Friday, June 15, 2012

Something’s wrong with the world today…




…and I don’t know what it is.  I can tell you that our priorities in this country are severely misplaced. Just type into Google “mom leaves kids in car” and you will get quite a few recent stories of mothers leaving their kids in the car so they can do things like get piercings, go to parties or buy drugs.  And although this is not representative if all mothers out there, there seems to be a rash of parents making some pretty stupid decisions involving their kids. 

Stupid decisions and misplaced priorities do not stop with moms and dad in the American heartland, no, they go the highest levels of government.  Several months ago I had the somber task of telling a mother and father that their son had died in combat.  A difficult task indeed, but part of my job and one that must be done.  I must admit that days after giving the news I was still affected by watching these parents receive the worst news of their lives. 

I know some of the process which goes on during a death notification for our military men and women.  I know that there are a lot of tough decisions to be made by family members within hours of hearing the news.  I know that each family of the deceased service member receives proper notification by senior ranking officer or enlisted member in their Class A uniform.  I know the family receives letters of condolences by the Service Secretary, perhaps a phone call or personal visit by their child’s or spouse’s commanding officer.  But I have often wondered if they receive a phone call from the President. 

I hope they do.  I believe that the families of our fallen service members deserve the 10 minutes or less of The Commander and Chief’s time.  If they don’t get a phone call then this is the perfect example of misplaced priorities.  Some of you might be thinking “L.Kyle, the President is a busy man, he doesn’t have time.”  True.  The POTUS is a busy man.  I would not want his job.  I couldn’t imagine the burden that he carries and the decisions he must face. That’s probably why our presidents take so many vacations. 

However, I believe that our President has made the time to call, address or comment on other stories which do not even come close to the gravity of American sons and daughters losing their lives in the defense of this great nation. 

Here are four instances when the President has taken time out of his busy schedule  to address issues or groups of people in our nation.  You decide if you think these are more or less important than our fallen service members.

March 2, 2012


Ms Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student, testified in front of Congress about the need for institutions like Georgetown, to make contraceptives available at no cost. We should all remember the debate several months ago regarding a provision in the President’s healthcare law, which would require institutions to make contraception available, even if that institution did not agree with idea of contraception (i.e. the Catholic Church).  Ms Fluke wanted free condoms because she estimated that the average female Georgetown law student spends nearly $1000 on condoms a year during their time at law school. Ms Fluke was demonized by the likes of Rush Limbaugh who called Ms Fluke a ‘slut’. 

Well just so happens that when you get called a derogatory name over the airwaves it warrants a call from our President (unless you are Sarah Palin, or Michelle Bachman or S.E. Cupp).  And our president did just that.  He cleared at least a few minutes to console Ms Fluke on a private phone call. 

March 15, 2012


The President released his, much anticipated NCAA March Madness bracket picks. Now I’m not a huge college basketball fan, but I do know that the tournament starts off with 64 teams.  Now whether the POTUS picks based on actual knowledge of the teams or favorite colleges or jersey colors I’m not sure, but I do know it must have taken at least 10 minutes of his busy schedule to fill out. -- I wonder what the buy-in is in the White House bracket pool, $10, $20, $50?  Does the winner get a free game of bowling and a pizza party…veggie pizza of course with fat free cheese and gluten free crust and only 16 ounces of soda.

March 23, 2012


We all should remember in March when the story of a black teenager was shot and killed in Florida started garnering national attention.  It made national headlines for weeks and captured much of our lives. It was such a hotbed issue that the President had to weigh in and he took time out of his busy schedule to comment.  He said that if he had a son that his son would look like the victim, Trayvon Martin and that this tragedy should give the nation pause.  This is a tragedy, but 130+ men and women have lost their live in Afghanistan since January1, 2012 and if the death of a teenage boy in Florida should give us pause what does a 130+ dead service members give us?  Don’t just pause; take a 15 minute break…smoke if you got ‘em!  

June 9, 2012


The President give a pre-recorded video presentation at Netroots Nation.  Now those not familiar with Netroots Nation, it is a conference which caters towards “progressives” and how to organize politically and trumpet the progressive message.  *Think grassroots, but for the more tech savvy among us.*  Some of the agenda items from the three-day conference were Turn it Up: How to use hip-hop to mobilize in 2012, okay, fairly benign.  How about Liberate your ass: why sexual freedom is key to fighting the Right. Wait. What? If you don’t believe me, you can see it here. 

Really, our president had time to address a group of people who think that liberating your backside (whatever that means) and sexual freedom is good political discourse.    But he doesn’t have time to call a family member who just lost a loved one in battle?

Something is wrong with the world today.

Leftovers enjoy.

L. Kyle

2 comments:

  1. L.Kyle, I want so much to comment with something witty, appreciative, entirely apropos...but instead I find myself wondering, 'How could any words of mine appropriately compliment a mind so fine?'

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  2. That's a lie! There is no way that my feeble mind could match your literary prowess. But thanks for being kind and not pointing out all of my grammatical mistakes. Come back next time and I will have more blog posts for you.

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