I am working my way through an online video list of 50 Great Political Speeches. Today, I listened to this clip of John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech. Here is the clip:
I had read it before, but had not seen it. You should watch it. For me, having just finished the morning paper which proclaimed that President Obama is backing the construction of an Islamic Community Center near the mass grave that we call Ground Zero, I was slapped across the face by the dissimilar approaches of these two Presidents. Kennedy knows Communism to be an evil enemy. He slashes the naivety and support that some could have for Communism by summoning them to Berlin to see what Communism is like. He denies that we can even work with Communists. He is boisterous and his saber is rattling. He knows that the Communists are listening and he wants them to know that until they change, we, the free people of the world, will be there to oppose them. He does not deny the imperfections of democracy, but notes tellingly that “we have never built a wall to keep our people from leaving!”
This approach is to be set next to President Obama’s consistent fawning over the Islamic world. As an aside (maybe a meaningful one), I agree with President Obama on whether Muslim’s should be allowed to build their community center. I think that it would be horrifically tactless to do so. I also believe that it will be dangerous. I do not, however, want ad hoc laws on tact being enforced by this or any other present American government. They will (and have even now started to) use these sorts of laws to make the preaching of the gospel or the proclamation of God’s Law illegal. I dread a Muslim Community Center going in near Ground Zero, but I believe that giving the government the power to stop it would be worse than the Community Center. My gripe with the President is this: he does not know his friends from his enemies. He chose to make this issues a national issue. He did it calculatingly during the Muslim Feast of Ramadan. He announced it before a Muslim audience. He, as President, is the head of the American Government. He, however, is consistently refusing to represent the interests of Americans. This is happening now at an alarming rate. Here are a few examples:
In Arizona, our President is taking the side of illegal aliens against the interests and the safety of the people of Arizona. Not only is he refusing to do his job (i.e., protect the border), he is fighting against the efforts of the government and people of Arizona to protect themselves. He has taken them to court. When it comes to the rights of illegal aliens vs. the rights of the people of Arizona, our President firmly supports the rights of illegal aliens.
When it comes to courting international Islamic support vs. the lives of American medical workers, the President seems stone cold quiet. This week an aid worker from Lancaster County, Glen Lapp, was murdered by the Taliban. Ten others were killed as well. What was their crime? Bringing medical relief to needy people in Afghanistan. Did our President make this a national and international issues? He did not. He was quiet. He sat on his hands. Waiting for the right moment to make the Islamic Community Center the top issue. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure President Obama did not approve of these murders—who could? There is only one group who would approve of long time medical workers being gunned down in cold blood—the world of radical Islam. These are the people, whose support our President seems to believe that he can win by supporting the Community Center.
Finally, we have the Community Center issue itself. This did not need to be national issue. President Obama need not take a stand on it. Federal law will not decide it. If he wanted to offer an opinion, he could have offered one like mine—“I believe that it is legal for Muslim’s to build there but I plead with them to build somewhere else further away from the place where radical Islamic terrorist murdered thousands of New Yorkers.” He did not. When it comes to a choice between representing the people of New York City and kowtowing to people who would like to kill most of the people in New York City, our President again is choosing to side with those who are against the American people.
I do not believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. I do not question his American citizenship. I do believe that he should take a lesson from Presidents like Kennedy and Reagan who successfully confronted evil. Mr. President, radical Islam will not be won over by kindness and support. They have deep reasons for hating us—ironically many of them are exactly the reasons why communists hated us. These will not be ameliorated by your flexibility. Name evil as evil and look out for the interests of the American people.
