Day: April 17, 2010

Obama And Gay Visitation Rights In Hospitals: Important Step On Human Rights!

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President Obama took a great step forward on human rights yesterday, when he ordered that the Department of Health and Human Services immediately move to promote the right of gay and lesbian couples to have hospital visitation rights, something often denied in many health crises involving gays across the nation up to now.

While there is much more that needs to be done regarding the subject of gay rights, Obama is bringing about changes in a more measured way to avoid conflict with Congress in the short run.

This will not, of course, please gay activists who want immediate and dramatic changes on gay rights on the part of the Obama Administration.

But this move to allow better treatment in hospital situations is still to be applauded as a move in the right direction! One must remember that there are so many areas that Obama is working on at the same time, and some patience is therefore required!

The main point is that Obama’s attitude and mind is in the proper place, and he will be seen as having made great progress on a difficult subject as time goes by!

Barack Obama And The Space Program: New Direction!

Ronald 1 Comment

President Obama outlined a new vision on space travel at the Cape Canaveral base of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in central Florida on Thursday.

His plan is to develop a new space vehicle and a heavy lift booster to carry it beyond earth; to have a manned mission to an asteroid within fifteen years; and to use this as a stepping stone to the moons of Mars, and then reach Mars itself by 2040.

Obama sees this as a new mission, rather than following those who say we should go back to the moon. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin agrees with him, while interestingly, Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan are critical of Obama’s abandonment of the space shuttle program, and his plan to promote privatization efforts and to count on the Russians and others for travel to the space station.

While there may be a short term loss of jobs at the Cape, it seems that Obama’s vision will, hopefully, be seen over time in the same light as John F. Kennedy’s vision of landing on the moon by the end of the 1960s. The one major issue now, above all, will be finding the necessary funding to accomplish this space goals that looks so promising and doable over time, with patience!