Ordered to Speak Out

"One cannot be deeply responsive to the world
without being saddened very often."

Eric Fromm


I have so much on at the moment, I'm very nervous. This speach I have to give a Parliament House is terrifying me; I was never a public speaker. It's easy to be a warrior behind a key board, it's hard to stand up and be counted.

Unfashionable and courageous, that's the order of the day.

I feel like I've been ordered from on high to do this. The sentences keep spilling out of my head. I can't sleep; and often up by 1.30am, pounding away at the keyboard. It doesn't feel fanatical and obsessive; it feels like I've been told to do this, I have to do this. I told Warwick Marsh from the Fatherhood Foundation, who mounted a very spirited campaign to insist I share his speaking time; that I had a dream that God had ordered me to speak. He's a committed Christian and thought that was pretty amazing. You better not bloody back out now, I said, you'll have the wrath of the heavens upon you. He laughed. I just wish it was over.

THE BIGGER STORY:
US NEWS:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_070802.htm

WASHINGTON NEWS
In DC, All Eyes On Iraq's Political Mess
A day after the comparably low monthly US death toll in Iraq led to optimistic assessments that things are improving militarily there, President Bush focused on Iraq's political woes. In a videophone conversation with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Bush "delivered a blunt message," the CBS Evening News said, demanding that Maliki "show some progress in uniting rival factions." However, even "while that was happening, key Sunni officials announced they're leaving the government." The AP says White House "downplayed the significance" of the bloc's departure, with White House Press Secretary Tony Snow saying "reconciliation is ongoing" and noting that Iraq's Sunni vice president and defense minister "remain in place."

But unlike yesterday's upbeat coverage focusing on military aspects media outlets across the board portrayed the situation in Iraq in a starkly negative light. ABC World News, for example, noted, "In the critical, political arena, the picture is bleak" following the bloc's withdrawal. NBC Nightly News also called the move a "new setback" for Maliki's government. The New York Times says the move is "severely weakening the government's credentials as a national unity coalition and setting back hopes of reconciliation," while the Washington Post calls it "the latest indication of growing Sunni frustration" with Prime Minister Maliki. The Financial Times calls it "a significant blow to hopes for Sunni-Shia reconciliation. USA Today, Washington Times and Los Angeles Times, among other newspapers, run similar assessments this morning.

On its front page, the New York Times says the war's "staunchest supporters have seized on the reduced death toll in July for American troops as a sign that an influx of troops is dampening sectarian violence in the country. Yet even before the car bombings on Wednesday, opponents of the war were citing reports that the Iraqi civilian deaths were on the rise -- a fact they say belies any notion that the White House strategy is having its intended effect of protecting the Iraqi population."