Here are a few items worthy of your attention.

First, yesterday, March 26, 2010 was the 65th  Anniversary of the raising of the American Flag on Mt. Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima. It was said of the battle for Iwo Jima that uncommon valor was a common virtue among American fighting forces there. I hope if you have HBO you are watching their miniseries about the WWII in the Pacific. Even if you don’t have HBO, you can go on HBO.com and explore the marvelous supporting material they have there. Please pause for a moment to give thanks for those who served us so well at Iwo Jima.

Second, a new political movement has arisen. The movement is called "The Coffee Party" (I wonder where they got that name?) and is dedicated to citizen involvement in the political process and civility. A number of meetings are scheduled for today and tomorrow with the goal of meeting with elected officials during the Congressional recess. I wish them well. Find out more at www.coffeepartyusa.com.

Third, David Sirota’s latest column delves into what he feels are the differences between liberalism and progressivism. Being progressive is not being liberal and calling yourself by another name, according to David. Here’s a link to his article. www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/03/the_difference_between_liberal.html

Fourth, E. J. Dionne, Jr. recently had a column bemoaning the lack of true conservatives in the debate today. If I may put my own summary to this essay, Dionne was saying the principles of Conservatives have well served the nation as a pencil sharpener to the pencil of liberalism. Now they are more of a wood chipper. As a wood chipper, they are diminished as a force and that is not a good thing for our system of governance. Here’s a link to Dionne’s article. www.truthdig.com/report/item/will_true_conservatives_stand_up_20100323/

Three recent events demonstrate abortion continues to be the latter day equivalent of Prohibition we have yet to resolve. A close second is undocumented immigration.

The first event is the controversy over the so-called "Cornhusker Kickback" giving the impetus for Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson to vote for Cloture and allow the Senate Health Care Reform Bill to be voted on and passed. Much has been made of the special funding arrangement to alleviate Nelson’s concerns over unfunded mandates to the states. Lost in the furor is the fact the other reason for Nelson’s reluctance was the desire not to enable abortions to be funded with taxpayer dollars.

The second event is the passage of Health Care Reform via reconciliation. One of the prime obstacles to passing has been the difference in language between the legislation from the House vs. the Senate regarding abortion funding. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/us/politics/20health.html?th&emc=th)

The third event is the controversy raging in Nebraska over whether or not to offer pre-natal care to undocumented (some would use the term illegal) women residents of Nebraska. One the one hand are those who say anyone who is undocumented should not receive the benefit of tax dollars. On the other hand are those who say the child born will be a US citizen. Denying care at the pre-natal stage is (they argue) penny wise and pound foolish thinking, because the child, once born, could cost the state significantly for care after birth due to neglect before birth.

Complicating matters is the fact several of the undocumented mothers appear unlikely to receive Medicaid funds for pre-natal care are now seriously considering abortion. This has caused the so-called Pro-Life movement to go into hysterics. (I say so-called because I consider the term to be inaccurate. What Pro-Lifers should be called is Anti-Choice.)

At any rate, since Nebraska has a Republican Governor opposing funding the pre-natal care, the Nebraska Democratic Party has self righteously criticized the Governor for creating an "abortion epidemic" (Omaha World Herald, Mar 20, 2010, p. B1).

All of this is avoidance of the real issue. We need to . . .

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