He who sows the wind, reaps the whirlwind, to paraphrase the Jewish prophet Hosea. What goes around comes around. Karma.In a "puffy" interview airing today on CBS's Sunday Morning, President Obama decries what he calls the vitriolic tone in Washington. "I am concerned," he says while strolling to the White House basketball court to take on Clark Kellogg in a game of POTUS (a variant of HORSE) "about a political climate in which the other side is demonized."
Isn't this the same Barack Obama who as a U.S. Senator from Illinois commencing in 2004 stood by while his predecessor, George Bush, was mercilessly demonized by so many of Obama's own party?
Which followed eight full years of Clinton-bashing from the right. Which followed 12 years of Reagan/Bush bashing at the hands of the left. And so on and so forth.
How would one go about ending this cycle of verbal violence? Spiritual teachers from every corner of the globe, including Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Eckhart Tolle and Jesus, have preached the virtues of non-reaction, turning the other cheek.
But political leaders, especially in the more recent era of the 24-hour news cycle, have eschewed the non-violent response option, afraid to allow their actions to speak for themselves at the polls come the next election.
Obama, though low-key in voice and manner, appears to favor no different approach, calling out Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck by name in this interview. Which, of course, draws the inevitable cyclic response.
From Limbaugh: "I and most Americans do not believe President Obama is trying to do what's best for the country. Never in my life have I seen a regime like this, governing against the will of the people, purposely. I have never seen the media so supportive of a regime amassing so much power. And I have never known as many people who literally fear for the future of the country."
And the beat goes on.
Photo credit: New York Daily News
No comments:
Post a Comment