GAK, no doubt I see all peoples rights to enjoy the same opportunities and freedoms as a baseline for the progression of mankind as a whole, or to borrow a few lines from Bob Marley: "Until the color of a mans skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes .... it's a war, everywhere is war".

I must admit I'd never viewed equality taking away the excuses of personal/societal failures and find that freshness of thought, well ... refreshing.

In one of my favorite moovies "Stander" in a discussion between Stander (a SA detective) and his father (a retired SA policeman) when they are discussing the oppressions of apartheid and how the son finds himself in disagreement with being a governmental tool of the oppressive policies of apartheid the father quips how their blacks are better educated, lead better lives and enjoy things no other African blacks did and asks if his son believes ending apartheid would be beneficial overall to them if they were then brought down to the same levels as the rest of the African continents black run countries?

All in all this is a thought provoking conversation and seems very likely to have now historically answered itself by the resultant overall decline of their society since the end of apartheid. While this in no way condones oppression it certainly does give validity to the idea that equality obviously comes at a price and that once equality is granted it also takes away the vilification arguments validity and places the burdens of personal/societal success where they truly belong.

No doubt Obozos election broke through old barriers and ended once and for all the argument that a black American could never be president. It also seems some parallels can be drawn between this electoral outcome and the ending of apartheid. While American blacks viewed Obozos election as a personal victory that then changed forever the position of blacks within our society, some also viewed it as a personal empowerment of blacks and have since pushed them further forward in their vilification of the whites.

In a very telling way of a level of expectations some blacks viewed his election huge lines of blacks formed in many cities after his inauguration to sign up for or receive their "Obamamoney" which they felt immediately entitled to. While many blacks viewed this as granting a freedom in shedding additional personal responsibility in favor of letting the govt become ever more intrusive in determining the life they would lead after the election as they would then snuggle ever more deeply within the womb of the nanny state "don't worry about it, we'll take care of you, FOR you" ideology, the all too obvious reality of that is that once you give up freedom of choice in allowing others to control your destiny, you actually are trading away your very soul in doing so as this is honestly just a granting of oppressive powers to others, or the actual opposite of personal empowerment.

Today, no black in America can say their race would ever keep one from being able to achieve the office of prez., but with the massive new accumulations of national debt, failures in how our economy has tanked, unemployment that's risen and stayed at levels never historically seen previously for such a length of time, how the constant claims of an economy on the mend have not come to be viewed as truth, how governmental policies have been implemented through executive order as opposed to legislative process, and on and on and on .... I think it could well be a while before we as a country are once more willing to try it again

Blah, govt. never seems to be able to get it right. Though so many policy changes are well enough intentioned, the means they use to implement the changes always seem counterproductive in the end as they almost always lead to unintended consequences that at times can or do end up being worse overall than if things had just been left alone!

BTW, nice Moody Blues ref dude! Always liked that piece of poetry. Too bad their music is now just in the past. They had a style and texture to their music I've yet to have seen replicated by any other artists. But, I covet their art and get to enjoy it anytime which is about all one can do with the loss of this talented group

DK, while I find some level of agreement with what you're sayin, once you plant a bomb or shoot up a buncha kids in the name of your agenda, the message you're tryin to push turns to lunacy and support for that agenda from thinking, caring people will disappear faster than a fart on a windy day.

I'm passionate about a lot of things and see many changes in our society as detrimental overall but I could never validate killing others as a support mechanism for my beliefs.

Will his actions lead to others feeling similarly to act out in similar fashion? Possibly. Could it also lead to those he opposed to also act out violently? Sadly yes, that's a possibility too, yet neither reaction seems to offer a positive outcome, and most certainly not to the victims and families of these victims