planet earth looks blue

As President Obama presses on back in the States, in the 700th laborious hour of trying to birth the economic stimulus, the rest of the world is still waiting, but not so patiently anymore.  Today Hamas sent a letter addressed to the President, making Senator John Kerry the messenger.  Kerry, who is head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is visiting Gaza to acknowledge the humanitarian debacle of the Palestinian people.  He arrived just in time to see first hand the normal run of affairs between Hamas and Israel, as rockets were fired by Hamas Thursday morning, and Israel confirmed that they had re-started their airstrikes.  There is no word so far what is in the letter, or even if Kerry accepted it.  But here is an attempt at first contact.  They have something to say to American, and although Kerry is not Secretary of State, he wanted the position.  I hope we hear what they wrote, and that this doesn’t go quietly into the abyss of under-reported news while we get bombarded with the economy and Caylee Anthony.  

Meanwhile, Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke in London yesterday.  One of the focal points of his speech was President Obama - the first black President, with a father from Kenya nonetheless, who is running the risk of falling short even with the African people.  Tutu warns Obama to take action.  That all the words and promises of Obama and Secretary of State Clinton need to be backed up with, well, something.  He even suggested apologizing for the Iraq war and the mess that it has caused.  A smart move, if he didn’t have the GOP and scandal drunk media machine back home waiting like vultures.  Tutu also recommended reaching out to more nations, making connections, listening to what they have to say, and pressuring African dictators.  And as far as the international community at large, he suggests getting in line with the Kyoto Protocol and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.  What Tutu says is true, Obama needs to address these issues.  The question runs back to, can he do it, with his Bush era inheritance, the state of the economy like a giant elephant sitting on his back?  It is a race against patience, but in the end, if Obama produces for people outside of America as well as within, we’ll all forgive him a little time.