Rev. Jay Speights

Forget the Cable TV talking heads and all of their talk about Jeremiah Wright and his impact on the 2008 Election. When I talk about the issues with friends and many other people all I hear is gas, jobs and mortgages.

To see three butterflies in the same place at the same time, qualifies as a natural phenomenon in these environmentally distressed times.

Yesterday, Pope Benedict said, “In their attempt to discover commonalities, religious leaders have shied away from the responsibility to discuss our differences with calmness and clarity." This is what we needed to hear.

We all have a divine light in us. Let's try to find it in each other.

Blacks, Whites, conservatives, liberals, Christians, Jews, Democrats, Republicans, Muslims, Latinos, men and women, Red State and Blue State folks, etc, are all losing homes and jobs, dying in wars and have no health insurance. And we are all Americans.

We don't need news based on what a certain demographic finds appealing. What we need are media that search for the truth and draw attention to the real problems of the day.

If there was a crisis of confidence in 1979 about how Americans viewed government and other institutions like religion, media, banks, schools, etc., then close to 30 years later there has to be a complete loss of faith.

Jimmy Carter asked the U.S. Olympic Team to boycott the 1980 Olympics after the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan. President Bush should call for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to protest China's treatment of Tibet.

Today I am asking you to become the Leonard Bernstein of your life and approach each day as though you were conducting a beautiful, flawless piece of music.

The politicians, interest groups, lobbyists, talking heads and radio personalities who use fear-based politics don't quite know what to do with Barack Obama. Yes, they are bewildered. Hey, could they be afraid?

We live in a complicated world with complicated problems. And we can be totally consumed with these problems and forget about the blessings in our lives, which usually come from another person.

Abraham Lincoln said, 'My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.' This quote by our 16th president offers a very simple criterion for judging politicians.

Because of our inability to forgive ourselves, many of us live in a state of torture. We can truly never reach our highest potential until we release ourselves from the shackling bondage of non-forgiving.

Remember, you control which voice you will listen to. It is totally up to you to let the internal divine cheerleader speak, or let the demonic voice of fear and doubt take over.

Here we are in 2008, with a woman and an African-American running for president. Could this have happened without a great president and a great agitator who believed that every person should be able to achieve their highest potential?