How would you feel if you had the power to pick and choose who among the governed to favor with money, recognition, special favors, etc.? Would you feel like God on high? And would you expect all those favored to commend you, even worship you?

What about those not favored? It sounds like they would be disfavored somehow. In other words, they would pay or suffer in order for the favored ones to enjoy their largesse. How would that make you feel? Not so good, huh? But wait, what if most of those being harmed did not notice or complain? How do you feel now? Much better, thank you. Alright, a few sore heads do complain. But it is easy to dismiss them. They are obviously jealous of your Godlike power. You can’t please everyone you know. If they get too noisy and obnoxious you can expel them. At worst you can jail or conceivably kill them. That might occasionally make you feel a little bad but the worship of the favored loving people mostly overwhelms those feelings, doesn’t it?

Now let’s switch to another scenario.

Your neighbor down the street has a stroke. He is paralyzed from the waist down.

He has two teenage kids and a working wife.  Their income is drastically cut and obviously she needs to go to work every day as he struggles to recover.

You talk to the family and evaluate the situation. They need $1000 per month to get the mortgage paid and transportation to and from therapy for the husband.

You can afford to contribute $200 toward the mortgage and decide to do that. You walk the neighborhood and find four more who can donate $200.00 per month. A home schooling mother offers to take him to and from therapy everyday. Problem solved. How do you and the others feel? Good, huh? How does the receiving family feel? Grateful and inspired, would be my guess. Anyone hurt? Not really, and if so it is certainly voluntary. Do you feel like God? Not really. Just good neighbors led by human compassion.

What is the difference in those two scenarios? The first is involuntary, the second voluntary. The first is arrogant, the second voluntary. The first is arrogant, the second humble. The first is destructive, the second constructive. The first is not of God but of the devil himself no matter how portrayed.

You must be asking “what’s the point?”

Here it is: In the Honolulu Advertiser 10/12/06 appeared an article “Obama’s book hints at presidential run” by Mike Dorning of the Chicago Tribune.

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois graduated from Hawaii’s Punahou School. Dorning briefly describes the content of the book “The Audacity of Hope” saying it “…concentrates on the senator’s core values while providing a broad sense of how he would handle the great issues of the moment.”

He then says the book talks about “…the senator’s political journey with a blend of anecdotes and discussion of his principles.”

Now comes the whole point of this essay with some quotes direct from the book.

“I find myself returning again and again to my mother’s simple principle—‘How would that make you feel’—as a guidepost for my politics.”

“As a country, we seem to be suffering from an empathy deficit.”

“A stronger sense of empathy would tilt the balance of our current politics in favor of those people who are struggling in this society.”

My goodness, Senator Obama has taken his mother’s advice for his personal behavior, directly attached of his own individual responsibility and accountability for results and unfortunately transferred it into government forceful policy. There where it becomes a perversion instead of somewhat sound advice.

Senator Obama sees himself as our lord with us as serfs. He will suffer no personal responsibility or accountability for his “feeling good” decisions in government.

He is quoted as saying “My heart is filled with love for this country.” It is just too bad that such affection does not apply to the productive people of the nation. They will pay a heavy price if Obama governs.

But he will “feel good”. It appears it is all about Obama’s feelings and nothing about  effective, positive results for our nation.

That is audacity for sure.

But hope?

Nope.

Punahou, hang your head.

Richard O. Rowland is president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. He can be reached via email at: dick@grassrootinstitute.com