This is the first time I've ever actually DID anything to help a presidential candidate win the election. I have to be honest here, I'm almost 29 years old and I never really cared about who our president was before. The way I saw it was, they're ALL corrupt people only looking out for themselves so I didn't even bother voting. Never voted that is, until Bush. The ONE good thing that Bush did was to screw up our country and the perception of our country SO bad that it made me, and I'm sure, thousands of other young people like myself realize that, hey, maybe I should pay attention to who the leader of the supposed "free" nation is. I use the quotes around the word free because we Americans have been losing OUR freedoms while Bush attempts to spread freedom to other countries (even though when he says freedom, he really means Capitalism). The last election was the first time I've ever voted, but I didn't really vote FOR Kerry, I just voted against Bush. Barack Obama is the first candidate I will actually vote FOR. In fact, as I'm sure many of you who are reading this are doing, I'm actually doing what I can to help Barack win the election against a corrupt system of shady politics, and I'll tell you what....it's hard.
The more I want/need to do to help Barack, it seems the more I need to work so I can pay my bills. But the more I NEED to work, the more I realize just how much Barack needs to be the president. It's a catch 22. I've already missed two meeting I planned on attending because I had to work, and now there is another two meetings coming up that I'm going to have to miss. Maybe that was the plan of the Republicans all along. If we put the middle and lower classes into a ton of debt, they won't have time to help each other dig themselves out. Okay....now I'm getting a bit cynical, but after looking at the numbers of our economy over the past years it doesn't seem that far fetched to me. So I do what I can to help a good Senator become a great President.
I'm going to meetings outside my district because they happen to fall on a day that I don't have to work. At the same time, I try to get friends/companions from that district to come out with me. I make calls during the weekends when I have free minutes on my cell phone. I talk about politics CONSTANTLY. So much so in fact that people are switching to Obama simply because they know I believe in him so much. I blog about issues when I have a free 15 minutes...like now. I do what I can. I'm sure many people are in my same position. They'd like to help, but how can they find the time. Just do what you can. Little by little. Bit by bit. If I do what I can, and you do what you can, then I am sure that we all can bring America back.
Thanks for reading.
I must admit, I am a fan of Michael Moore's movies, but like any piece of film that has editing (which is almost all films) you have to take what you see with a grain of salt. Michael made the Universal Health Care systems look absolutely amazing and edited his movie Sicko in a way that would make most Americans say, "Of course we should do that! It's perfect!" However, living close to the Canadian border, I've spoken to several Canadians about their healthcare system and every single one of them is absolutely fed up with it. In fact, they all said that it's a known fact that if you have a serious medical issue then, if possible, you should go down to the states to deal with it. This made me question Michael even more. I looked into H.R. 676, the front runner for Universal Health Care systems.
A good number of questions I had were answered with just a little bit of online research. I found the "official" site for H.R. 676 on Congressman John Conyers, Jr. Federal Information Page. One statement I've heard again and again from my Canadian friends is that it takes forever just to get something like an MRI. Sure you can get them once a year, no problem, but if something happens and you feel like you REALLY need it now; that's when you have to take a drive to the USA because otherwise you'll be hurting while you sit and wait for a slot to open up on the machine. This H.R. 676 site said something about that which makes plenty of sence. Their government, and therefore the people, don't put enough money into the plan to make it work properly; whereas, our government and our people would be putting much more into it. We'd have the same amount of money going into this universal healthcare plan as we have into healthcare right now. The only difference is that it would cut out a mess of bureaucratic red tape...in my opinion, a big difference.
I realize this blog doesn't say much, it's just me ranting on a bit about my thoughts, but I thought I'd at least post that link to the official site for those of you that have some extra questions about it like I did. I don't even know 100% that H.R. 676 is the answer that we've all been looking for. All I do know is I'm sick to death of asking the same question, "When will the Health Care Insurance companies actually start CARING about our health?" Because right now, they don't care about anything except the almighty dollar. So even though I'm not 100% sure that H.R. 676 will work, I'm definitely 100% behind giving it a try because health care in this country can't get much worse.
I just joined a group called Green Energy. I think it's pretty obvious what the group is all about just by reading the name. I started thinking about "Green Energy"...really thinking about it. What does it mean to go Green? I think most people realize what it means. Wikipedia defines it as: "Green energy is a term describing what is considered to be environmentally friendly, typically non-polluting, sources of power and energy, some sources may use it interchangeably with renewable energy." That much is pretty obvious to most people, or at least the concept of it is pretty obvious. But what do we, the American nation, expect our government to do about it? Should we just sit back and complain, whine, and moan to our leaders asking them why we don't have enough clean renewable energy? How is Barack Obama going to deal with this issue?
The war for oil in the Middle East has to stop, but unfortunately nuclear power is not quite there. If you live in Nevada you're probably worried about all the nuclear waste that's being stored in Yucca Mountain not far from your home. I would be worried too. Barack stated that he plans to not build any more nuclear power plants until a viable solution for dealing with all the waste can be found. Great. What if this solution isn't found? What then? We can't sit around and hope that our energy crisis will work itself out. We have to do it ourselves. Just like Barack's quote at the top of every page of my.barackobama.com says, "I'm asking you to believe. Not just in MY ability to bring about real change in Washington...I'm asking you to believe in yours."
Please don't mistake this blog as a holier than thou rant. I am not nearly as green as I'd like to be. My lightbulbs are still the old fashioned energy suckers I've always had, and during these cold months in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania I can't help but to crank the thermostat (after living in Los Angeles for four years, Pittsburgh can show you what COLD really means). But I'm trying to change for myself, for my country, and for Barack. I found a site called treehugger.com with a page on it that gives a list of pretty much everything you can do to go green. This is the actual link: http://www.treehugger.com/gogreen.php They give you help on everything from "How to green your electricity" to "How to green your Heating" even to "How to green your BABY!" I'm not planning on doing everything...after all, I don't even have a baby, but I will start somewhere...maybe I'll finally change my lightbulbs. What are you going to green?
Last night I was able to watch the Nevada debate with a couple friends. One of them, Jennifer, is also a Barack Obama supporter. The other, Chad, is unfortunately still fed up with the way the country's leaders have been acting and he assumes that future leaders will be no different. I understand his worries. I have felt the same way for years. I am almost 29 years old now and for the past 28 years I have felt that there is absolutely nothing I can do to change the way things are in this country. I have felt that whether a Republican or Democrat resides in the White House would make no difference. The same political games would be played on the American people just to make them believe they're changing the world when in reality our politians are simply doing whatever it takes to get in the White House. Once there, they know in their hearts that they only have four to eight years to help themselves and their friends out as much as possible. This idea has never in my life been more self evident than with the recent Reign of Bush, father and son. Even though America was lucky enough to have a little breather after Daddy Bush's four year term, President Bill Clinton wasn't able to change the foundation of America enough to stop Baby Bush from returning with even more horrible thunder than his father had. I fear the same will be true with Hillary Clinton.
The Nevada debate was very similar to every other debate I've seen. They talk quickly about issues which are very important to me and hopefully to all of you; however, with the ninety second time limit, and especially the thirty second rebuttal time limit, it is extremely hard for any candidate whether it's Barack, Hillary, or John to really lay out their step-by-step plan to fix the education system, or the economy, or whatever. But that is our debate system and we Americans need to take what we can from them. What I have taken is that Hillary Clinton remains a part of a broken system. In every debate I've seen, including last night's, she is playing the game that politians play just so they can enter the White House. It is an unfortunate fact that in this day and age of national television where people in South Carolina can watch a debate from Nevada; most people change the channel and would rather watch Everybody Loves Raymond. Hillary knows this and she uses it by playing to her Nevada audience saying exactly what the people of Nevada want to hear. And when she's here in my home state of Pennsylvania, I'm sure she's going to try and say exactly what Pennsylvanians want to hear. Some might just call this good politicking, but in my eyes that type of behavior throws up a huge red flag. It is an homage to the same type of leaders that we've had for decades. Now is the time for a serious change and even though she might be a different gender than any other past American president, a change in anatomy is not the kind of SERIOUS change I'm talking about.
Barack Obama could ride on the fact that he's black, but he doesn't want the country to be like that. He doesn't want Americans to vote him in on the color of his skin. He sees the country as he thinks it should be and instead of doing whatever it takes to become president THEN try to change the world, he tries to change it every day by behaving today as he hopes it will be tomorrow. America shouldn't concern themselves with issues of white, black, and brown because we already have enough issues between red and blue. To acknowledge a difference between gender or race is to accept the way things are now, but to dismiss it is a pledge for an attempt at real change. If you saw the Nevada debate then you should know that America is ready for that change. The first ten to fifteen minutes of the debate was focused by the media on gender and race. Right away the media started in on Hillary for being female and Barack for being black; there was even a remark to John Edwards about being white. It didn't stop until someone in the Nevada audience actually yelled at the moderators for asking "race based" questions. He probably got thrown out of the debate, but I would like to personally thank that man for speaking up and saying what I'm sure many Americans in that audience and at home were thinking.
In my opinion, and I'm sure it's the opinion of many Americans today, a Democratic president is a must in order to attempt to balance out the debacle that was and is the Reign of Bush. My belief is that Hillary and John don't have quite the weight to them that is needed to tip the scale back to normal. Only Barack can put this country back to where it needs to be. The country needs to not be hated by almost every other country in the world. The country needs to not be controlled by our usage of oil. The country needs to not be one of the lowest ranked countries when it comes to our education. The country needs to not be separated by such a huge gap in economic class. The country needs to not waste our money on immigration plans that obviously won't work. The country needs a president like Barack Obama.
