In a recent article entitled Doubling Down, I mentioned a handful of goals about which are important for me to achieve.  While these are issues that I desire, I have failed at obtaining them in the past.  One of my goals is to interview President Obama, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Clarence Page.  While I have tried, I have not been successful.  If any of my readers can send the link Doubling Down to anyone of these people, I would appreciate it.  Actually, if you are successful passing on my request to interview one of those three people and I interview one or more of them, I would take you out for dinner and interview you also.

In the meantime, I have continued to explore means by which to reach all my goals.  If dancing with death frees one to live, daring greatly frees one to fail.  Ironically, it frees one to do things about which one could be successful also.  Therefore, I continue like a combination of Pandora and Don Quixote. 

Clarence Page

One of the reasons why interviewing Clarence Page interests me is that we came from the same generation and went through the civil rights movement.  Therefore, I will read anything with Page's name on it.  Recently, he wrote a column about Ben Carson's comment regarding having a Muslim president.  Carson said, "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.  I absolutely would not agree with that."

Ben Carson

Page noted that similar issues regarding the unacceptability came up with Al Smith who ran for president in 1928 and lost.  John Kennedy ran in 1960 and won.  Nevertheless, both were Catholics.  Therefore, their religion raised questions for some Americans.  Essentially, it is the same issue that troubles Carson.  The only difference is the religious background has moved from Catholicism to Islam.   

Additionally, the evangelical religion of Carson causes some to be skittish of his religious mindset on many social issues.  Beyond the right-wing fundamentalism, Carson seemed to have forgotten that back in 2008 when President Obama was running for the presidency, there were many that would not see having a Muslim who was black heading up our country.

Even though only some birthers buy into the notion that Obama is a Muslim, many white Americans thought that it was unacceptable, to use Carson's word, to have a black as president of America.  I would have thought that Carson would be sensitive to the issue of discrimination.    

"Don Quixote"

Visit the "Don Quixote" page to read more about this topic.

11/23/15