PrintFebruary 19, 2008
Michelle Obama, America, and pride
Perhaps the Obama Campaign should reconsider its priorities and message. The object of one's civic life is not to live in a country one can be proud of, but that one should live a life of such selfless courage, meaningful toil, and lasting contribution, that one's country should be proud of you.
Have you "earned" the life Captain Miller asked of Private Ryan, as he gave his last full measure in Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan."
If words have meaning, and if words matter, the Obama campaign shoud revisit the quest of the Democratic icon, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy:
"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shank from this responsibility - I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
Senator Obama (and your profoundly mistaken wife): "Ask not if you can be proud of your country, but can your country be proud of you."
Never has the divide between the traditional conservatism (yes, conservatism) so well articulated by President Kennedy, and the socialist, entitlement-state liberalism of the Obama/Clinton Democratic Party been illustrated with such crystal clarity.
