We choose...

"We choose to go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard." John F. Kennedy

In my novel, the grandfather of one of the main characters tells him, "A leader makes choices. They may not always be the right choices, but he makes them all the same."

Right now, we need some leadership in this country - leaders beholden not to promises, but to choices, not to Gallup polls, but to choices, not to key backers, but to choices. We need leaders who make their decisions not based upon what is popular, but what they believe to be the right thing to do.

I could respect the man in the White House much greater if he could make a choice like that. But he can't. He's incapable of it. Whether he's beholden to his political base, to his many generous benefactors, or whether he's just a puppet for other powers that exist in this country, he's incapable of making a choice. He must take the path others have laid out for him.

When it comes to nominating and electing a Supreme Court justice, he has chosen the path laid out by the people whose money got him elected - the Conservative Right Wing of his party. Why? Because he promised them to overthrow Roe v. Wade if elected by placing anti-abortion justices on the nation's highest bench. If you think their right wing agenda is going to stop there, you are sorely mistaken. It should be really obvious to you that two moderate liberal justices were replaced by right wing conservative white males for a reason. Say goodbye to every liberal gain made in this country in the last century. Environmentalism - gone. Civil Rights - history. Equal Rights for Women - never happened. If 51% of Americans weren't paying attention last November, odds are they still don't have a clue now.

When it comes to getting us involved in an illegal war, and then finding a way out of it, our President has no choice but to continue doing what his business interests tell him to do - keep protecting their newly gained oil fields. With the amount of oil newly under United States control, OPEC decisions to increase or decrease oil prices and oil production don't effect us as much anymore. Or, in other words, we can keep the oil prices as high as the market will allow. Gas prices have soared since we took control of the oil in Iraq. So have the profits of Oil Companies. Do you think they have any desire to see the US pull out of Iraq? No, we must stay the course in Iraq. Freedom demands it.

Not only have the powers that be taken control of the Christian image in the United States and used it to their benefit, but not they've co-opted the image of a patriot as well. You simply can't be a good Christian, nor a good American if you're against this nation's policies.

These are but two policies directly controlled by other interests. Our "elected" official seems to have no interests outside of these. When Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the moon..." he didn't have to say it. There was no huge contractor out there threatening to yank their large body of votes away from his reelection campaign, or pull the money from his coffers. Kennedy chose to go to the Moon, because he was a leader. And that's what leaders do. They make choices.

I wish this nation could stop producing so many righteous patriots and maybe produce a leader or two.