religious denomination and spread words of hate are criminal and not at all spiritual. How is that a loving and caring way to be?

Perhaps the most beautiful explanation of religion came from Obama's mother, as he wrote, "Religion was an expression of human culture, she would explain, not its wellspring, just one of the many ways - and not necessarily the best way - that man attempted to control the unknowable and understand the deeper truths about our lives."

I don't think I can be quiet about it any longer. In work circles, I respect my colleagues and their beliefs. Many of them are Christians. Many I don't know what their religious leanings may be. But many of them are good people, so for those reasons, I don't talk politics in relation to or around those I work with, it's better left to each person's own beliefs.

It's snowing today in Georgia... more on that later.