Solomon, the third King of the Ancient Kingdom of Israel, wrote: "Meaningless, meaningless...what has been done will be done again for there is nothing new under the sun. This too is meaningless."

One of my favorite television shows was West Wing; a show that attempted to depict the every day events within the president's White House staff. I used to love watching the portrayal of activities in the White House as the members of the President's staff bantered about relevant issues of our times. In fact, I like the show so much I purchased the season box sets and from time to time through them into the DVD player to take another look.

Just a couple weeks ago I decided to take them for another spin; so I plopped a disc into the Xbox drawer and sat back to enjoy another run through. Now it may be interesting to note that West Wing was a weekly prime time show that ran for seven years from 1999 to 2006. As I watched episodes from season six, you know what struck me? What struck me was how similarly the show predicted the election of a President of minority decent (albeit West Wing promoted a Latin American candidate played by Jimmy Smits; where reality gave us our first African-American in Barack Obama). You know what else hit me? That the issues they were covering back then are the exact same issues Congress and the President are dealing with right now. In fact in the past 16 years it seems there is very little new on the scene of American Politics. National health care, Osama Bin Laden and radical Islamic terrorists; the threat of nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea; how to peacefully settle the Israeli-Palestianian conflict; the fine balance of Sino (Chinese)-American relations and how to deal with human rights violations in Tibet; all these are issues the White House and Congress have laboriously debated for nearly two decades.

I am left asking why? Why does it take so long to settle a matter and move on to new equally pressing issues? I guess it is hard to steer a large ship in a new direction.

In American politics there is nothing new under the sun. Seems the American governing officials are preoccupied with the stale debates. I hope they won't be blinded by sunbeams in their eyes. I hope there is not an iceberg awaiting us on ahead. Oops I think we've already hit one!