Beth, a mother and grandmother, is a Military Families Speak Out member, www.mfso.org delivered a speech a week ago at a conference. It’s powerful…please take the time to read it. Thanks to Wade Fulmer of Columbia, SC a veteran for sharing this. “Good evening. I have four scary words for you: we need to talk. I need to share with you some of my experiences with Military Families Speak Out, a national organization with 4,000 members whose loved ones have served or are serving in the military. And here’s the problem — unless you have skin in the game — and members of MFSO do, you may not understand what’s really at stake here, or even care. But we need each other. Some of you may think that anyone who goes into the military is either stupid, blood-thirsty or deserving of what they get for fighting in an illegal and immoral war. But we know them as kids needing a job, health care or educational benefits. Good men and women just like your brothers and sisters — sons and daughters. We, as a nation, have been sheltered from the reality of this war, but I’d like to share some of our experiences with you. Share what it is like to see the young Marine with his face burned beyond recognition, just eyes and a mouth, his ears and an arm missing — looking lost in a hospital cafeteria. To share with you what it’s like to spend Mother’s Day at Arlington Cemetery, accompanying Mothers who go to visit their only children, who lie buried among sea of other parents’ children who will never again know the embrace of their mother. Each is someone’s beloved child. We need you to listen to us. We need you to HEAR us.

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James Dobson, of Focus on the Family Action, and his senior vice president of government and public policy, Tom Minnery, used their “Focus on the Family” radio show Tuesday to criticize Barack Obama’s understanding of Christian faith. In the show, they describe Obama as “deliberately distorting the Bible,” “dragging biblical understanding through the gutter,” “willfully trying to confuse people,” and having a “fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.” The clear purpose of the show was to attack Barack Obama. On the show, Dobson says of himself, “I’m not a reverend. I’m not a minister. I’m not a theologian. I’m not an evangelist. I’m a psychologist. I have a Ph.D. in child development.” Child psychologists don’t insert themselves into partisan politics in the regular way that James Dobson does and has over many years as one of the premier leaders of the Religious Right. He has spoken about how often he talked to Republican leaders — Karl Rove, administration strategists, and even President Bush himself. This year he tried to influence the outcome of the Republican primary by saying he would never vote for John McCain or the Republicans if they nominated him, then reversed himself and said he would vote after all but didn’t say for whom. But why should America care about how a child psychologist votes?

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This morning I accidentally strayed over to 106.6FM and caught Russ Cassell expounding on the evils of the late George Carlin. Cassell said he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Carlin went to hell after he died. First of all I can’t believe God is speaking to Russ about who’s getting into heaven these days and secondly I wondered what Carlin had ever done to deserve burning in hell for all eternity?

I admired his way with words, the longevity and vitality of his career in comedy and his evolution as a writer and a man. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld wrote an editorial in today’s NY Times in which he said, “You could certainly say that George downright invented modern American stand-up comedy in many ways. Every comedian does a little George.” Seinfeld paid tribute to Carlin’s work ethic, “He worked over an idea like a diamond cutter with facets and angles and refractions of light. He made you sorry you ever thought you wanted to be a comedian. He was like a train hobo with a chicken bone. When he was done there was nothing left for anybody.” Ironically in light of Cassell’s comments, Seinfeld even reflected on the matters of heaven or hell, “I know George didn’t believe in heaven or hell. Like death, they were just more comedy premises. And it just makes me even sadder to think that when I reach my own end, whatever tumbling cataclysmic vortex of existence I’m spinning through, in that moment I will still have to think, “Carlin already did it.”

For further reflection on a truly original character, check out this interview with George Carlin by Mother Jones http://www.motherjones.com/arts/qa/1997/03/outspoken.html

George Carlin on the 10 Commandments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyWEBbFwU1o&feature=related