“Faith without works is dead”

Why is Velveeta quoting the bible (James: 2 something or other), you ask? This quote is attributed to Jesus – and it’s a powerful statement. The premise is that just believing alone, will not ensure your salvation in the kingdom of God. (I think that’s what it means; I was kicked out of Baptist Bible School).

In the past year, we have all been about “hope”. Hoping that Barack Obama will beat Hillary in the primary, hoping that he can win the debates, hoping that his message will resonate with “middle America” or “red state America” or even change the mind of a few PUMA’s. We hoped that one day we would have an America where the Government would work with the People - not against the People. We hoped that Americans would once again be seen has good people, caring people, as opposed to a country that invades and occupies other countries based on lies. There were so MANY things to hope for. Not the least of which: will he, can he, possibly win the election!

And so we worked hard to get Barack Obama elected. We knocked on doors and made phone calls, despite our adherence and sheer horror at the thought of being so presumptuous. We spoke to our family and friends and neighbors to plead our case for a President Obama and why he would be a better choice. We spoke to our peers and tried to encourage them to work for change – or in some cases, to give up on that wasted vote for a third party candidate, just this year.

Our work has paid off. We now have a President-elect Obama, and, he’s already accomplished more in one week than our lame duck president has accomplished in a year!

We can take this time to be proud and to relax after all the hard work, but only for a moment. Now the real work begins! And now we must move from HOPE to FAITH.

I don’t agree with everything Obama says. Certainly I think he is wrong for saying that marriage should be defined between a man and woman – denying millions of gays and lesbians a chance for equality. Sadly, we will remain “separate but equal”. The government should not be involved in any religious ceremonies, only in civil unions. Let churches decide who can or cannot be “married”.

I don’t agree with promoting “clean coal”. While burning it might be cleaner, the mining of the coal still destroys our mountains and wildlife habitats.

But, sometimes it takes small steps to accomplish big leaps; and so I still plan to continue the work, and to have faith. After all, we must remember that, unlike bush/cheney, Obama/Biden will represent all Americans, including the ones that disagree with them.

Our President-elect inspires faith in many people. Here is one example:



This inspiring piece was not written by some anonymous American blogger on one of the coasts, rather it comes from Esra’a, Bahrain. (mideastyouth.com blog).

Faith in humanity.

The Obama administration has a very long uphill battle ahead of them, and they will need our support and our faith. Never give up. The real work begins.