#DallasMemorial #Ill-advised

President Obama is taking every opportunity left to him to attempt the impossible: revoke the divorce between the two Americas. An admirable goal for which I would like to give him some credit. He will not succeed in this, primarily due to entrenched hatreds that have become the core of many American identities. No one gives up her identity easily. But also because of speeches like the one he gave today, the endless, and slightly school-marmish monologue. I believe the President’s good intentions, and appreciated much of his rhetoric, but what a windbag. And what an inappropriate venue for a speech about race relations, however accurate he was. This was a funeral for 5 cops killed in the line of duty. An open heart, as he described, would have dictated that the suffering families come first — and that means a speech suited to them. Did Mr. Obama think they wanted to hear about race relations? Or did he just not think about it at all? I reject all the vitriol being directed at President Obama after a speech filled with desperate pleas for understanding. But I am also surprised by this misstep on his part.

HERE WOULD HAVE BEEN MY SUGGESTION. Based on Obama’s own use of verse from John — “ Let us love not with words or speech, but with actions and in truth” — I would have suggested he read the prayer of St. Francis, without introduction. Then fold up the single piece of paper in his hand and get down into the audience and shake hands with each and every person in the entire room. Full stop.

PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.