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It seems Barack Obama got into some trouble over some unseemly remarks about the fears and attitudes of some of the middle class. Although his comments did not sound nasty or belittling to my ears, more like a concerned man trying to make sense of other people’s frustrations, noone claims he wouldn’t take the words back if he could, or that his supporters would deter him. Still you’d think by the all the hoopla this story has received, he’d raised his glass to Hitler.
Hillary Clinton, staunch defender of the middle class she’s recently lost steady ground to in Pennsylvania, will take any opportunity to kick Obama hard whenever he “slips” (which is rarely). Still- for a woman worth $100+ million dollars, who resides in a large, gated home in tony Chappaqua, New York, and has openly courted the American elite over the years, renting out the Lincoln Bedroom like The Four Seasons Hotel, assuming the mantle of the middle class is both transparent and an act of desperation. She calls Obama “elitist” and “out of touch”, and his comments “demeaning”.
This is ludicrous bunk, and pure political opportunism on Hillary’s part. No doubt about it- she knows how to fight dirty when she’s down. But I’m hoping and praying that enough Americans will see right through her.
Now here’s a sobering question: is there not some truth in what Obama said?
There were three main issues that surfaced in his words, all of them real and present in our society: the role of faith in politics, the controversial topic of gun control, and the impact of race and diversity in America.
First, here are lots of people in this country who choose not to abide by a fundamental tenet of our democracy: namely, the separation of Church and State. Just watch “Jesus Camp”, the eerie documentary about the evangelicals, a surprisingly large group in this country, and behold how their thoroughly indoctrinated kiddies pray for “W.” every day. The leader of their sect claims he delivered millions of voters to Bush (born again by Billy Graham after one too many D.W.I’s), and that they talk by phone each week. Can America now live with a President brave enough to say that his task as President has nothing to do with his faith? John Kennedy said so nearly fifty years ago, and even then it resonated. So, it would appear that whatever the fiery Reverend Wright has to say in his pulpit would likely not influence Obama’s presidential policies.

huffingtonpost.com

When Ann Kahn was growing up, her family took the same summer vacation every year — a trip to Yosemite. But things are different for her daughter, Ashley.
At 19, Ashley has already set foot on every continent — including Antarctica. And all but one of her journeys abroad were taken without her parents, on trips with other teenagers. She started when she was just 13, visiting Europe with a youth travel organization called People to People Student Ambassadors.
“It’s definitely changed my life,” said Ashley, who is from Green Valley and is now a freshman at Sonoma State University. When she was younger, she thought she’d like to be a nurse someday. But now, “I’m a French major. I’d like to work in an embassy. Living and working abroad is definitely something I would like to do.”
Thousands of teenagers like Ashley are seeing more far-flung corners of the world, and at younger ages, than any previous generation of Americans. High schools now routinely organize student trips that require passports. Middle-schoolers hike the rainforest in Costa Rica instead of attending lakeside summer camps with color wars and marshmallow roasts. And older teenagers use the community service they did in Africa as fodder for college essays.
A recent survey of 75 tour operators that belong to the Student Youth Travel Association found that the top 10 international destinations for youth travel includes China, Peru, Brazil and Australia — along with the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Greece. More than half the survey respondents identified middle school as the biggest segment for growth.
“We still have the traditional tours — an eighth grade trip to Washington or a high school trip to New York,” said SYTA spokeswoman Debbie Gibb. “But we’re seeing growth in places like China that you never would have thought of 10 or 15 years ago. The world is shrinking and the students who take these trips are getting younger.”

modbee.com

Requiem, Mass. John Dufresne . Norton , $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-393-05790-4
In the latest from Dufresne (Love Warps the Mind a Little) novelist John’s newest manuscript doesn’t impress his girlfriend, Annick, who thinks “it doesn’t breathe.” So he goes back and rewrites it as a memoir: a book within a book. In it, Johnny and Audrey grow up in Requiem, Mass., with their unraveling mother, Frances, who believes her children were replaced by aliens and who bathes in gasoline. Their secretive truck driver father, Rainey, almost certainly has something odd going on down South. The book unfolds like a series of nesting dolls: John meanders around his coastal Florida home, writing his novel, visiting with friends and going on appointments for teaching jobs, while Johnny lives with his mother’s worsening condition, his father’s absences, his mother’s hospitalization and a momentous trip South. Then there are stories within the memoir within the story, including the one a woman tells about her friend, Ginger Rae, who talks of writing a neighbor’s suicide note, then claims it’s part of a story she herself is writing. John is a very amusing unreliable narrator, and Dufresne’s witty, sardonic take on life’s fictions leaps off the page. (July)

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