In this day and age, where corporations grow stronger everyday and are able to manipulate Congress like puppeteers, how could the Supreme Court, the institution charged with interpreting our Constitution and defending our system of government, decide to allow corporations potentially unfettered financial access to the Democratic process? In my opinion, they have simply legalized corruption. Instead of working for the people, many more politicians will begin to cast their allegiances toward the corporations that exploit the people.

Equally disappointing for me was the Obama administration’s participation in the Senate election in Massachusetts. I honestly believe that had President Obama not campaigned alongside Democrat Martha Coakley, she would have had a much better chance of beating Scott Brown. The results are very clear. Voters want change. They want action. They are sick of speeches and excuses. Obama’s platform of change was and is just that. Change. If he and his administration cannot provide it, the people will look elsewhere. That is what happened in Massachusetts, and that is what will continue to happen across this country.

In my opinion, the mistake the Obama administration continues to make is that they posture themselves as if Obama’s win and subsequent popularity are about him. It has never been about him. It has always been about the HOPE and CHANGE that he represented. Those were his campaign promises. He was the new guy in town, and he was the exact opposite of George W. Bush. And that, I believe, is why Obama won.

Days before the election in Massachusetts, I started to get the usual mass emails from Camp Obama. “We’ve got an important election coming up.” “Call here.” “Send money there.” Yet, instead of being motivated by their repeated calls to action, I couldn’t help but wonder where the Obama administration was during the important gay marriage election in Maine. Or where they were when New Jersey voted on gay marriage. Or New York. Where were the supportive emails for the LGBT community saying, “Please stand up for equality”? There were none. Obama and his administration stood silent and watched as a community of his most ardent supporters was repeatedly kicked to the curb. Take a look at Maureen Dowd’s piece this week on Gavin Newsom. He has some great observations about Obama’s position on gay marriage.

The sad irony today is that the fear-based forces who have pumped millions upon millions of dollars into the hateful doctrines of “separate but equal,” “don’t let THEM redefine marriage for US,” and “keep the gays away from our school children,” are the same people whose money bankrolled the campaign of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts. The National Organization for Marriage’s latest press release proudly announces, “The National Organization for Marriage spent $50,000 in the closing days of the campaign to identify marriage voters in Massachusetts and make sure they turned out and supported Scott Brown.”

Believe it or not, I still have a lot of hope, though! I have hope that maybe now things WILL start to change. Maybe now the Obama administration will see that when they support equal rights for all Americans, they also take a stand against the hateful PAC’s that aim to slowly undermine them, too. Maybe now, when the corporations begin pumping millions of dollars into the campaigns of various elected officials, the publicity generated by those donations will keep the politicians more honest and accountable to the people they are supposed to be serving. I hope so. It is truly time for some CHANGE.

This morning, I had the TODAY show on briefly and happened to catch the tail end of this piece about a free health clinic in a place called Phoenixville, PA.  Maybe it was the holiday, maybe it was because it was relatively early in the morning, or it could just be that I am emotional and have been known to cry during certain episodes of Sex and the City, but I was moved to tears.  I actually went online, found their website, and donated to them this morning.  I hope you will be moved to do the same.  Click here to see what they are all about.

And please take a look at the video:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Happy Holidays and much love,
Peter

Wednesday afternoon, I called my Mom to lament the loss we all suffered in Maine on Proposition 1.

Side note: By “we all” I mean our entire nation.  You see, I believe that as Americans, one day we will look back on all the gay marriage propositions and referenda put on ballots in our states that essentially strip rights from people and be ashamed.  Ashamed of ourselves.  Ashamed for ourselves.  And then we will feel shame as our grandchildren look at us and ask, “Why?”

But I digress.  The irony and ridiculousness of the whole situation is laughable.  But there is no reasoning with people who live their lives in fear, anger, and envy.  They are like steamrollers in high gear without drivers.  No one is in control.

And so, while I was going through all of this with my Mom, her first response was, “But dear, you don’t spend any time in Maine.  The last time you were there was more than 20 years ago.  Don’t worry about them.  They will take care of themselves.  And you’ll see.  All this will get sorted out in due time.”

As an aside, my Mom lives in Connecticut, one of the five states where gay marriage is currently legal.  When Proposition 8 passed in California and I was so brought down, her response was simply, “Come home to get married.  So many of those people in that state where you live are just so provincial.  Anyone who would vote in favor of something as ludicrous as Proposition 8 is a provincial, small-minded person.  Get married here among intelligent people who love you.”

Back to the phone call…  I went onto explain that now I was afraid that President Obama and Congress would be unlikely to help us and stand up for our cause because of the response of the voters in Maine.  Again, her response was more big picture, “But that man was never going to stand up for you, no matter what happened in Maine.  Those people in Congress are fools, too.  Look at what is going on in this country.  They can’t even get health care right.”

She went on to encourage me to live my life by my own ideals.  To lead by example.  “The way to affect change,” she reminded me, “is to change yourself.”

I hung up with her and thought about where we were now versus where we were even just five years ago.  We have seen rapid change in a very short amount of time.  Things will continue to change, but we must look inward first.  We need to change ourselves, and that will ready us and steady us for the changes to come.

Senator Lieberman is betraying the wishes of the very Connecticut residents who elected him to his seat in the Senate.  He is a Democrat who says he will side with Republicans and filibuster should the Health Care Reform Bill with the Public Option come to the Senate floor.

Let us not forget that this is the man who has taken large sums of money from insurance companies for his Senate campaigns.  And back in 2005, Lieberman’s wife took a position at Hill & Knowlton working on behalf of GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical giant that benefited from legislation Lieberman introduced the month after his wife agreed to the position.  He is also the man who broke with his party to campaign against Obama and on behalf of John McCain.

Interestingly enough, it was not too long ago that Mr. Lieberman told reporters that he did not think Senators should engage in filibusters.

Why, Democrats, have you welcomed this man back into your caucus?  Why, President Obama, did you stand up on this man’s behalf?  Why is this man still allowed to retain his position as chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee?

Please – Democrats – distance yourselves from this charlatan.  It is time to move on.

I personally have a problem with huge corporations profiting off the lives of human beings. I always have. Maybe I have always been naive. That’s OK. I know that there is no simple answer to this crisis. The insurance companies would argue that the for-profit, capitalist system of health care in this country has been directly responsible for the major, lifesaving technological breakthroughs we have had in this country over the past century. And they do have a point.

But now, we must face some hard facts. We must come to terms with the fact that our current system of health care no longer works, and we are long overdue for a huge overhaul. It is about time we got to work!

I borrowed the picture above from The New York Times to make a simple point. My Dad has always said in business meetings, “If you don’t have a positive solution or a positive idea, I don’t want to hear you speak until you do. Tell me how I can, not why I can’t.” In this case, I could not agree with him more.

Stop yelling! Stop crying! Stop grandstanding! And stop being roadblocks to positive change! If you have good ideas, let’s hear them! Your representatives are holding town hall meetings because they want to explain things, and they want to hear ideas. They are not there to endure endless tirades about what’s wrong with this country and what life was like when you were little.

Look, it is very simple. Change must come. Maybe Obama’s plan is a good option. Maybe it isn’t. But if it isn’t, then offer some ideas to your representatives. Ideas on how to do it better. Don’t just be a pawn in some crafty health care company’s pocket. Don’t adopt their PR messaging and lobbying as your own point of view. Do some real investigating yourselves! Take ownership of your lives and become true American citizens!

If you can’t do that, then stop talking and go home. Please.

But in all seriousness, I am so thrilled, happy and relieved for the young journalists and their families. Read this article from the New York Times for a thorough and incredibly interesting account of what happened behind the political scenes to secure the women’s release.

Of particular interest to me was the comment by a “former official” that Kim Jong-il was ultimately motivated to release Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee as a “reciprocal humanitarian gesture” to a note Mr. Clinton had sent as President when Mr. Kim’s father had passed away.

It never hurts to do the right thing and reach out on a very human level to another human being, no matter who he or she is or what he or she has done. You never know when that humanity will be returned.