Obama at Cairo University - anyone else feel rather inspired??

[Pan]

speaking of the tensions between the US and muslims

about Palastine, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, women's rights, nuclear arms, democracy. Coming from a US President isn't this fairly revolutionary??

yes, feel rather chuffed to here an american president finally admit the occupation is intolerable for the Palestinians.

just tiredsville and I then??

No, me too!

I am totally in love with Obama - can he be our PM too?!

Yes I was inspired and found it quite amazing to think there is an American President saying these things.

I agree spongebrain I think he can come here and run our country. I'd move to States if I could.

Do you think he'd have time to sleep with me while he's here?!

I am currently reading The Audacity of Hope.

Barack Obama is an excellent author and he so articulate, intelligent, insightful and really in touch with ordinary people.

On the chapter about values, he says that ideological predispositions are just so fixed that one can have trouble seeing the obvious.

He recounted how once he had to listen to a Republican colleague get himself in a state of outrage because of a proposed plan to provide school breakfasts for pre-schoolers. The Republican insisted that such a plan would crush the spirit of self-reliance. Obama pointed out to him that he did not know many 5yo who were self-reliant but children who spent their formative years too hungry to learn could very well end up being charges to the state.

Obama says that his fellow legislator speech helped to underscore one of the differences between ideology and values: values are faithfully applied to the facts before us while ideology overrides whatever facts call theory into question.

I wish we had him running our country.

yes I agree with all of the above.

Dh and I agreed last night that America has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Spokette - I've just read Dreams From My Father and I highly recommend it. It is beautifully written, very insightful and inspirational. I plan to move on to The Audacity of Hope next.

It was a good speech. About time Israel was told to behave. Not to forget, he told the Palestinians to behave too.

no, but then i am utterly underwhelmed by obama. not a fan so no suprise that i'm not inspired by him.

I have to say that I had cynical ideas about Obama - it just didnt seem possible that ANY politician could have integrity or vision these days.

But this speech has completely turned me around. I have hope for the world finally. It's the first political speech that I have read that makes me feel I might belong in the human race after all. Wonderful sanity and honesty!

Callisto, I have read Dreams of My Father and have passed it onto friends to read.

I honestly believe that Barack Obama was born to unify the world through his leadership, vision and empathy.

He is utterly, completely and totally brilliant.

In the chapter on Values, Obama writes

"Sometimes we need both cultural transformation and government action - a change in values and a change in policy - to promote the kind of society we want. The state of our inner-city schools is a case in point. All the money in the world won't boost student achievement if parents make no effort to instill in their children the values of hard work and delayed gratification. But when we as a society pretend that poor children will fulfill their potential in dilapidated, unsafe schools with outdated equipment and teachers who are trained in the subjects they teach, we are perpetrating a lie on these children, and on ourselves. We are betraying our values.

That is one of the things that makes me a Democrat, I suppose - this idea that our communal values, our sense of mutual responsibility and social solidarity, should express themselves not just in the church or the mosque or the synagogue; not just on the blocks where we live, in the places where we work, or within our own families; but also through our government."

Reading that reinforced to me why it is important to be politically engaged and why voting matters. People ofen think that they have no political voice but we do and we should exercise it. That is why I voted yesterday because I at least am making my voice heard

In response to the argument against the civil rights act, Dr Martin Luther King said "It may be true that the law cannot make a white man love me but it can keep him from lynching me and I think that is pretty important also".

He very muych reminds me of Blair in the early days. Nation building, new strategis for a new world, etc.

I think the message to the Palestinians was stronger "Palestinians must abandon violence? violence is a dead end. It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered? To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel?s right to exist? Finally, the Arab States must recognize that the Arab Peace Initiative was an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities. The Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems. Instead, it must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state; to recognize Israel ?s legitimacy; and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past"

And on Iran re nuclear arms races - Isreal is now testing an nuclear bomb siren - dirty bombs that is. They are also discussing pre-emtive strikes. Ahmadinejad has already stated in no uncertain terms that if it takes the death of all the surrounding Muslim states to get rid of Isael that he is prapared to make that sacrifice - though he doesn't call it a sacrifice, he calls them martyrs.