The Politics of Daily Bread

 "Give us this day our daily bread," says Jesus, when asked by the disciples to give 'em some guidance on prayer.

The prayer begins, of course, with a focus upon God, God's Holiness, and then this explosive conjunction of heaven and earth, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." This is not a petition, not an asking, nor hope nor dream, but a reality, a reality unfolding and emerging; it's happening, it will happen, it has happened, and it's going to to happen, inevitably, inexorably, without fail, though tried and tested, resisted and manipulated, by the powers and principalities of this age (Ephesians 6.12).

And then bread, of all things.

Not debts and forgiveness, nor the requests for guidance and safety, nor any other petition.

But bread.

Basic stuff.

The staff of life, the first and the foremost, the belly, and daily bread ... because bread is life: who grows the grain, who makes it, who has it, who gets it, who's denied it, and who have to settle for the crumbs ... bread is a world of social imbalance and control, as with the rich fool who builds bigger silos to store his harvest and squeeze the market for higher prices. Those with plenty use their means to manipulate the ebb and flow of commodities, and further enhance their wealth.

To ask for daily bread is to ask for the fare share, the living wage, what's right and just and decent, what's needed for a person to live, for a family to make it, and those with too much to go with a bit less so those with too little can enjoy a wee bit more (2 Corinthians 8.13ff).

The petition for bread is corporate, as is the whole of the prayer - it's not me, nor mine, but "us" - all of us, the whole of creation, my neighbor, the folks down street, and the children at the border. It's all of us, or none of us - that's political, that's explosive, that's a game-changer, when it comes to the markets and mechanisms of fair trade, the accumulation of wealth and power, and the needs of the many. "Thoughts and prayers" are not included (don't waste your breath!). It is bread, the loaves and crusts and all the rest, to grace a table, or with a few fish at a lawn party, to fill a belly, with leftovers aplenty (Matthew 13.14).

It's the first petition in our LORD's Prayer - because bread is the fundamental question of life, life together, life in the kingdom of God, life moving in concert with God's will ... as it is in heaven, where justice reigns powerfully and beautifully, the lights never go out, and doors are never shut (Revelation 21), sadness, sorrow, lies and deceit are gone, no one left behind, all creatures great and small, the whole of creation, you and me brother, you and me sister.

Give us this day our daily bread!

All Lives Matter????

When someone says, "All lives matter," I'm immediately suspicious.

Why?

Because I think it's an avoidance thing ... an avoidance of the specific, the very specific, issue: Black Lives Matter, and every day, how our society makes it clear that Black Lives don't matter very much at all.

The avoidance of the specific, to blunt the sorrow and to sidestep responsibility.

Yes, all lives matter ... but without specificity, the slogan becomes just another meaningless, throwaway phrase ... like, "How are you today?" or, "Have a good day!"

In reality, if we want to get serious and go to work, then it's Black Lives Matter ... here is a need, a task, to keep our society busy for a long time to come.

Some would say, "The Devil's in the details."

I say, "God is in the details, and so is love and justice, if we make it so."

More Thoughts about Social Justice and Faith

Written for the August, 2013, church newsletter:

Dear Friends,

An extraordinary event is coming up for the Eggebeens - a reunion of a group of pastors with whom Donna and I began our life in the PCUSA. For all of us, it was our first time in ministry - we were all young, and all fresh out of seminary, and now we're all retired, at the end of our separate journeys, yet out time together in the West Virginia Mountain Project shaped us for the rest of our lives.

With one of the couples, we've been fortunate to stay in touch; with the other two, only marginally. But we're all getting together this September in San Jose where one of the couples live. The other two couples are traveling respectively from Pennsylvania and Virginia. 

We're writing reflection papers, and here's something I recently wrote:

Ever since my first pastorate (1970-71) in the coal fields of Southern West Virginia, I realized that Christianity and justice belong together, that Christianity has the wherewithal to deal with economic questions and the power to challenge the powers-that-be. 

Yet, I also learned, that American Christianity, under the Reformation notion of "salvation for eternal life," has been used to quiet people's unrest in the present order by offering them a sop for some future joy.

For those who lived in the powerful regions of the nation, with large homes and shiny cars, enjoying fine choirs and eloquent preachers, this was a convenient kind of Christianity. They, too, would be going to heaven, but, in the meantime, they were at liberty to enjoy the fruits of their labors - that such fruit was plucked out of the mouths of babes and out of the hands of sweat-drenched workers was of no account to them. Perhaps this is what God ordained.

These experience and observations have been the energy of my theology and sociology throughout my ministry. A Christianity that has the power to do something and chooses not to, opting for some sort of "inner peace with eternal hope" is no Christianity at all. And it's no wonder that most of the Western World, where this kind of Christianity has had the greatest influence, is rejecting it. And it can't happen soon enough.

With that, here are some further reflections: I have spent my entire ministry trying to put one-and-one together - social justice and faith in Jesus. 

Even in seminary days, I recall thinking: strong faith in Jesus equals strong social justice; they walk hand-in-hand with one another. 

To separate them does several damaging things: 1) though social justice can stand on its own - we all know what's right, and what fair means - nonetheless, without a faith-foundation of some kind, social justice can lose its bearings and its energy, though social justice without faith fares a whole lot better than faith without social justice. 2) Faith without social justice is no faith at all, but only Marx's "opiate of the people," mostly used by the comfortable to insulate themselves from reality, and to "calm the rabble," lest they demand from the comfortable their fair share.

No doubt, social justice doesn't need faith to survive, and God be praised for that. God sees to it that social justice can stand on it's own (though I believe social justice without faith is like song lyrics without the music). And if someone asks me, "What kind of faith" I reply, "Just about anything that has a transcendent dimension to it - that of a scientist in awe before the universe or a child's prayer before bedtime, and it's to be found, as well, in all the religions of the world."

As for faith, God designed faith in such a way that it needs social justice to be faith, and without social justice, God sees to it that faith becomes deeply twisted and malignant. Sadly, it creates terrible conditions for those who practice faith without social justice, and does great harm to those who are the objects of faith-preaching without social justice.

Of this kind of Christianity, God is cleansing the world, I believe. The demise of Western Christendom is very much the result of God's housecleaning.

I eagerly anticipate our reunion and hearing from my colleagues their stories of faith, hope and love.

Pastor Tom 

A White-Bread Boy

A White-Bread Boy, that’s what I am … to the core, pure, plain and simple.

Mom was of German ancestry, her family arriving here in 1848.

Dad was of Dutch stock, his family arriving here in the 1890s.

And we were racist to the core … deeply religious, too. We all loved Jesus, went to evangelical Reformed Churches, served the LORD and abided in God’s word … and racist to the core.

That’s how I grew up.

In Wisconsin and Western Michigan … I’ll not rehearse the ugliness of it all, but ugly it was, and I was pretty damn ugly, too, as were all my high school and church friends - the whole white environment, establishment, and their world of Christian Schools and Churches, filled to the brim, Sunday morning and Sunday evening, with Wednesday evening catechism and prayer meetings. Not a person of color to be found anywhere, except in missionary tales of Deepest Darkest Africa. Everyone was pious, and when I was 15 or 16, I bought me a big ol’ Thompson Chain Reference Bible, King James, of course, and in that Bible, I could find a verse for everything, but especially for proving how right everyone was, and I carried it to church, too. I was into god, and, yes, God was into me, too … in ways I would only much later discern, and for that, I’m grateful. That this innocent/guilty White-Bread Racist Boy was still the object of God’s mercy.

To make a long story a little shorter, it was in college, Calvin College, that I was converted. With everlasting thanks, I note two professors in particular who opened my mind and my heart: Professor Roger Rice, Sociologist, who had us read Michael Harrington’s The Other America. And Professor Donald Wilson, Anthropologist, who told chilling stories of missionary zeal and cultural abuse. To this day, I recall both professors, and give thanks for my conversion to a gospel that I had “known” all of my life, and with hymns, sung and fine doctrinal preaching; but, now, for the first time in my life, I saw a larger world, and the folly of my faith, the harm it’s done and the callous manner in which it sided with the racist patterns of America.

Maybe I’m alone in this - the way I raised, with plenty of religion and plenty of racism - and finally, by the grace of God, beginning to figure it out: that religion and racism do not belong together, and where there is racism, the professed faith is more an illusion than a reality, more about heaven, of course, and so little about this world, other than avoiding its taint, doing what could be done to convert lost souls and persevering to the end. Meanwhile, it’s okay to fear and hate your neighbor, if they’re persons of color, because they’ll come into the neighborhood, and there goes the neighborhood. And if met on the street, be careful - they’re all dangerous.

I’ve learned a lot over the years, and I’m still learning. 

When I was in Detroit, I learned that in the postal system there, well up into the 80s, white supervisors routinely assisted white applicants with the testing, even adjusting scores, while making it virtually impossible for African-Americans to enter the system.

Never once in my whole life have I been humiliated because of my color. Never once. Never once have I been denied anything because of color. Never once.

I now have African-American relatives, and I’ve learned a few things from them.

It’s not a pretty picture, and there’s no end to the humiliation they’ve experienced - centuries of it, to this very day.

Perhaps the Trayvon Martin jury decided correctly - it was just too difficult to prove, either second-degree murder or manslaughter.

But for many African-Americans, it’s just one more humiliation, one more moment in a long and sad history of discrimination - the failure of virtually every system in America - schools, churches and courts.

I was a racist, and though much of it has been removed from my life, the stains remain on my soul and in my memories - stains that can’t be removed, and that’s all right, because then I can never claim innocence. 

So I know racism, because shreds of it still flow around the dark edges of my spirit and mind. I hate it, but that’s the way it is. It’s my reality, and if there’s grace in this world, it can operate only in my reality. Grace, thankfully, doesn’t need a clean environment in which to do its work. Though grace cleanses, not even grace can remove the stains of the past.

So I know racism when I see it in others, because I know it so well in my own life.

The racist looks at the Trayvon Martin story and says, “Justice was done.” That’s that, and like Lady MacBeth, simply washes her hands, endlessly.

But I look at it and say, “It’s one more sad chapter in a story of unrelenting sorrow and humiliation.”

I cannot pretend this kind of hurt isn’t real. It is real, all too real, for millions of people.

I will not close my eyes to the sorrow of others, and though the jury may have rightly ruled, though I think not, many in our nation see this as one more episode of justice denied, a moment filled with all the usual suspects of hoodies, black teens, white women frightened, racist males acting tough with a gun in their hand, nonchalant police and courtrooms where defending white honor is more important than the truth.

That’s how I see it.

And don’t anyone tell me I don’t know what racism is.

A Post-Trial Statement - Calvary Presbyterian Church, Hawthorne, CA

Sunday, July 14, 2013 … a statement - Calvary Presbyterian Church, Hawthorne, CA

My heart is troubled.

I am deeply disappointed with George Zimmerman’s acquittal … I believe he was guilty of manslaughter … he provoked the encounter with Trayvon Martin when advised to stand down. Then, in the fight, with Trayvon getting the upper hand, George Zimmerman used his gun to kill the boy.

That’s how I see it!

I know that some feel justice was done.

I know that others feel betrayed by a legal system that has far too often revealed its tragic weaknesses.

While we live in a land of laws, however noble and good those laws may be on a piece of paper, they are good only when interpreted by good people who strive for the common good and not just their own good … and those laws, however noble, are noble only when noble people put them into practice, consistently for all.

There are many questions here that Christians need to ponder … the last thing God needs from us is to retreat from reality, to hide in our prayers and songs. We have to live in this world, as it is, if we hope to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

No one lights a lamp, said Jesus, and then covers it with a bushel. No, the lamp is lit for a purpose - to let our light shine, that others will see our good works and praise our Father in heaven.

A part of our good works is to bring to the matters of life our very best in faith, hope and love, critical thought and keen assessment … and to live the LORD’s Prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

If we are convinced that God’s will was done yesterday, then so be it. Be at peace.

As for me, I believe the legal system failed God’s will yesterday in Florida, as it has failed for millions of people in this nation - and sadly, it’s has failed miserably for people of color. That’s a fact, and we cannot and must not hide from the truth, ugly as it is.

I pray that calm heads will review these matters, and that Christians will raise up the bright light of justice … and seek the common good … for all Americans, whatever their color, whatever their race, whatever their religious persuasion.

Christians have a chance to set the pace, and hold before the world something better.

May it be so … unto the glory of God!

The Rev. Dr. Tom Eggebeen

Reflections on 9/11, Osama and World Economy

From my dear friend and colleague, an all-around good guy with a heart for Jesus and a better world, The Rev. Robert Dahl, of Holland, Michigan.

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On Sept. 11, 2001 3,000 people died in the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon. It was a tragedy. 

In the ten years hence, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of lives of American soldiers have been lost and tens of thousands of American soldiers have been severely wounded (saved from death by modern medical technology and costing the US countless dollars for longterm care) and a trillion plus dollars have been spent with more lives and more money to come. 

All this and the US just killed the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.  

Proportionately, was any of this response appropriate?  

Jesus said that we have heard that the law is an "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" but then Jesus tells us not to resist an evildoer.   Elsewhere (Matthew 18:21-22), Jesus, in response to St. Peter, admonishes him to forgive seventy times seven times not just the generosity of seven times  which was a vast improvement on the vengeance that preceded that law of the Hebrews originally taken from the Mesopotamians.  

How many times does our nation forgive?  What if we had just forgiven Osama bin Ladin while pragmatically beefing up protection against terrorist attacks?  We held 95% world support in the days following 9/11.  What if we had stood tall and simply had forgiven the evildoer?  Wouldn't we have retained 95% support instead of squandering all that in the years to come?  We have squandered lives and dollars out of fear and false machismo. 

This nation isn't even acting by ancient, humanitarian law.  This nation, by historical standards, is acting barbarically. This nation is light years away from living out the command of Jesus.  And yet, politicians are scrambling to outdo each other on who is the more conservative, bible believing Christian.  

I think that ignoring and violating the laws of God do have consequences. God's law of love, compassion, justice and peace revealed to us in Jesus will not be mocked. This is sort of reverse retaliation.  God's justice will be accomplished which I think means that "love wins."  If that means that we lose, so be it.  

Osama bin Ladin is dead (We all die.); but Osama bin Ladin won partially and almost won totally.  What do I mean?  Osama bin Ladin, for all his boredom and self-imposed house arrest and cache of porno, won.  He got the US to do what he knew would hurt us much more than that initial attack.  He was counting on our all out of proportion reaction to bring our economy to its knees.  The disastrous policy of the last US administration in reaction to 9/11 along with totally misguided tax cuts  and deregulation of the financial market almost took the world economy into chaos; that's the world economy.  That's the world economy.  

The United States, in part, because of the motivation of vengeance coupled with a misguided attempt to confiscate the oil reserves of Iraq for US energy needs, along with totally misguided economic theory of how to stimulate the economy, was on the brink of economic disaster and may yet suffer grievously because of an enormous budget deficit and gargantuan national debt.  

The ultra-wealthy have been enormously greedy, the politicians have been enormously selfish to think primarily of re-election and have pandered to the lobbyists hired by the ultra-wealthy, the elected officials are slaking their thirst for blood and oil in the Middle East and all of them have ignored the impending environmental disaster.

And God is not mocked.  And it isn't nice to try to fool Mother Nature.  

God and Mother Nature will prevail and we will reap what we sow.  

That's not a vengeful God and a reactionary Mother Nature.  That's just the way it is.  

Bob Dahl 

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P.S. Be sure to check out Cost of War.

Labor Unions for the Wealthy?

The economic news is shameful ... no, I'm talking about the crisis at hand, although that's a part of the picture - I'm talking about the rape of America: yes, a brutal word, for sure, but that's exactly what has happened in the last 40 years, as the wealthy have sucked the nation dry, draining off tons of money for their foolish life styles, extravagant investment schemes, furthering their strangle-hold on politics, the economy and even religion.

This fascist-like rape of the economy has resulted in the greatest transfer of wealth ever seen: from the pockets of the many to the pockets of the few.

America has suffered the downsizing of the means of production in our nation - starting with seamless pipe in Pittsburgh - in the mid-70s, when we were building the Alaska pipeline, America had already lost the capacity to manufacture 60-inch seamless pipe, and I ask why?

The sad mantra of big biz has been to blame the unions. This is just a bald-faced lie! Their greed is fault! And with the take-over of big biz by Wall Street, the pace of greed has accelerated to the speed of light, I'm afraid.

And along the way, our titans of business have feathered their own nests at the expense of The People. Yes, the People. What a quaint idea - The People. Of the people, by the people, for the people. Yeah, and the moon is made of cheese. Big biz and its government toadies have been at war with The People ever since FDR won a few rounds The People. Big Biz and its government goons set about dismantling the middle class for no other reason than Haman's decision to kill Mordecai and eliminate all the Jews in Persia. Why? Because Haman didn't bow and scrape before Haman, so Haman's pride was injured. Big Biz has always hated the unions, and it's a matter of foolish pride driven by a distorted sense of entitlement and greed.

The assault on the middle class is nearly complete, and America is more vulnerable than ever!

I write as a religious person, specifically a Christian.

And from the perspective of faith as I see it, all of this is shameful.

And now the latest news from the Census Department - the income gap widens even further.

This is a crime, and if it were committed by some little sleazeball on the street, we'd haul 'em off the hole and lock the door.

But these criminals are lionized and admired, although they've taken a few hits lately.

But they're well-protected; they sit on one another's boards and take care of each other. Talk about unions. THE WEALTHY HAVE THE MOST POWERFUL LABOR UNION IN THE WORLD, and they have a huge chunk of Congress and the Courts coming to their defense - check out how FedEx had laws passed to protect FedEx from organized labor.

The American economy will never recover until we bring justice to the table.

And what's justice, you ask?

The Apostle Paul had it all figured two millennia ago:

The one who had much did not have too much,
and the one who had little did not have too little.

There's always going to be gaps, but it doesn't have to be this wide. Indeed, it shouldn't be this wide.

An economy so badly divided against itself is fractured, and it's failing, and until we address this shameful injustice, the economy will continue to deteriorate overall and we'll witness the further decline, if not the disappearance, of the middle class.

We can do it.

We must do it.

Justice calls for it!

LA Mayor - It's Okay to Shoot Back!

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued a statement earlier saying, "every country has a right to defend itself against attacks from a foreign enemy. Every nation is obligated to beat back forces dedicated to its destruction. And Israel cannot sit silently while innocent civilians are attacked. During this trying time in the Middle East, I hope all people -- regardless of race, religion or creed -- will join me in praying for peace, for an end to hostilities, and for a halt to violence on all sides."

Flawed thinking ... that violence will bring peace ... never has, never will. In one moment, justifying violence and then praying for peace. Sort of like pulling the trigger on your neighbor and then praying for your neighbor's health.

Only justice can bring peace. Peace is not an entity in and of itself; peace is a by-product, a result. If justice is missing, there can never be peace.

But only continuing violence - strike and strike back.

Villaraigosa's logic fits every situation, including that of the Palestinians who believe they have a right to strike Israel, because of Israel's oppressive policies. 

It's been noted that Israel decided to do this while war-mongering Bush remains in office - neither Bush nor his Neo-Con goons will ever figure this one out - the only language they speak is the language of power and domination - what they hope to do is defeat the real logic of life - those who live by the sword die by the sword.

Every empire, every dictator, every aggressive nation, has sought to defeat this logic, but the logic of the sword is built into the fabric of life - those who choose violence to promote peace on their own terms will never find it.

Israel has become a rogue nation with Uncle Sam's blessing ... and if anyone thinks Israel will succeed this time, then I've got a bridge to sell you.

As for our mayor, just words to placate a powerful lobby. After all, this isn't Detroit with a huge Arab population. Wonder what he'd say there. Too bad the truth dissolves in the acids of political expediency.

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Huffington Post article by Marty Kaplan - excellent - the "cost" of victory.

A President with a Heart

President-elect Obama has issued a statement about workers at a Chicago factory (Republic Windows and Doors) - they deserve what they've worked for.

Here's a bit more of what Obama said:

"When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right," Obama said Sunday at a news conference announcing his new Veterans Affairs director. "What's happening to them is reflective of what's happening across this economy.
    "When you have a financial system that is shaky, credit contracts. Businesses large and small start cutting back on their plants and equipment and their workforces. That's why it's so important for us to maintain a strong financial system. But it's also important for us to make sure that the plans and programs that we design aren't just targeted at maintaining the solvency of banks, but they are designed to get money out the doors and to help people on Main Street. So, number one, I think that these workers, if they have earned their benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.
    "Number two, I think it is important for us to make sure that, moving forward, any economic plan we put in place helps businesses to meet payroll so we are not seeing these kinds of circumstances again,'' he said. "Have we done everything that we can to make sure credit is flowing to businesses and to families, and to students who are trying to get loans? And to homeowners who have been making payments on their homes but are still finding their property values so depressed that it becomes very difficult for them to make the mortgage payments?
    "That's where the rubber hits the road and that's going to be the central focus of my administration."

Amazing - we have a President with a heart, and we will all learn that heart matters. We will see our economy recover, with benefit for all the people, not just the upper tier. What has happened since the Great Liar is a travesty, a crime of now imaginable proportions - the pillaging of the once-great American economy.

A union official said: "Here the banks like Bank of America get a bailout, but workers cannot be paid?" said Leah Fried, an organizer with the union workers. "The taxpayers would like to see that bailout go toward saving jobs, not saving C.E.O.'s."

But then this follow up by Bank of America: ... "Neither Bank of America nor any other third party lender to the company has the right to control whether the company complies with applicable laws or honors its commitments to its employees."

Talk about evasion of responsibility ... but this much I know: they'd care and they'd get involved if the company didn't pay them.

The American financial industry has become a-moral,  without moral orientation, and therefore immoral ... it's all about money, and that's a dark pathway for them, and for the nation as a whole.

The wheels of God's justice turn slowly but surely ... and if, like the ancients, we begin to think that God isn't looking at us, that God doesn't care what we do, we compound our error and further the injustice. It isn't just about doing something for the sake of doing something; it's doing what's right, because what's right works, and works well.

Justice is profitable.

Time for Obama and Biden

Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

From a great LA Times op-ed piece by Gloria Steinem ... given time, we will learn just how silly Palin is ... touted as a tax-cutter in a state that has neither sales nor income tax, and she's won the favor of Alaskans by tapping the state's treasury and given $1,200 to every resident.

God, guns and gays ... this remains the agenda of the far right, and right now, they have taken the once Grand Old Party all the deeper into the darkness of a twisted and dangerous ideology.

I pray that Americans will wake up!

Wrapped in the flag, crap is crap, and this message of the far right, the Neo-Cons and theo-cons is nothing but fascism ... privilege for the few, and the rest be damned.

For the Christian right, the damned are all those who don't believe as they do, and for the Neo-cons, the damned are those who question their agenda and dare to raise thoughtful questions about our future and the role we play in this difficult world.

America, stand up with me ... fight with me ... for what's true and good.
America, stand up with me ... fight for peace and liberty ...
And fight for a world ... in which America plays a vital role, but it's not about us ... it's about billions of people who hunger and thirst for life.
America, stand up with me ... fight with me for a balanced and sane America fit for the 21st Century - a global world in which diplomacy trumps violence and bullying.

Obama and Biden will pull us back from the brink of disaster.
They will lead us as 21st century leaders ...
They will help us recover our international reputation ...
They will deal positively with health care and education ...
They will end our militarist adventurism in Iraq ...
They will deal with terrorism and make us safer ...
They will know how to talk to the world ... and more importantly, listen not only to our allies, but to our enemies as well ...
They will deal with the economy and restore sanity to the housing and oil markets ...
They will appropriately tax wealth ... as it should be ...
They will reduce the deficit and protect working families ...

Obama and Biden ... for the 21st Century!