Do you know me?

[mikelewis]

Do you know me?

I am running for President of the United States... here's a hint... I'm a Senator.

Do you know me?

Can you see my passion, my desire for change, my hope to be the one to lead this country back from the brink of destruction... do you know me?


Can you see the years of struggle... the pain, the anguish, the misunderstandings I had to overcome? All these experiences have affected me greatly... have hammered me into the person that I am today so I do not begrudge any of them. I do not regret my path in life... because I had to travel through some rough places and suffer minor inconveniences I have the spouse I have and the children I have and I have the life I have... and I would not give them up or change them into something else for all the world. I know, I make it look easy... I know you probably think the world can't touch me... that I live in a cocoon... and maybe you're right... maybe I have lived in some sort of cocoon, shielded from the harshness of the world for a time so that I can grow into what I need to become to serve my nation... to serve my God... to serve my own children...

Do you know me?

Can you hear me? When I speak, do you hear me? Do you listen to what I say or does your mind drift away to hide behind your pre-conceived ideas about who I am... about who I should be... about who you want me to be and how I failed you or even worse... how you hope I will fulfill your visions about who and what this country should be... a hope that will surely leave you feeling impotent and inconsequential... this country is not my country, it's our country and it must be fixed together or not at all... I should not be your hope though you are mine....

Do you know me?

Do you not see the mess that has been made... how those who hated government, used and abused and yes, even raped our most beloved government for their own end... yes, I saw it all... to get here, I had to witness things that I could never be proud of... authorize things I should never be proud of... and even accept things that have stained my soul for ever... stained it so much that at times I hope the atheists are right and I may never have to answer for what I have allowed to be done in my name... you can't know what these things are... you never will... we're all dirty in this debacle... we've all sold out in small ways... we have all worshiped idols... we have all failed but it is through our failures that we gain the opportunity for redemption... yes, I have failed... but I have passed through the fire... though the furnace was set 77 times hotter than ever before I have come out forged harder than steel and ready to lead us all to a better place.

Do you know me?

I am not a savior of our nation... in fact, I recognize that you are the savior of our people and that my job is to prepare the way... to help educate you... to provide for you... to care for you as if you were my child... and even if I don't agree with you... to love you in spite of your failings and faults. I seek to become the President of these Fractured and Disunited States so I can return to those high ideals that lead us out of ignorance and fear and bring us to a land that truly overflows with milk to feed our children and honey to sweeten our lives...

Do you know me... or do you just see my skin... is all that you see my old and failing body... this magnificent machine that moves me from place to place... is it only my gender that you see... am I capable because or in spite of the presence or absence of one chromosome or is it my race... does the color of my skin preclude me or exclude me from being allowed the privilege of being your leader? If that's all that you see... then you are also failing this country... as patriotic as you are... as much as you love the life that this country and these people have provided you... you are failing it because you refuse to see... you refuse to set aside that which does not matter and you refuse to see that which does... you are the blind... indeed, if in fact you are blinded by using only your eyes to see and you are hoping to lead others to a better world then you are the blind leading the blind, and I have it on good authority that you all shall more than likely fall into a pit.

Do you know me? Do you see me? Can you look past this skin and see my soul? Can you look past this skin and see my heart? Can you look past this skin and see my mind? If not... then you are not the people I thought you were... Do you know me? I am running for President of the United States... and I am not a Black Man, I am not an Old Man and I am not a WoMan... I am the hopes and dreams and desires for the future of this country... I am something greater than the sum of my parts... I am an instrument of the faith that people have placed in my hands and I am fighting for our communal futures... help me fight... open your eyes... open your hearts... and more importantly... open your grace up to me and help me pave a path away from destruction and death and toward truth and light...

Do you know me? Yes... deep down you do... yes... deep down you do... but if you don't; open your heart and you will recognize me...

God bless America.

[Deep13]

1. You lost me at "serve my God."

:(

[Kittycat]

4. So that HE can serve HIS god.

Not asking us to serve him. Context.

[Deep13]

5. Fine, I suggest a career in the priesthood, then.

When in the WH house, his only duty will be to this country and not to any God. We can't have someone with divided interests at the helm.

[babylonsister]

6. I have no problem with someone being religious though I'm not.

That doesn't mean his religion will seep in to his decision making like it's done with the current criminal in chief. I'll go a step further and say some of his religious teachings have helped make him the person he is. That's not a bad thing imo.

[Deep13]

8. That's not what "serving my God" means. nt

[mikelewis]

10. If you were to stitch together everything that you thought was good and decent...

If you were to believe in what was truly righteous, not just within you but in humanity as a whole... if you were to piece together every hope for something better and called that "God" and served that end... it may be an apostasy but to call that God would and does serve a useful end. You're right, it may be that that impossible dream does not exist but history and time has shown that when a people come together around a certain set of core belief's, the power of faith (the force of faith) is something that can be wielded for both the betterment and the detriment of man. When I speak about God in others that's the force I am referring to... I do not require you or anyone else to see God the same way as I do but I do have requirements that must be met to meet the standards to be called Goodness and Righteous and we as a country have abandoned those belief's. Call that stream of goodness that exists in the world whatever you like... deny goodness even exists if you like... but millions of others believe in that force and lend their energy to that force and that is what I am appealing to in this letter. I urge you to not let hatred for what others have done in the name of something good cloud your judgment of what is possible to be done.

[Indenturedebtor]

11. Very good post and good reply

This is more or less what I think of when I say "God" in Temple. God is what you worship. Doesn't have to be a dude with a beard eh?

Thanks for posting :hi:

[Deep13]

14. God means what it means.

Belief in God is called religion, and it has no place in American government. My observation is that most notable religious people who have done great good have done so in spite of their religion and not because of it.

[mikelewis]

15. You call Belief in God Religion... but that is not what religion is...

Many people who follow a religion have serious and honest questions about the nature of that divinity that you call "God". Indeed many of the same things that piss you off about God disturbs them a great deal as well. The ridiculous hypocrisy... the soul crushing dogma... the adherence to false idols of wealth and princely powers... a great many find this troubling and detrimental to the future of humanity as well... but that is not of God... religion is a man made order... created by Man to serve Man... often times is becomes a distraction from what is good... a distraction from what is righteous and opposite to what is in line with what the "Creator" wishes for us.

For example... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights... It is this ideal that has become the mission statement for this imaginary and political idea we call America. America does not exist... America is a dream... it is Zion... a city on a hill... something we wish existed but know to our core it does not... If the Constitution was truly the Law of the Land would a person like George Bush ever be able to subvert it and denigrate it to political toilet paper? Would the Republican party be so willing to bow down to fascism and despotism... bow down so low that they actually serve it like happy slaves? Our Declaration of Independence is supposed to codify our equality... it places king on the same level as peasant but only in spirit. The reality is much bleaker... it's much less the ideal we were taught that it was... We are not equal... we are not one Nation under anything... we are 300 million individuals who rally around a set of impossible ideals but only when it suits us... only when there is a benefit. That my friend is a religion... Americanism is a religion and that religion is looked to around the world as a light and a beacon of hope in spite of the reality we are faced with today... Is there an America? Indeed... a shabby and dilapidated set of ideals that is used to enrich the already wealthy and oppress the already oppressed... it is not the "shining city on a hill" or if it is... its glint comes from gilded Chinese chrome-plate lead-filled paint poured over mountains of imported crap...

Americanism is a failed and failing religion because it is founded upon a notion that is fundamentally untrue. Americanism is reported to worship the Rule of Law based on the notion that we are fundamentally equal. That equality was set forth in the Declaration of Independence when our Founding Fathers wrote we are all entitled to the same inalienable rights based upon the will of some illusive Creator. However, using your belief set, We are not EQUAL because according to atheism there is no Creator. According to our best science... mankind was not Created; mankind evolved and is still evolving from a lesser creature... from slime and shit we have ascended to our lofty perches... Darwin said that the stronger genes are passed down and the weaker one's left to run down the legs of the female the male mates with... so by definition... the younger is better than the older... the younger has the better genes... the better breeding... the better everything... and the older is therefor inferior and thus not equal. Indeed, following this logical strain it must be possible to create a near perfect human being and eugenics seems to become almost an acceptable and desirous route to travel. Indeed an argument could be made that it may be necessary to eliminate those who have inferior and undesired genes in some sort of compassionate final solution. If left to our own devices... we can envision all sorts of scenario's where a better country can be crafted in the image we wish it to be...

Americanism is a religion and it has no other God... except maybe money of course... Americanism is vicious and cold... heartless and self-serving... imperial and covetous... and yet it doesn't really even exist... Not in a tangible way... It is an ideal... a collective of individuals brought together in one general location by random fluctuations in the gene pool... born from chance... given what we are given by chance... destined to die by chance... we are enslaved to chance... armed only with a foolish and and ridiculous notion of equality and law codified by hypocrites who would be both socially and politically irrelevant in our current age. This is the religion of America... indeed this is what has plagued this world for countless ages... this same hateful and inconsiderate spirit that chokes the life out of life... and indeed this same America so exactly resembles the history of all the "great" religions that it's almost laughable. All religions both of the spirit and of the corporeal world have been where we've been... they have all had the same experiences... the same pitfalls ensnared them... the same influences degraded and denigrated them as well...

Everything you hate about religion... I hate about religion... but I did not even mention the word religion... God is something else entirely... something religion was set up to lead people too but ultimately distract people away from... that tangible force of faith and goodness and hope and yes, love is God. Don't dress it up to be something it is not... don't believe anything you don't believe... religion teaches you that faith is blind but faith is not blind... faith is knowing you are on solid ground and walking accordingly. God is a way of looking at the world and trying to identify what is good and just and righteous and knowing that what is evil and unjust and self-righteous is what should be rejected. That is God... put this in any form you wish... an old man lost in the wilderness... a young one nailed to a tree... a strong man forged by political dissent and oppression or a woman standing firm deluged by suffering and pain... create your own God... serve your own God... define your own God but within that framework strive to put in that idol only what is good for all... what is fair for all and that which does strive to make all people... and I mean all people... of equal value. That is the God I wish to serve but by design am destined to fail. No one sees the same God... not one person understands the God of Abraham... not even Isaac nor Ishmael... we see God in different ways, indistinctly as if in a mirror and we all follow in our own way... that which an atheist believes is good and a Christian or a Muslim or a Jew or Buddhist sees as good... maybe good. But that which is good for all we can call God and that is the God I hope Obama or Hilary or McCain serves when they put their hand on the Bible and swear to God they will faithfully serve as high priest of this American Religion.

[Deep13]

17. It is fashionable to draw a distinction between religion and spirituality.

The distinction is wholely disengenuous. Religion refers not only to the rituals or the institutions, but to the belief in the supernatural. I know politicians pay lip service to religion and they do us a disservice by doing so. I don't see how relying on God for guidance is any different than Nancy Reagan's reliance on astrology.

Americanism as you describe it is a religion and to the extent that it accepts the supernatural. Frankly, putting it the way you did will not win us any elections.

[mikelewis]

19. Not only is it fashionable... it is correct to draw the distinction...

Religion and Government share the same goals... they share the same ideals... they both seek to become the Law... they both seek the power to define what is right and what is wrong and they both require faith for their existence and blind faith for their abuses. There is no difference between religion and politics... it's just that time has shown when those to forces collide, the entire world is plunged in bitter darkness.

Religion is useful... and indeed offers a path towards hope... as does America... you just have to believe in them... that's all. The picture I illicit in my reply was not the true picture of this nation... it is the picture of this nation without goodness, without hope, without honor, without justice... it is a picture we have been shown of who we could turn into if we continue on the road we are currently on... America is not a lost cause; we're just too proud and too frightened... indeed, just like religion. We've just lost our way... just like those we read about in our religions. We just need to redefine our enemies...

We should not be attacking God... it's silly anyway, you can't even find him... we should be hunting down fear and butchering hatred on a fiery altar... we should be ripping the heart out of terror and offering it to the Sun as a sacrifice... Fear is the enemy we all face and release from fear and hatred and terror is the final and ultimate freedom available to mankind... At her most idyllic, America has offered a glimpse of that sweet release... we offer an ideal that says we are all strangers in a strange land... we all are of value... we all have rights bestowed upon us by providence and by a sacred and holy trust... signed in blood and forged in the spirit... America has and can offer that glimpse but America is only a man-made invention... she may last as long as the pyramids but even they will pass away... America is what we make of it together, now... equal people with a common faith in what is good and what is justice and what is right... if I call that God why should you care.

Your hatred or disdain for what people have done in the name of God is the same as other people's hatred for what some have done in the name of America. It is the same problem... they don't see you... they don't know you are a good American and that you have no control over what others in this country are doing... they just know your money is paying for bombs that are killing their children, their family, their world as they know it... just as religion does not stop to consider it's impact it's had on you and your family... but the bitterness is the same.

As for trying to get us elected... I think honestly discussing the reality we may be facing if we don't change our ways is a pretty effective way of winning elections. I think both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama have offered opinions equally as dire and yet infinitely more eloquent than mine. The days of pretending need to come to an end... the days of calling what is evil, good and what is good, evil need to fade away with the entire Bush regime. You can cast your barbs at God all you like... greater people than you or I have been trying to kill him or control him since the beginning of time and yet they find that which does not exist difficult to kill or eradicate. In stead, perhaps we could find some sort of commonality within our belief's and strive to identify those things which pose the most immediate and certain advantage to both of us. But do also keep in mind, many people in this nation do believe in Him or It or whatever you prefer and by driving them away because you do not see the world in the same light is unwise. I can speak to the most evangelical Christian... the most ardent Muslim... the most vociferous Jew and they understand and accept me in ways they never would with you... all because I speak a language you choose not to understand. I show many believers that the Democratic party is a welcoming tent and place where they are free from fear and allowed to speak their minds. You do not have the power nor the right to shut these people of faith out of the conversation... if you wish to win an election, it's probably not a good idea to start trying either.

[babylonsister]

2. Rec'd! Yes, I know you well enough to know we need you.

Excellent, mikelewis. Thank you. :thumbsup:

[Kittycat]

3. That is beautiful

And now I'm crying over my coffee. Our country is truly at the edge of something great. If only we can reach out and take it, it's so close that I can almost feel it.

[Alter Ego]

7. We have one of the best Presidential candidates in a long

time currently running for the nomination--and the idea that even if a majority of people and pledged delegates choose Barack Obama that the superdelegates could fuck us over and pick Hillary makes me sick to my stomach.

If they do, they will lose the election--and I will just laugh as the Democrats pick up the pieces and try to figure out how they lost an election that has been theirs for the taking since '06...when the answer lies right in front of them.

[mikelewis]

12. We actually have two of the best Dem candidates I've ever even heard about...

The pool of Democratic contenders that have run in this primary have inspired and elated me... Any one of them would have my vote come November... that's what makes this race so special... we are... or at least up till now... have been running a race based upon the content of one's character and that to me is a dream long due to come true... this bickering is ridiculous and detrimental for all involved...

[davepc]

9. Are you the guy whos best friends with the "God Damn America" guy?

Cause I saw a TV ad that said you were pretty tight with a guy who preaches "God Damn America" instead of "God Bless America". I saw. They had video of him saying it, and pictures of you and him hanging out being good friends.

Now, I'm just joe six pack, and I like all this talk about hope and change...but...you know...I like America...for all its faults and worts...and its been my home, and the home of my family....and a few members of my family even went off to fight for it over the years. Now, I'm just joe six pack, but I like America. I don't know if I like anybody whos all about God Damn America.

[mikelewis]

13. I actually like this sort of preaching... The Gospel according to Obama...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=710259322596250946&q=gospel+of+obama&total=109&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

[babylonsister]

16. Kickin' just because I loved this. nt

[OhioChick]

18. K&R

:kick: