Hmm

I'm going to have to look up that text of Obama's speech, I hate listening to those things, but reading is another matter.

As for racism/classism - of *course* racism still exists and prior generations of racism have affected what class you end up in. My caveat is that some radical speakers (of whatever stripe) persist in acting like people today are still in that mental place. Maybe it's because I live in a very mixed city... I don't know. Maybe I object to it so much because I took a very liberal subject in college and I've found so much of what I was taught was tilted so much as to be virtually useless. It does make a difference in how you think if you live a big town and you have no way of evaluating the relative danger that someone presents other than their skin color and manner of dress.

Here I'd say it's *vastly* more how you dress than your skin color. I remember back in HS, my male friends all used to wear field jackets and occasionally spoke German - someone thought they were starting a skinhead gang. If I was a middle aged non-white woman, seeing that group walk down the street would have made me justifiably nervous. When I see young males of any color in a group, the first thing I look at is what they're wearing. Gang clothes? "Normal clothes"? (You'll remember the Angeleno gang member - which you could see by his clothing - who had the SWAT team two doors down from me. He glared at me for looking out my *own window* on a Sunday morning when he and his cronies were on their way back from something requiring identification concealment). Am I afraid? Yes... sometimes a bit. It's a reaction, like having your knee whacked and kicking. Do I live in that fear? No, I agree - if God wants me dead/hurt, He will arrange that (she says, looking at her crutches).

Yes, America has hurt other nations. I ... think the reason we try to defend ourselves is that (at least the way it's presented to the people of this nation) is that we want to HELP. And we do. We try to be the police officer, the social services worker, and the conscience to the world. If the elite who bend reality use that well-meaning for their own foul purposes... how is that surprising? I see us trying and trying and failing... and the only thing I come up with is, "Come, Lord Jesus, Come!" His rule will be perfect - it will also be totally authoritarian and very strict. Governed by the Living Christ, 1000 years afterwards, Satan will be able to stir up rebellion... not even God's Son, a member of the Trinity, will be universally liked.

I don't know if you remember or not - but I do agree with the comparison of America and Rome. And I also agree that we're about to fail, just as Rome did. I live in a completely non-sustainable area... there's not enough water here to support 1/10th of the people that live here. Forget food, forget transportation, there will be NO WATER if something dire happens. And it's about to - I believe that with all my heart. I don't *like* it, but I believe it.

In the year 2010, the euro will go paperless. Right now the dollar is dying. Europe is about to become one country for all intents and purposes. Russia and China and India are doing things under the surface. Africa is dying out. South America is ??? but news there isn't good. Famine is going to be widespread this year as wheat prices are rising and the effects of the weather here and the wheat rust haven't taken effect. Corn's going up. The rice harvest is off, prices are going up there. And America is fat and lazy and focused on bread and circuses. What do you *think* will happen? Hungry people don't play nicely. Hungry governments don't either. No, I believe we're about to die off... but hopefully Jesus will come and rapture us out before it hits. If not... you may find me on your front porch, kids in tow.