He's Not Heavy...

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In David Lean’s historic motion picture, “Lawrence of Arabia,” a fictional T.E. Lawrence says to the character Sheriff Ali – “So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous, and cruel...”

He could have been talking to the American public, nearly a century later. How different are we; bickering and name calling; each of us clawing their way to an advantage over someone else; all the while cloaking our selfish motives in principle and high mindedness …“a little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous and cruel.”

There is a scene toward the end of the film, in which the united tribes in the form of an Arab Council try to govern a captured city. There is a meeting of the Council in which each tribe’s fractional interest destroys the unity that allowed the Arabs victory in the first place.

Once again, how different is Rep. Joe Wilson’s unprecedented outburst during a joint session of Congress when he called President Obama a liar. The difference is of course, that we have a chance we have a chance to stop being “a little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous and cruel.”

We can show the world that we are not a nation of savages and pass Obama’s health care bill and move in line and in pace with the rest of the civilized world. And as a nation start to make the right choices…Humanitarian choices…At least when it comes to each other.