Obama and Romney: Building Bridges to Peace?
I see the invitation of President Obama extended to opposition leader Mitt Romney as a important political initiative and raises for me the prospect of peacemaking in politics. To reach out beyond the political divide and learn how to work together for the greater good. This is not easy given that democracy’s have a tradition debate seen as the best way to show two sides to issues and yet to realise all it does is waste a great deal of energy in opposition and distrust rather than crafting solutions for a complex world. In conflict resolution this is called solving the problem not hating the person. In politics we have too much emphasis on personalities and designing political parties to meet consumer needs rather than real leadership which inspires change and encourages true democratic participation of the people so they have a say in the world that is created.
My vision is participatory democracy that is inclusive of all people including children, they are the most visionary thinkers. I used to poll people when I worked in Market Research I was always amazed at the common sense of the so called average person, there is no such thing. People have remarkable insights and experiences that could be utilised to create a better future, instead most people are observers of the main contenders and seldom asked what they think. Fictitious polls are done on-line that can no way determine the representative nature of public opinion but are used to create impressions of public opinion, hence influencing surruptiously. Real democratic input would have to come through focus groups and survey’s to gain a real sense of owernship of our stewardship of the planet.
We are all creating the problem, responsibility asks us to solve it and look at our own actions in sinking our planet and what is left over for the next generation. So the issues today are the most formidable ever as we are at the junctures of significant tipping points. The ice caps are indeed melting, the polulution is increasing, extinction rates are increasing, countries are developing and consumer at exponential rates, and wars are still being funded at more than a million dollars a minute worldwide. So we face problems that can no longer be marketed away.
So I was pleased to see this meeting occur as a sign of real change, to place the interests of the people over political machinations is so important in the times we are moving through. So my hope is that warmth and understanding was generated in the meeting and integrity and true leadership was sitting at the table of real hope.
A short poem to start with then the article on their meeting.
Power Politics or United Leadership?
Politicians it is time to unite leadership around the World,
For all need to be heard,
To think about what they learned,
There is no more question time for power politics,
For wheeling and dealing is derailing the peace train,
For the world is at a precipe,
The fool stands on the edge will s/he fly or fall?
Too many fools dithering at the edge,
As many are polarised through internal conflict,
When the poles are melting,
For there is no good reason to be poles apart,
When we can build bridges to start the real change of …
Living in harmony,
Mutual understanding,
Shared interests,
Cooperation and citizenship,
Trust and empathy,
Responsibility as the new energy of utility,
For sanity must return to humanity,
And only humanity is sane,
For self interest will be swept aside as global interests rate higher,
Space ship earth is listing – is it FATE?
From All Thoughts Everywhere a line is being drawn in the sand,
Indeed an opening fissure of inner forces unleashed by pressure,
A stargate portal opening to new systems theory as fact,
All are asked – Are you promoting FEAR as False Evidence Appearing Real?
Or scoping for REAL HOPE as Responsibility, Empathy, Awareness, Love,
Honesty, Oneness, Peace and Enjoyment,
Are you healing the past? Or holding onto old beliefs?
For one scenario floats the boat is a carbon sink
emitting a ships of fools,
For many are competiting and extracting
in a race to the bottom of the barrel.
Peace is the real agenda on trial,
Can you be the change you wish to see?
Can you walk the talk and share power equally?
The Oval Office has a 360 degree panorama,
The Pentagon is a 5 star kernal of truth for some pointing to the constellations of annunciation, nativity, resurrection and ascension and assumption,
And the 5 virtues of knighthood at the round table of generosity, fellowship, purity, courtesy, and compassion,
A vista that brings all parties to the table to navigate the new trajectory,
To see that truth and reconciliation is in affiliation with our true nature,
As this is the nomanclature that will set this spaceship free.
Here is the article by the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romney-arrives-at-the-white-house-for-lunch-with-president-obama/2012/11/29/b703f456-3a3b-11e2-8a97-363b0f9a0ab3_story.html
Mitt Romney has lunch with President Obama at the White House
By David Nakamura, Published: November 30
At long last, Mitt Romney made it to the White House, though not in the way he once imagined.
On Thursday, the defeated Republican presidential candidate was driven up in a black sport-
utility vehicle, greeted outside the gate by a heckler who yelled at him through the passenger-side window. Romney opened his own door. He disappeared into the West Wing through a side entrance.
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney arrived at the White House Thursday afternoon for a lunch meeting with his former rival, President Barack Obama.
President Obama was waiting for him, playing host to his election rival in a one-on-one luncheon in the presidential dining room. There was no pomp and little circumstance, at least publicly, with reporters and photographers barred from the hour-long event.
“Each man wanted to have a private conversation,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said when asked why the news media were not allowed to witness the lunch. “They did not want to turn it into a press event.”
The White House press corps had other ideas, intent on documenting a moment that Carney had touted just a day earlier as a symbol of the nation’s peaceful democratic electoral process.
Reporters staking out Romney could barely see his arrival, kept 100 yards away near the North Lawn. Photographers, standing on ladders to get a view over a row of shoulder-high shrubs, captured only grainy images through their high-powered zoom lenses.
Romney had arrived after meeting with his former running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), on Capitol Hill, where they had discussed ways to resolve the nation’s fiscal and economic challenges.
Romney was wearing a sober blue suit and striped tie, his hair slicked back into the familiar Brylcreem style that looked so disheveled shortly after the election in a now-infamous snapshot of him pumping his own gas.
That was the last reporters saw of the former Massachusetts governor until White House staff photographer Pete Souza posted a photo Thursday on the administration’s Flickr page of Obama and Romney shaking hands in the middle of the Oval Office.
In the picture, the two men are looking into each other’s eyes, their right hands engaged in a firm grip. The door is decked out in festive red-and-green holiday bunting, and a distinguished portrait of Abraham Lincoln looks on from the wall.
There had been some speculation among pundits that Obama might offer Romney a role in his administration, but Carney dismissed that idea.
“This was a conversation the president wanted to have with governor Romney, as he mentioned the night of the election. There was not an agenda involved,” the spokesman said.
Pressed repeatedly by reporters to release some information about the lunch, the White House eventually issued a one-paragraph statement reporting that Romney congratulated Obama on his victory and wished him well.
Romney, who had derided Obama during the campaign for what he called a worldwide “apology tour” that demeaned the United States, discussed “America’s leadership in the world and the importance of maintaining that leadership position in the future,” the statement said.
The White House also disclosed that Obama had fed his former challenger a lunch spread of white turkey chili and chicken salad, a revelation that prompted pundits to wonder whether the president had intended the menu as an unspoken put-down.
“Obama served Romney white turkey chili? Was that meant to be funny?” conservative columnist David Frum observed on Twitter.
Neither Romney nor his former campaign said anything about the meeting. He left the White House after about 70 minutes, spirited away in the black Lincoln Navigator as workers out front were busy constructing the stage and bleachers on Pennsylvania Avenue for Obama’s second inauguration in late January.
“They pledged to stay in touch,” the White House said.
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