Why Obama's Health Care Reform DOES NOT Mean "Pulling the Plug on Grandma"

Copy and paste the link below into your URL thingy majingy to hear Melody Barnes, the President's Director of the Domestic Policy Council, debunking the malicious myth that reform would encourage or even require euthanasia for seniors.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/7  

Don't blame Obama if G.O.P. wins the health care reform wrestling match

Here is another N.Y. Times op-ed, this one by Ross Douthat on the health care reform fight called "Don't Blame Obama".

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/opinion/24douthat-1.html?ref=opinion

President Obama: Why we need health care reform.

Please click on the link below to read a very informative a New York Times op-ed written by the commander-in-chief concerning our nation's need for health care reform.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/opinion/16obama.html?_r=1

"I am an Athenian citizen! I am an Athenian citizen! This is the proudest moment in all my life." ~Edith Hamlton

This is a photograph of Edith Hamilton in the amphitheatre of Herodes Atticus at the foot of the Athenian Acropolis on the occasion of her being made an honorary citizen of Athens.

Hamilton vs Kitto

I began reading The Greeks by H.D.F. Kitto the other day and my mind could not help but draw comparisons between it and E.H.'s The Greek Way to Western Civilization. Both of these books are obviously designed to give the reader insight into classical Greek culture and both were written by renowned classicists. But what I found most fascinating were not the similarities between them but the differences. I have only read the chapter on Homer in Kitto's book but that was enough for me to see how his writing style pales in comparison to E.H's. Don't get me wrong, from what I read on Homer there is valuable information in Kitto's text......but E.H. writes with the authority and passion of one who fought side by side with Achilles or as if she herself was a student at Plato's Academy. Her writing pulls you in and leaves you begging for more. At times she is more poet than scholar. I leave you with the first paragraph of The Greek Way so that you may judge for yourself:

Five hundred years before Christ in a little town on the far western border of the settled and civilized world, a strange new power was at work. Something had awakened in the minds and spirits of the men there which was so to influence the world that the slow passage of long time, of century upon century and the shattering changes they brought, would be powerless to wear away that deep impress.

Quote Of The Week

"The fundamental fact about the Greek was that he had to use his mind. The ancient priests had said, Thus far and no farther. We set the limits of thought. The Greek said, All things are to be examined and called into question. There are no limits set on thought." ~Edith Hamilton

The first thing that came to mind when I read this quote was an anecdote regarding E.H. herself that I read online. The story begins in Leipzig, Germany. E.H. and her sister were studying at the university, E.H. grew tired of her professors' inability to grasp the full scope and meaning of what the ancient greek thinkers were attempting to convey. So she decided to attend the University of Munich where she became the sole female member of the student body. Obviously this notoriety brought an entirely different set of challenges as compared to those in Leipzig. The faculty wanted to segrgate her from her classmates, so she was instructed to sit in a chair next to the lecturer's podium facing her classmates. It is also been reported that the head of the university would shake his head sadly whenever he ran into her and made dissaproving comments regarding a woman's place in the public sphere. Ironically enough, several reports I have read online state that E.H. in fact, enjoyed this notoriety!

The moral of the story is that those who wish to set limits on human thought are also setting limits on human progress. The world is lucky to have had a woman like Edith Hamilton to joyfully break down the barriers which ignorance has built.

Popped my blogging cherry!

Wow! I never thought that I would write a blog! This is amazing and easier than I imagined. The purpose of this blog is to share my  experiences on my way to becoming a philosophy professor, to plug charities, and to possibly get in touch with other people that have humanitarian aspirations and a passion for greek antiquity. Another reason for starting this blog is that I want to become a skilled writer and would like to express ideas in a coherent and eloquent way. In other words, practice makes perfect.