Time Person Of The Year

Time Magazine named President Barack Obama as the 2012 Person of the Year. I am not surprised, but  I do not agree with their choice. Have you ever been introduced to Selman Khan?

I think that the President has been at the forefront on climate change and is forward thinking on energy policy. As he said, green energy research is expensive,  but the US must lead the way or we will continue to fall behind. Many years ago Toyota invested and lost billions in developing hybrid technology, but now is the worlds leading auto company. Isn't time that we increased our investment in research and development in an effort to reverse global warming and massive pollution? On other fiscal and economic issues, the President has been fighting an uphill battle against long odds. There is certainly enough blame to go around, and I cannot see his job getting any easier in his second term.

Although, I have always felt that the President's heart was in the right place, it bothers me that he waited for to long to speak out on gay rights and gun control. Obviously, he needed to keep an eye on the polls, but I feel that there is a time when a strong leader has to stand tall and let people know what he believes is moral and just. The tide has changed, and people around the country are speaking up about marriage equality, and the supreme court will finally have an opportunity to make it right.

The President outlined a plan to put Joe Biden in charge of gun control, and it sounds like a great plan, but where were they before?  The NRA has now made their position clear, "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun".  Every gun manufactured in America leaves the factory as a legal firearm, however, over their life time, several guns fall into the wrong hands resulting in death, either from, gang violence, domestic violence, suicide, robbery, accident or mass murder by an insane person. Several of these guns never change hands but the gun owner's life changes, and the result is the same. So how can we ever be safer with more guns, it's not possible. The only hope is to reduce the number of guns, and not just assault weapons, but hand guns that are killing young men and innocent bystanders on every street corner. The time to act is long overdue, and I hope that the politicians are ready to stand up to the NRA.  God bless NYC Mayor Bloomberg for rallying other mayors from around the country in an effort to get guns off the streets.

America and countries around the world are warning Iran not to build a nuclear weapon. Have we ever considered, in a serious way, a treaty where all countries, including the US and Russia,  agree to the dismantling of all nuclear weapons? Could you imagine a country without guns and a world with out nukes.

Selman Khan, is the founder of the not-for- profit Khan Academy. With 3 degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard, Khan left the hedge fund world to run his on line tutorial program. It all began, a few years ago, when he started tutoring his niece, via YouTube, in math. Little did he know that one of his followers was teaching his son math using Khan's lessons. As the say "the rest is history",  because that follower was Bill Gates. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now the academy's major benefactor and many experts believe that their concepts will significantly change the education models of the future. The Khan Academy is not new for 2012, but has recently incorporated several other subjects and has grown into an educational tour de force.

I believe, however, that the Person of the Year should be the same each and every year. They are those who have sacrificed their lives or have put themselves in grave danger to protect others.

God bless the families of our true heroes,

Don T