Brad Pitt & Barack Obama are Related

One of my favorite speeches. It gives me goosebumps. The spirit of JFK lives on in Mr Obama. Caroline you are one awesome woman~

A President Like My Father

By CAROLINE KENNEDY
Published: January 27, 2008

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.
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Times Topics: John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Times Topics: Barack Obama

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

Caroline Kennedy is the author of “A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.”

550 lylian @ 03/29/2008 at 8:27 pm

Orchid,

(a) Besuki definitely sounds like is a government school in Indonesia. Truly truly truly, from all credible reports, it just doesn’t sound like a madrasah. I did grow up here and I do know what I’m talking about. They wouldn’t have taught religion very much at all in a government school.
Okay! Have you read post #411?

(b) I know much has been made of the fact that Obama was listed as a muslim between the ages of 6 and 11. As I’ve already explained in Indonesia, you are by default listed a muslim if you have no religion or a religion that does not fit into known categories and into the Pancasila. Obama’s stepfather sounds like a man who was officially a muslim but unofficially, he was more an animist. It would be like a person in England who is officially baptised a christian but who believes in witchcraft, druidian practices etc. These people may not exist in England but they exist all over Indonesia. Islam is not practised the same way in Indonesia and Malaysia as it is in the middle east and many Indonesians and Malaysians would soundly reject the wahabbism or the Arabicisation of Islam.
A child (especially a son) born to a Muslim man (whether he is a practicing Muslim or not), normally follows the father, and is registered as a Muslim which, I understand, makes him a Muslim FOREVER, in the eyes of Muslims.
So if Obama’ real father was a Muslim, then Obama was a Muslim!
Then he converted to Christianity. I don’t know when that happened, and if it was his controversial pastor who converted and baptized him. Not that all this matters to me.
I posted two links a page or two before #411. If you’re interested.

It was no problem for Obama’s parents, and his mother’s subsequent marriage to another Muslim. Muslim men can marry girls from other faiths, but it’s different when the female is Muslim.
Islam discourages, FORBIDS, Muslim girls marrying non-Muslim men. The parents and family of a Muslim girl who wants to marry a non-Muslim man, will persuade and then demand that the man converts to Islam if he wants to marry their daughter.

(c) I don’t see Obama as needing to fear being a murtadd or apostate. I don’t think any rational muslim would take the fact that he was listed as a muslim in Indonesia back in the 1960s when he was 6 to 11 as evidence that was a muslim and should be killed for apostasy. Those on the fringes of sanity might accuse him of apostasy, but then, those on the fringes of sanity will always find a reason to hate him or want to kill him. If nothing else, posting on the blog on Brad and Angelina has let me see into the minds of some people for whom Brad and Angelina can do NO right.
That would be too weird in this day and age, wouldn’t it. I have invited Muslim posters to jump in and tell us that this apostate issue doesn’t belong in 2008, that it is much ado about nothing, but I don’t think any of them has joined the debate. Haven’t checked properly. So many pages already.

(d) Americans are going to make an important decision which is going to affect me and mine and the rest of the world. I don’t have a problem who anyone here supports and I’m not trying to influence matters. I think though that in the world of DISINFORMATION, I want to have my say, right here, that calling Basuki school a Madrasah - with all its problematic conotations is just plain WRONG.
Yes, as the leader of the free world it is an important decision. They didn’t choose wisely in 2000. Then, in 2004, I remember the cover of a newspaper or magazine (can’t remember which) - in big letters, “How can …x… people be so stupid.” x = the number of votes for Bush. Well, Kerry got ’swiftboated.’

‘Madrassa’ just means ’school’ in Arabic. I’ve lived in both SEA and the ME. Obama himself said in his book that he went to an Islamic school in Indonesia.

To lylian

Re the apostate issue:

In Islam, it’s what their holy book says that counts. Rationality or sanity of its followers don’t matter.
This is probably the reason why very flexible and very broad-minded people of that religion, who might have different and more modern views and ideas, prefer to stay silent. They don’t want to get in trouble. You must remember Salman Rushdie!

A Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, released a video, about 15 minutes long, a few days ago called “Fitna.”
I posted the link here in this thread right after I watched it, twice, because I just knew it would be gone.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103

It was pulled out of circulation two days ago. They must have received death threats, but more than 2 million(?) people have seen it already. Did you manage to see that before it was gone?
The apostate issue was also in it. Those who leave the religion must be killed. Their holy book says so.

Orchid @ 03/29/2008 at 8:48 am

Orchid, I read post no. 411 and I do not give it any credence at all for the following reasons:

(a) I wouldn’t put a blogger’s who doesn’t even put his real name down on his post over and above the investigative reporters who actually went to Jakarta and went to Basuki school and spoke to Indonesians there. These are reports from the International Herald Tribune and also from Chicago Tribune.

(b) The descriptions of Basuki school by Chicago Tribune and IHT are so, so similar to my own schooling experience, I just know it is true.

(c) Obama was in Jakarta in 1967 to 1971. Islam wasn’t radicalised by fundamentalists the way it has been in the 1980s and 1990s. I was living in Malaysia at the time and I remember when Malay muslim women first started wearing the hijab and it was in the late 1970s. Before that time, only old ladies might think it necessary to cover their heads and even so, it wasn’t in a hijab. Indonesia was even later to adopt the hijab.

(d) Even today, there are many many Malaysian Indonesian and Singaporean Muslim woman who DO NOT WEAR the hijab and see no need to do so. Therefore back in 1967 to 71, there wasn’t this radical angry Islam practiced here.

I’m not for or against Obama. I do think though that if you are not going to elect him or vote for him, let it be for a true reason, not because you think that he went to a radical fundamentalist Madrasah in Indonesia from 1969 to 1971 which to me, he very clearly didn’t.

Also, even if he did, sheesssh, he was a boy. It may or may not have impacted his religious beliefs. I was raised a taoist, i went to a catholic school. We said the Prayer of St Francis of Assisi every day I was at school - even though it was a government school. I can still remember parts of it and I’ve copied it here from wikipedia because I couldn’t remember all of it. It is a beautiful, and in many ways, non denominational prayer.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

This principles of this prayer is to me, much better expressed in the Buddhist principles I now live by. I did go through a catholic fundamentalist stage as a teenager for a few months but ultimately got turned off by the message that anyone who isn’t christian is going to go to hell.

So, even if Obama did go to a muslim madrasah for 2 years, it may not mean very much except that he understands the muslims better than most Americans.

Is it really such a bad thing if Obama went to a madrasah and has been a muslim? If he has some better understanding and better appreciation for the gentle aspects of this religion which has been hijacked by fundamentalists? Fundamentalists of all ilk are a nasty breed if you ask me. After all, fundamentalist christians believe that I and all the hindus, confucianists, taoists, catholics (yes they too) muslims etc (ie, more than 5 billion people) are going to ************ for ever and ever - their interpretation of a loving, benevolent and almighty God. Go figure….

After I read the links that I posted in #410, I read that he and his people have tried/are trying to cover up some (?) of the facts of his life in Indonesia, and I wondered why!

Orchid

I saw the movie from Wilders. For me, it is nothing more than a stupid propaganda. It is made by somebody who does not know anything about Islam. He lost his chance to gain sympathy from many moslems. Describing moslems so stupidly the way he did (or shall I say generalize it) is just like calling you with the things that “evil” people do, just because you have the same colors of skin, religion, or citizenship.

W. love to create? You make me laugh (thanks, anyway!)

Wilders film is cutting the Koran, only down to the verses that he needed. He does not make any balance research before he made the film. He even made interview with a three years old child, a waaaay low for me.
You can not say that the Muslims in Arab are the same like the Muslims in Indonesia, for example. Do you know that Indonesia has the most Muslims in the world? Did you read any statement from them regarding for ex. 9/11? Do you know that Indonesian Gov. approve all religions and some traditional animism?

Radicalism (Islam or any other religion) in my eyes is dangerous and stupid. We have brain to think, why we do not use it?

I hope I do not disturb any body by continuing this subject. I call the film a propaganda because it only underlines the act of some lunatic brainwashed murders. Wilders did not bother to even look around Holland and find some decent people who may be voicing different opinion.
I am not new. I am only a hopeless Jude Law fan, that’s why I rarely state my opinion here. I rather like discussing Jennifer’s problem….do not get me wrong…than talking about AJ. This Lady has enough admirers and lovers…I prefer to stand in the back and watch her movies with a jaw drop. Brad Pitt….I have to get over TROY, before I talk about him.

644 rien @ 03/31/2008 at 7:22 am @Orchid

I think you said it yourself. At 632, I believe. We are talking about the same guy, aren’t we? The “W”?
Oh, I see. Yes, Dubya would love for a Palestinian state to be created while he is still in office. That’s why Ms Rice goes back and forth between Israel and the Palestinians. I don’t see how it’s possible if they exclude Hamas.

Only curiosity, why do the Politicians mention “now” that they are somehow related to “The Couple” in HW?
Because the candidates are in the news “now.” As if people will vote for a candidate because he/she is related to Brad or Angie through somebody many centuries ago! Too silly. We are all related to Brad&Angie through Adam and Eve!

Like any other law, I suppose. Fight it in the House of Representatives. It is democracy, isn’t it?
Again, I agree, but many people are bossy and want to force their opinion on others. Some even use violence.

BTW, do you ever wonder what the Dutch did in Indonesia? More than 300 years colonization? What do you think they did to the Muslims there? Give them honey and cheese?
I don’t have to wonder because I know the history. In my opinion, of all colonialists, the British were the best.

645 rien @ 03/31/2008 at 7:50 am

I hope I do not disturb any body by continuing this subject.
Why would you disturb anybody. If anyone doesn’t like it they can skip it.

I call the film a propaganda because it only underlines the act of some lunatic brainwashed murders. Wilders did not bother to even look around Holland and find some decent people who may be voicing different opinion.
It takes only a few people to kill many, cause a lot of heartache for their relatives, and destroy so much property. They can’t be ignored. They should be stopped, don’t you think?
It’s Wilders’ right to express his point of view in a video. If anyone doesn’t like it, then fight him with dialog. Write articles, make videos, etc. Not deaththreats!

I am not new. I am only a hopeless Jude Law fan, that’s why I rarely state my opinion here. I rather like discussing Jennifer’s problem….do not get me wrong…than talking about AJ. This Lady has enough admirers and lovers…I prefer to stand in the back and watch her movies with a jaw drop. Brad Pitt….I have to get over TROY, before I talk about him.
You mean you changed your name? I won’t ask who you were before.
I think Jude is okay. I didn’t know until recently that he was a witness when AJ married JLM.
So you’re a fan of JA. I like AJ. She does so many interesting things. You think JA has a problem? If you tell me what you think it is, we can go back and forth without namecalling. Not a TROY fan? I’m tired of movies like Troy and The Gladiator. I’ve seen so many of them.

Now I have to go out. bbl!

I am coming back this thread to thank Saraicita for her audacity to speak up her mind and on behalf of the other.posters. Thanks a lot Saraicita.

…I’m listening to reports that people are saying…

(I do wish JJ would make it possible for us to edit our posts. Give us 5-10 minutes after submitting a post to edit it. If we don’t edit it in that time then it stays.
To JJ or the person who runs JJ: Are you reading this?)

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