The American Spirit

In the midst of lockouts, lawsuits, and endless debate and recriminations in the American sports world, a group of Americans achieved what probably should have been impossible.

The U. S. women's soccer team is usually one of the best in the world. As a matter of fact, they are currently ranked number one. But on Sunday, the breaks were beating the girls, so they had to go out there and win just one for them, and for us.

The breaks included typically anti-American officiating and the ejection of an American player. At one point, Brazil led 2-1 with time running out and the U. S. playing a man down. They were playing against Brazil, who traditionally is the New York Yankees/Notre Dame of the soccer world. The U. S. scored an impossible goal, and then won the game on penalty kicks.

Their post game words were lessons for all of us. The coach, from Sweden, plus the players, credited the American way. Americans don't quit, Americans fight to the bitter end, Americans remain confident, proud, and optimistic. They had a rendezvous with destiny, just as a great man over fifty years ago proclaimed to this country. And they won.

Their victory reminds us that in America, for Americans, anything is possible. It is always morning in America so long as people keep working, keep pushing, and retain their resilience. We are right and we are free, but we will accomplish nothing without belief.

These women understood instinctively that there is an American spirit at work. Do you?

Nice Work If You Can Get It

The White House employs a man named Jesse Lee at a salary of over $72,000 per year to exchange Twitter messages with a man named Kevin Eder. Well, he does have other duties, such as focusing on the Communi..I mean, er Stalini...I mean er "progressive" responses to online criticism. That includes arguing with people on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else. Eder, who is neither a journalist, nor a commentator in any form except Twitter, has been honored with 15% of Lee's twitter output. This shocks Eder, who shows more political savvy than the White House official. Eder states that all these responses do is to raise the profile of the person getting the response. After all, none of us knew who Eder was before. Now we wonder why the White House is so worried about this guy.

Lee is part of an aggressive response team whose strategy, according to the Daily Caller (story here) http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/06/white-house-uses-twitter-to-bully-critics/ has been to bully traditional and non traditional media sources alike. No way would Bush have gotten away with what Obama's people did to the Boston Herald, as described in the Daily Caller story. What they have not figured out is that their hardball tactics become the story and increase the disenchantment felt towards the Obama White House.

What I wonder is this. Are we paying this guy $72,000 per year to sit around on social media?