Remarks at the White House - by James Hansen

Remarks at the White House¹

15 January 2013

James Hansen, screenshot

Let us return for a moment to election night 2008. As I sat in our farm house in Pennsylvania, watching Barack Obama's victory speech, I turned my head aside so my wife would not see the tears in my eyes. I suspect that millions cried. It was a great day for America.

We had great hopes for our new President. It is appropriate, it is right, in a period honoring Martin Luther King, to recall the hopes and dreams of that evening, and the hopes and dreams that we…will… never  -  give up.

We have a dream – that our President will understand the intergenerational injustice of human-made climate change – that he will recognize our duty to be caretakers of creation, of the land, of the life on our planet – and that he will give these matters the priority that our young people deserve.

We have a dream – that our President will understand the commonality of solutions for energy security, national security and climate stability – and that he will exercise hands-on leadership, taking the matter to the public, avoiding backroom crippling deals with special interests.

We have a dream – that the President will stand as firm as Abraham Lincoln when he faced the great moral issue of slavery – and, like Franklin Roosevelt or Winston Churchill, he will speak with the public, enlisting their support and reassuring them.

It is not easy to find an Abraham Lincoln or a Winston Churchill. But we are here today looking to find that in you, Mr. President. And until you summon it within yourself, let me assure you that we will return, and our numbers will grow.

Mr. President, we will be here until the promise of a safe world for our children and grandchildren, and your children and grand children – is not a dream. We will be here until we are assured that the history books will rightfully record – that you were the person we were looking for  - the person who turned these dreams…into reality.

______________________________
¹ Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, Pray-in at NY Ave. Presbyterian Church and the White House
(www.interfaithactiononclimatechange.org) on Martin Luther King's birthday.
"We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now…" Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fans Facebook Lady Gaga Kalahkan Obama

Fans Facebook Lady Gaga Kalahkan Obama

London: Penyanyi eksentrik Lady Gaga merupakan orang pertama di dunia yang memiliki 10 juta penggemar di situs jejaring sosial Facebook. Jumlah penggemar Gaga bahkan melebihi Presiden Amerika Serikat Barack Obama. Demikian menurut sebuah kelompok pengukur tingkat popularitas daring (online) di Inggris, Famecount.com, Jumat (2/7).

Famecount.com menyebutkan bahwa Lady Gaga kini merupakan tokoh musik yang masih hidup terpopuler di dunia maya, menurut pengamatan mereka terhadap situs Facebook, Twitter, dan YouTube.

Terhitung Jumat, pelantun tembang hit Bad Romance dan Paparazi ini memiliki lebih dari 9,9 juta penggemar di akun Facebook-nya dan 4,7 juta pengikut (followers) di Twitter.

Penyanyi berusia 24 tahun yang merilis album perdananya pada dua tahun lalu mengungguli Obama pada minggu lalu. Presiden 'Negeri paman Sam' iru memiliki 9,4 penggemar di Facebook dan 4,4 juta pengikut di Twitter.

"Kini, Lady Gaga menjadi manusia hidup yang memiliki penggemar terbanyak mencapai 10 juta di Facebook, belum di situs jejaring sosial lainnya," tulis Famecount.com di website-nya.

Namun, jumlah penggemar Lady Gaga masih kurang jika dibandingkan dengan almarhum Michael Jackson yang memiliki 14 juta penggemar. Bahkan, permainan daring Texas Hold'em Poker masih lebih unggul dengan 20 juta penggemar