I HAD A DREAM

No, Really, I mean I really had a Dream

The title isn't a play on dismay at the dashed aspirations of MLK. I had a dream last night after the President's speech.
I am not a Jungian or a Freudian-just a little lawyer. But the dream changed my view of the President's actions in Libya 180 degrees. I now just might be his biggest fan again. Before the President's speech I was applauding Medea Benjamin of Code Pink for raising the rucus banner still, and generally considered myself someone who should call out anyone who wages war championing the Pope's call to lay down the arms now. After my dream I appreciated better the distinction between "just" and not so just war. Chamberlonian Appeasement has a bad name for a reason. Appeasement can sometimes mean outright slaughter.

In this dream my late grandfather, a distinguished Pennsylvania attorney who has never before in the 35 years since his passing showed up in my dreams was there lounging in his beautiful living space. I was warmed immensely by his presence. Then I was led out of his presence by a beautiful little small boy whom I knew wasn't my son but felt more like an angel. I followed him to another room whereupon I saw a man whom I recognized immediately as a bad guy capture the angel boy and violently throw him in a closet. I instinctively went toward the man to demand that the angel boy be let out of the closet at which point he threw me against the wall, handcuffed me with state issued military police handcuffs, brandished a switchblade and taunted that he was not only not going to let the angelboy out of the closet, he was going to have his way with me and slice up my grandfather and all the rest of my family. I screamed for help and felt utterly helpless against the power of this evil. I was so shocked/stunned by this dream I immediately awoke in a sweat.

I sat in bed thinking hard about why I had just had such a horrible dream-I don't get them alot. I tend to think the Rosary I say before bed protects me and usually my dreams are the sweetest. But this I needed to think about.

It has dawned on me that God places our leaders in authority over and in positions of strength and power for us because they are good, supremely good and they are there for a reason in a particular moment in history. This is Obama's moment in history.

It's the conservatives who usually say there is evil in the world and it is real.
Indeed, it is real. Sometimes it has to be stopped in its tracks.

Obama has tried every way he can think of to not overreach in the fashion Bush did and not deceive the public like Bush did about why force was here the only responsible response given what he knew of the situation. He has made it a multilateral effort and the responsibility of the entire western world through NATO. He has minimized and reduced our military involvement to what was necessary to stop what he thought was an imminent slaughter of an entire city.

Now I do not fault him for using force to overcome a forceful evil. I can only criticize him for not coming out ahead of the criticism and making this speech a week ago. I apologize and retract for calling it reckless and/or ill advised (I think I was harsher, I called it stupid even.) This was how it appeared to a lot of people and polls have plummetted. Now I need to make it right and redress the decline. The President deserves our humble appreciation. In our name he stood down evil in the face and won. He's Winning.