Special edition: Especially for Oprah readers - and hopefully a million more

Thank you for taking a moment to look at my blog! In the spirit of my efforts to spread positive impact on the internet, I invite you to view a video that has significantly impacted me in recent days.

Slam poet Will Smith has a dramatic message about race and immigration that ever Oprah reader should listen to - and hopefully millions more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izf8ADh6ymY 

I guarantee you will find it a very moving experience - as I did some months ago live at The Aspen Institute. Nothing would delight this 90 year older more than to find a way for Oprah's 2+ million and many more see this on the internet. I hope you will help me get the word out!


This power of this message may even cause me to delay my thoughts on PEACE another week.


Ron

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Some random, Idle thoughts - From Madeline Albright to a "modest" proposal for peace in our time

Sorry!  You'll have to wait until next week for my peace plan.  This old man has trouble keeping up with all the publicity from Reddit and now having my picture and story on page 150 of the May issue of Oprah's magazine.

I continue to marvel at the readiness of my mind about 4 AM virtually every morning to consider a broad array of fascinating topics. Recently it was to ponder what books would be written about the current election by future historians. Certainly within two years there will be a book to take advantage of a "hot market". But how different it will be 10, 20 or more important 50 years from now when others will have the opportunity to look back and objectively see what is gong on RIGHT NOW!  And that is called history - a topic most often judged by school students as to be booooooooring.  And what a shame, because if we don't learn from the mistakes of the past, then............an adage too often forgotten.,

Perhaps a look at history is what impelled me to go to Georgetown University to hear Madeleine Albright discuss the topic, Religion, Peace and World Affairs: The Challenges Ahead.  Unfortunately too many young people only know of Secretary Albright's recent actions and the publicity that has focused on her exuberance in backing her preferred presidential candidate in a statement that she later apologized for and her fetish for jewelry. Too bad more publicity hasn't been given to her insightful, prescient book, The Mighty and the Almighty:  Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs,  published in 2006.

She stressed the importance of seeing religion as a unique and integral part of the culture of each society and that we in the United States have not paid enough attention to understanding its importance in dealing with other countries.  Rather than seeing suicide bombers as warriors or fighters, all should see them as murderers.

And so a host of questions came to mind:

• In what way does religion impair peace?
• How do we invite hostility by acquiescing to hearing jokes at the expense of other faith groups?
• As a melting pot country, how can we be so audacious as to be defined by one religion?
• What are the factors that distort the quest for a religious/spiritual life.
• And a number of other related ones that came to me in attempting to answer the hundreds of questions I received from youth throughout the world on Reddit.

And so I return to a constant theme of mine - the universality of ALL true religions as a means of examining the meaning, purpose and source of life and seeking a loving relationship with all humans.

But this has gotten far too long for me to add my peace plan.  I'll have to put that off until next week. I know, all the world is eagerly awaiting all I have to say, but time and strength has caught up with me.  In the meantime I'll spend more time with the book I mentioned in my other blog, Corinna Nicolaou's A None's  Story:Searching for Meaning Inside Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, & Islam.  At Kramer's Book Store she wove an interesting tale of how she as one totally ignorant of any religious tradition spent four years trying to learn what religion was all about and if there was anything she was missing in life.  While she told us how she was able to convince the "minds" at Columbia University Press to publish her book, she refused to tell us what she found out. I can't wait to see what she says.

How lucky I feel to have all these opportunities - I feel the need to share my good fortune with others,

Welcome all - especially Oprah readers

I truly appreciate Oprah Magazine's extending my "fifteen minutes of fame" to 16!  I hope any new friends (or old ones too) will continue the conversation with me started by Reddit two months ago. .  New to Social Media as I am, may I suggest you do so by giving feedback on the comments section on this blog.

And while this is published irregularly you can learn of new Rant's weekly on my other blog, http://www.dcfreeculture.com
While the events calendar may not be something you can take advantage of, I'll always mention when a new "Rant" is issued.

The previous Rant referred to a topic I'd love to see all America exposed to:
The Slam Poetry of Clint Smith.  I hope you will check it out and refer it to your friends.  It is at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izf8ADh6ymY

I'd enjoy conversing with as many of you as possible through Oprah as  I did on Reddit.

Ron

I'll have much more to say in a few days.

An urgent plea

Returning from a week long trip to my boyhood home in San Antonio late last night, I was able to produce only an abbreviated blog this week.   However it gives me an opportunity to underscore my theme for last week - Slam Poet Clint Smith.  I was gratified that a new friend in San Antonio confirmed for me the high regard I had for the power of poetry when Barbara said, "It gave me a totally new perspective on race and immigration."

In all candor I was disappointed in the number of people who took time out to hear Clint's recitation last week. I strongly urge more of you  to find 15 or so minutes to view it this week.  It can be found at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izf8ADh6ymY

One of the ten best.............

........................events I have attended in DC in the past 20 years was a Conference convened by the Aspen Institute on Income Inequality.  I was blown away by the presentation of Slam Poet, Clint Smith.

I urge you, implore you, to hear it NOW at


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izf8ADh6ymY

I hope you will pass this on to others

Ron

One of the TOP TEN..................

.....................lectures and events I have attended in the past 20 years in Washington, D. C.

Religious leaders from the Sikh, Muslim, Jewish and Christian traditions were present for a Worship Service at the Washington National Cathedral in January just after President Obama was inaugurated for his second term.  The tradition has been followed since the inauguration of George Washington and has been held in the Washington National Cathedral since the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  This years address was given by the Rev. Adam Hamilton from the Methodist Church in Leawood, Kansas, the largest church of that denomination.  While the entire service was awesome, I was particularly impressed by the "advise" Hamilton directed to the President.

In brief he made the following points:

• There seem to be three reasons why people run public office;
• desire for power and to feel important
• they are a little off in the head
• they really want to make a difference
• The historic example of Moses discloses three aspects of leadership
• A humble person with heart and character brings forth compassion for the marginalized and oppressed.
• Vision is necessary to motivate and inspire people.
• Despite opposition and discouragement a true leader never gives up.

Hamilton closes with a story from Robert Louis Stevenson.

What a privilege to be in attendance.  Rather than just reading my summary, I sincerely hope you will avail yourself of the entire printed sermon at:

http://www.adamhamilton.org/blog/lessons-from-moses-2013-inaugural-prayer-service-sermon/

Or even better see and hear it at:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?283503-1/inaugural-prayer-service

IF YOU FOUND HAMILTON'S SERMON MEANINGFUL, I HOPE YOU WILL SHARE THIS WITH OTHERS.

I'm quite sure that you will find next weeks "one of the top ten" to be most interesting. I heard - and you can too - hear a fabulous SLAM POET!.

Ron Rants and Raves about the four social/cultural institutions that have shaped his life

The nearly 2,000 questions that were asked of me on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything" initially focused on my longevity and amazement that an old man could have a blog, I soon came to realize that the underlying theme related to what I felt contributed to my having a relatively satisfactory and successful QUALITY of life.

It seemed the questions posed by (mostly) young people were a rather nostalgic look at the past wondering what made the "Greatest Generation" what it was. But at the same time it forced me to look at the FAILINGS of the past with the hope there might be clues for making America EVEN BETTER in the future.  While I was surprised at the number of questions, I was even more surprised by how insightfully probing they were and how they seemed to want advise from the "Voice of Experience" on some of  the basic issues of life!

Equally dramatic to me was how answering them effected me.  It was almost as though - at the age 90 - I was mysteriously forced to look critically at these 90 years and place my life and existence in perspective.  With questions as wide ranging and intrusive as "After 43 years of marriage how could you even consider marrying someone else" to "What do you think of revenge" to "What is the purpose of life" to "What did you think about the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima"?   I was amazed at how easily the answers flowed, but I hardly expected to have to be philosophical about that which is so important.  And even though I have never had a course in philosophy, I now begin a philosophical look at my life and offer some thoughts for the future!

• The four social/cultural institutions that have shaped my life are:
• The family
• The church/Religion
• Public Education
• Government
•  Each of these are in the midst of dramatic change.

I'll have a week now to prepare my thoughts on the topic that was so profoundly effected by Traister's book, "All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent nation". I'll look forward to any thoughts you might like to share with me.