Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
US Gov't needs our donations
If you're irked by the U.S. debt, you can make tax-deductible contributions to pay it down. Fiscal year 2009 saw $3.1 million in donations. Only $12 trillion left to go!
You've probably heard about the country's giant debt load - $12 trillion and rising.
Did you know you can help reduce it?
Under a little-known law enacted in 1961, Uncle Sam accepts tax-deductible contributions to pay down the country's debt.
Not that the Treasury Department does much to publicize the program.
You can find it under the header "Accepting Gifts" in the U.S. Code. Or, if you're not an avid reader of dusty legal books, you can check the FAQ section on the Web site of the Bureau of Public Debt, an agency within Treasury. Or flip to page 91 of the IRS' 2009 Instruction Booklet for Form 1040.
You've probably heard about the country's giant debt load - $12 trillion and rising.
Did you know you can help reduce it?
Under a little-known law enacted in 1961, Uncle Sam accepts tax-deductible contributions to pay down the country's debt.
Not that the Treasury Department does much to publicize the program.
You can find it under the header "Accepting Gifts" in the U.S. Code. Or, if you're not an avid reader of dusty legal books, you can check the FAQ section on the Web site of the Bureau of Public Debt, an agency within Treasury. Or flip to page 91 of the IRS' 2009 Instruction Booklet for Form 1040.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Nobel Prize 2009
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."
Oslo, October 9, 2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."
Oslo, October 9, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Korea
Koreans separated for more than 50 years reunite
By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer Kwang-tae Kim, Associated Press Writer – Sat Sep 26, 2:46 pm ET
SEOUL, South Korea – Lee Dong-un cried and held the hands of his 60-year-old North Korean daughter Saturday during their first meeting in more than half a century. They were one of hundreds of families reuniting as part of a program revived by Pyongyang in an effort to ease tensions with South Korea.
The meeting was bittersweet for Lee, who left behind his pregnant wife and daughter, then 2 years old, in North Korea when he fled to the South during the Korean War. The 84-year-old burst into tears after his daughter told him his pregnant wife was killed when a bomb fell on her North Korean town.
"I always thought about you. I've never dreamed that we could meet," the elder Lee said, according to South Korean media pool reports. No foreign journalists were invited to the reunions.
The reunions are the first between the divided countries in nearly two years. Pyongyang suspended the program in 2007 in retaliation for conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's get-tough policy toward the North.
The resumption of the program is widely seen as the North's latest olive branch toward rival South Korea. In recent weeks Pyongyang has reached out to Seoul by freeing five detained South Koreans, agreeing to "energize" a troubled joint industrial project, and restarting suspended tours for South Koreans to the North.
"North Korea appears to be aiming to use the humanitarian project as a way to restore bilateral relations," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.
Lee Dong-un was among about 200 families from both sides scheduled to hold six days of reunions with relatives they have not seen since the war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, in 1953, leaving the countries divided. The last reunions were held in October 2007.
More than 120 South Koreans, most in their 70s or older, arrived at the Diamond Mountain resort on North Korea's east coast on Saturday for the reunions, according to the Unification Ministry handling inter-Korean affairs.
Millions of families remain separated following the Korean peninsula's division in 1945 and the ensuing civil war. There are no mail, telephone or e-mail exchanges between ordinary citizens from the two Koreas, and they can't travel to the other side of the peninsula without government approval.
The meetings are a highly emotional issue in the Koreas because most of those applying for the chance to see their long lost loved ones are in their 70s or older, and are eager for a reunion before they die.
Of 127,400 South Koreans who have applied since 1988, nearly 40,000 have already died, according to South Korea's Red Cross.
The reunions, which began in 2000 following a landmark inter-Korean summit, last through Oct. 1 and it remains unclear when they may be held again.
For some, the reunions brought back painful memories.
"You said that you will be back soon after visiting Seoul, why did you come now?" Chung Wan-shik, 68, asked his 95-year-old father Chung Dae-chun, who lost contact with his family as the war struck while he was on a business trip in South Korea.
Saturday's reunions also included two South Korean abductees and one South Korean prisoner of war in the North.
The two abductees — former South Korean fishermen whose ship was seized by North Korea in waters off the west coast 22 years ago — met their loved ones from the South.
"I never forget to think about my hometown and sister," Roh Song-ho, one of the fishermen, told his South Korean sister. He married in North Korea, and brought his wife and daughter to the reunion.
South Korea says the North is holding 560 of its soldiers from the war, in addition to 504 South Korean civilians — mostly fishermen whose boats were seized since the war's end.
North Korea says the civilians voluntarily defected to the North and denies holding any prisoners of war.
The North agreed to resume the reunions last month as part of its moves to reach out to South Korea and the United States after months of tension over its nuclear and missile programs. The reunions also come amid growing pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programs and return to stalled disarmament talks.
North Korea boycotted the six-nation nuclear talks in April to protest world criticism of a rocket launch it carried out, but its leader Kim Jong Il has reportedly expressed interest in "bilateral and multilateral talks," indicating the North could rejoin the nuclear negotiations involving the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer Kwang-tae Kim, Associated Press Writer – Sat Sep 26, 2:46 pm ET
SEOUL, South Korea – Lee Dong-un cried and held the hands of his 60-year-old North Korean daughter Saturday during their first meeting in more than half a century. They were one of hundreds of families reuniting as part of a program revived by Pyongyang in an effort to ease tensions with South Korea.
The meeting was bittersweet for Lee, who left behind his pregnant wife and daughter, then 2 years old, in North Korea when he fled to the South during the Korean War. The 84-year-old burst into tears after his daughter told him his pregnant wife was killed when a bomb fell on her North Korean town.
"I always thought about you. I've never dreamed that we could meet," the elder Lee said, according to South Korean media pool reports. No foreign journalists were invited to the reunions.
The reunions are the first between the divided countries in nearly two years. Pyongyang suspended the program in 2007 in retaliation for conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's get-tough policy toward the North.
The resumption of the program is widely seen as the North's latest olive branch toward rival South Korea. In recent weeks Pyongyang has reached out to Seoul by freeing five detained South Koreans, agreeing to "energize" a troubled joint industrial project, and restarting suspended tours for South Koreans to the North.
"North Korea appears to be aiming to use the humanitarian project as a way to restore bilateral relations," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.
Lee Dong-un was among about 200 families from both sides scheduled to hold six days of reunions with relatives they have not seen since the war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, in 1953, leaving the countries divided. The last reunions were held in October 2007.
More than 120 South Koreans, most in their 70s or older, arrived at the Diamond Mountain resort on North Korea's east coast on Saturday for the reunions, according to the Unification Ministry handling inter-Korean affairs.
Millions of families remain separated following the Korean peninsula's division in 1945 and the ensuing civil war. There are no mail, telephone or e-mail exchanges between ordinary citizens from the two Koreas, and they can't travel to the other side of the peninsula without government approval.
The meetings are a highly emotional issue in the Koreas because most of those applying for the chance to see their long lost loved ones are in their 70s or older, and are eager for a reunion before they die.
Of 127,400 South Koreans who have applied since 1988, nearly 40,000 have already died, according to South Korea's Red Cross.
The reunions, which began in 2000 following a landmark inter-Korean summit, last through Oct. 1 and it remains unclear when they may be held again.
For some, the reunions brought back painful memories.
"You said that you will be back soon after visiting Seoul, why did you come now?" Chung Wan-shik, 68, asked his 95-year-old father Chung Dae-chun, who lost contact with his family as the war struck while he was on a business trip in South Korea.
Saturday's reunions also included two South Korean abductees and one South Korean prisoner of war in the North.
The two abductees — former South Korean fishermen whose ship was seized by North Korea in waters off the west coast 22 years ago — met their loved ones from the South.
"I never forget to think about my hometown and sister," Roh Song-ho, one of the fishermen, told his South Korean sister. He married in North Korea, and brought his wife and daughter to the reunion.
South Korea says the North is holding 560 of its soldiers from the war, in addition to 504 South Korean civilians — mostly fishermen whose boats were seized since the war's end.
North Korea says the civilians voluntarily defected to the North and denies holding any prisoners of war.
The North agreed to resume the reunions last month as part of its moves to reach out to South Korea and the United States after months of tension over its nuclear and missile programs. The reunions also come amid growing pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programs and return to stalled disarmament talks.
North Korea boycotted the six-nation nuclear talks in April to protest world criticism of a rocket launch it carried out, but its leader Kim Jong Il has reportedly expressed interest in "bilateral and multilateral talks," indicating the North could rejoin the nuclear negotiations involving the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Vietnam Memorial Wall Replica
VMWR in Phoenix AZ September 19th 2009. Here are two vids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAEthTNKAi8 & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBwHMh0yMoA
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Oliver Stone makes lefty amigos in high places
Oliver Stone makes lefty amigos in high places
Mon Sep 7, 2009 8:24pm EDT
By Ray Bennett
VENICE (Hollywood Reporter) - Good-humored, illuminating and without cant, Oliver Stone's documentary "South of the Border" is a rebuttal of what he views as the fulminations and lies of right-wing media at home and abroad regarding the socialist democracies of South America.
Featuring interviews with seven national leaders who all express great affection for their neighbors to the north if not for historical U.S. foreign policy, the film suggests a clear way forward for a continent that has largely shaken off the grip of imperialism and what Stone calls predatory capitalism as opposed to benign capitalism.
Greeted with extended applause at its Venice press and industry screening, the film will fare well internationally and will attract liberal audiences in Stone's homeland. Conservative outrage could also spark wider interest, and it should thrive among educators and have a long ancillary life.
Clips from CNN and Fox News establish quickly the buffoonish tone with which news about South American politics is usually treated with democratically elected leaders invariably depicted as dictators, but Stone also indicts the network news and media institutions including the New York Times.
Following a brief history of the events in Venezuela that led to the presidency of Hugo Chavez, Stone shows how the media in that country altered film of violent demonstrations to show his supporters firing on their opposition and how those images were fed to the rest of the world. He details similar exaggerations in other countries and quotes facts and figures from each region.
His cameras follow Chavez, who was born in poverty, to the place of his childhood and on trips to a cattle farm and a plant that produces flour with help from Iran. On the way there, Chavez tells the director, "This is where we're building the Iranian atomic bomb." There is similar black humor from other leaders with Rafael Correa of Ecuador saying of the U.S. media, "I'd be more worried if they spoke well of me."
The expressed view of the fraternal leaders (Some of the leaders of South American countries) is that they want independence and equality, and freedom from the International Monetary Fund and U.S. economic control.
Now that is a policy position I can support!!
They all see in President Barack Obama the opportunity for lasting, mutually beneficial change. Stone is clearly impressed with the leaders he meets, and there are many relaxed scenes, including one in which he gets a great kick out of Bolivian leader Evo Morales showing him the best coca leaves to chew, a benign cure for the nauseous effects of the altitude in La Paz.
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)
Mon Sep 7, 2009 8:24pm EDT
By Ray Bennett
VENICE (Hollywood Reporter) - Good-humored, illuminating and without cant, Oliver Stone's documentary "South of the Border" is a rebuttal of what he views as the fulminations and lies of right-wing media at home and abroad regarding the socialist democracies of South America.
Featuring interviews with seven national leaders who all express great affection for their neighbors to the north if not for historical U.S. foreign policy, the film suggests a clear way forward for a continent that has largely shaken off the grip of imperialism and what Stone calls predatory capitalism as opposed to benign capitalism.
Greeted with extended applause at its Venice press and industry screening, the film will fare well internationally and will attract liberal audiences in Stone's homeland. Conservative outrage could also spark wider interest, and it should thrive among educators and have a long ancillary life.
Clips from CNN and Fox News establish quickly the buffoonish tone with which news about South American politics is usually treated with democratically elected leaders invariably depicted as dictators, but Stone also indicts the network news and media institutions including the New York Times.
Following a brief history of the events in Venezuela that led to the presidency of Hugo Chavez, Stone shows how the media in that country altered film of violent demonstrations to show his supporters firing on their opposition and how those images were fed to the rest of the world. He details similar exaggerations in other countries and quotes facts and figures from each region.
His cameras follow Chavez, who was born in poverty, to the place of his childhood and on trips to a cattle farm and a plant that produces flour with help from Iran. On the way there, Chavez tells the director, "This is where we're building the Iranian atomic bomb." There is similar black humor from other leaders with Rafael Correa of Ecuador saying of the U.S. media, "I'd be more worried if they spoke well of me."
The expressed view of the fraternal leaders (Some of the leaders of South American countries) is that they want independence and equality, and freedom from the International Monetary Fund and U.S. economic control.
Now that is a policy position I can support!!
They all see in President Barack Obama the opportunity for lasting, mutually beneficial change. Stone is clearly impressed with the leaders he meets, and there are many relaxed scenes, including one in which he gets a great kick out of Bolivian leader Evo Morales showing him the best coca leaves to chew, a benign cure for the nauseous effects of the altitude in La Paz.
(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)
Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event
Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009
The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
Back to School Event
Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009
The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
No Muslims at Black Eyed Peas concert
Thu Aug 27, 2009 12:42pm EDT
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Muslims in Malaysia have been barred from attending a concert by U.S. hip hop band the Black Eyed Peas sponsored by Guinness which is owned by the world's biggest spirits group Diageo.
The move comes after a Malaysian Islamic court sentenced a 32-year Muslim woman to be caned after she was caught drinking beer in a hotel and at a time when an opposition Islamic party has moved against beer sales.
The concert, part of celebrations of Guinness 250th birthday, asks on its website (www.arthursday.com.my) "Are you a non-Muslim aged 18 years and above?" and if the response is no, access is not allowed.
Muslims account for 55 percent of the 27 million people in this Southeast Asian country and are barred from consuming alcohol although the rules are regularly flouted, especially in big cities like the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia's Guinness Anchor which sells Guinness and other brands here had sales of 1.2 billion Malaysian ringgit ($340.6 million) in 2008.
Even without alcohol, foreign bands are subject to scrutiny. Earlier this week, the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) said it wanted Danish band Michael Learns to Rock banned from performing as it would cause immorality.
Since 2007, PAS, the country's second largest political group measured by party membership, has campaigned against performances by the likes of Beyonce, Rihanna, Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne.
($1=3.523 Malaysian Ringgit)
(Reporting by David Chance; editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Thu Aug 27, 2009 12:42pm EDT
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Muslims in Malaysia have been barred from attending a concert by U.S. hip hop band the Black Eyed Peas sponsored by Guinness which is owned by the world's biggest spirits group Diageo.
The move comes after a Malaysian Islamic court sentenced a 32-year Muslim woman to be caned after she was caught drinking beer in a hotel and at a time when an opposition Islamic party has moved against beer sales.
The concert, part of celebrations of Guinness 250th birthday, asks on its website (www.arthursday.com.my) "Are you a non-Muslim aged 18 years and above?" and if the response is no, access is not allowed.
Muslims account for 55 percent of the 27 million people in this Southeast Asian country and are barred from consuming alcohol although the rules are regularly flouted, especially in big cities like the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia's Guinness Anchor which sells Guinness and other brands here had sales of 1.2 billion Malaysian ringgit ($340.6 million) in 2008.
Even without alcohol, foreign bands are subject to scrutiny. Earlier this week, the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) said it wanted Danish band Michael Learns to Rock banned from performing as it would cause immorality.
Since 2007, PAS, the country's second largest political group measured by party membership, has campaigned against performances by the likes of Beyonce, Rihanna, Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne.
($1=3.523 Malaysian Ringgit)
(Reporting by David Chance; editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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