For a moving view of what is happening in the US today, visit the site of young photojournalist Mathieu Young at http://www.mathieuyoung.com/. His tent city series http://www.mathieuyoung.com/TC/ is featured in the latest Time Magazine.
Mathieu's photos across the country and around the world express a moving empathy for the conditions of people today.
Every American should see these images!
Thank you Mathieu!
Great that he's got in, let's hope he isn't totally overwhelmed by the great expectations being placed upon him.
Everyone has to remember that there's only so much that American voters will allow.
by Sheila Samples @ commondreams.org
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!Sail on, O Union, strong and great!Humanity with all its fears,With all the hopes of future years,Is hanging breathless on thy fate! - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The recent blowout election that gave us President Barack Obama resulted in a flood of emotion that engulfed both parties. The one thing they had in common was that neither party could believe it. Political comedian Mort Sahl once said, "Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen." If we have learned nothing else about Republicans, it's that, with few exceptions, they are vindictive, immoral, blood-thirsty, and just plain power-mad. Republicans are so much better at destroying things than Democrats are. They say and do whatever it takes to win. And if that doesn't work -- they seize it anyway.
So we were braced for another disappointment -- not because we didn't share Obama's vision of change and his hope for a better life for all Americans, but because voting machines were frantically flip-flopping votes from Obama to John McCain, minority voters were purged, telephones jangling with robocalls smeared Obama as an alien terrorist -- and John King over at CNN kept ramming solid red "magic" maps in our faces as proof that McCain could not lose.
So, what happened?
We woke up. After snoozing through massive homicide, refusing to confront genocide, ignoring fratracide and the hopelessness that has driven an alarming number of our military to commit suicide...we woke up............
ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/29
Class of 2008 and what a year to graduate; “Fly Class of 08’; fly Class of 08 in pursuit of your purpose,” recites Terrick Brown, keynote speaker for Booker T. Washington 08’ Graduation ceremony. Terrick Brown is not only a BTW alumni but Terrick is also a former debate student of TSU who worked with Denzel Washington young cast in the production of The Great Debate. A few years ago; Terrick spoke at the nation’s Capitol in honor of Dr. King’s birthday.
Election 2008, voters for change is also in the Class of 08’when American voters answered to the call of duty and ushered in a change nation. Class of 08’ 21st century Americans graduated “from past ideals to imminent progressive ideals that reflects the nation’s melting pot diverse population.
Call of Duty; this past election was a collective movement for time to change in 2009. Many voters expressed the anxiousness of casting their vote. “It was like a burden had been lifted off of me” said Ebony, a student at University of St. Thomas. The call of duty to produce change doesn’t seem to rest until it is in motion to completion. Henceforth; voters answered the call of duty. The motion was the vote; November 4th was the day of completion.
:90 seconds Trailer illustrates “Class of 08 call for Duty”. Call for Duty Class of 08 http://dinahboniaby.blip.tv/file/1521907/
There are a bunch of pictures embedded in the text of what I wrote and it's kind of a pain to copy the post here. So let me refer you to my personal web site where the story is posted at:http://davidkessler.biz/obama_campaign.htm
Sorry for the off-site reference and I hope you like the story.
Congratulations to us all!
David
Barack Obama came to Manassas, Virginia November 3, 2008 (A day before he got elected to be President of the United States of America). I showed up 12 hours early. Still tired from Canvassing in Manassas and Alexandria, I showed up early just for the opportunity to hold his hand. It worked. After his speech he walked right up to me. I screamed, Obama, I came from California driving just to see you. He was very polite and responded, "Thank you very much." Ahh!! Then I held his hand against my cheeck and kissed it as if he was the pope. I have never felt compelled to kiss anyone's hand that way, but I did. I was so excited!
Click Here to see the Photos from the Manassas, Virginia Rally
Democratic president elect Barack Obama is indeed a man who looks to bring about change through unity. If this nation thinks for one moment that unity is something that is not a major world issue, then, we all have our heads buried in the proverbial sand.The fruit of unity will be:
Read more...
As the psalmist understood, <b>“For not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert comes exaltation; but God is the Judge; He puts down one, and exalts another” (Psalm 75:6).</b>
Regardless of what we feel about his politics, Bill Clinton could not have been elected without God allowing it. Therefore, we must now ask ourselves, “Why did the Lord want Bill Clinton to be president and how should we respond to him?”
This article could just as well have been about Barack Obama, "BARACK OBAMA SEEKS TO BRING CHANGE AND REUNITE AMERICA!"
The above text is from: THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION Its Meaning and Our Future by Paul Cain and Rick Joyner, January 1993: MorningStar Publications and Ministries.
Read the pdf version of this article.
The Audacity of An Ambition: The Political Economy of Obama’s Electoral Victory*
On November 4th, 2008, Americans went to the polls and made a statement to the rest of the world by electing Barack Obama the first African American to be the President of the United States of America. While there are many factors that contributed to this historic win, one single factor and issue which dominated the entire fall campaign was the economy. There is no doubt that when Americans realized on September the 15th, at the height of the financial meltdown, that there is a need for a bold decision to reverse the looming economic disaster, they did what came naturally to them and voted their pockets. The economic situation, the loss of real estate values and pension savings coupled with increasing rate of unemployment contributed in no means measure to the election of Barack Obama. In a free market environment and the world leading capitalist economy, the election was simply more about the economy. Barack Obama for months hammers on why the country was in economic stupor. From expensive wars overseas, to inept policies and perceived incompetence of the Republican administration, he was able to convince Americans to look beyond him and revisit their economic dire straits and ask themselves if they can afford another four more years of the same. That was a very convincing and we now know, successful sale. It worked because at any other time and with a different strategy, it might have been difficult for candidate Obama to close the deal. However there were other contributing factors as well. As President-elect Obama prepares to ascend the Presidential seat and the most powerful office in the world on January 20th 2009, we must also note that, although we may have seen his win as an historic achievement, we must nevertheless recognize that, he did it in a very unique way. First, Barack Obama stood on the shoulder of giants and this must not be lost on all of us. As a French analyst put it on Charlie Rose on the night of the election, “Rosa Park sat for Martin Luther King Jr to match, for Barack Obama to run and for America to fly”. We have just witnessed the culmination of a gradual and lengthy process of democratic consolidation on a path toward that perfect union. Obama ran as an American and his background is very much American in nature and his campaign led by David Axelrod and David Plouffe, were able to put together an excellent exercise, which reassured all Americans that , yes it can be done. Once they accepted the notion of Barack Obama as a competent American, his skin color remain just what it is and the dream’s “content of his character” became the issue. And once he was able to scale that hurdle, there was no doubt about America’s readiness to make history and elect him the next President. It has taken over 220 plus years for Americans to achieve this landmark but it is a signal to the rest of the world that, it can be done. If Obama could win in the United States of America surely, ethnic, racial or any differences any where in the world, becomes less of a determining factor if, and when a viable, competent and truly national candidate emerges in the future. Obama was not an African -American candidate, he was an American candidate for the Presidency. It took Reverend Wright for him to even address the race question and after that, it was never addressed again by his campaign. Barack Obama’s personality also contributed to his success at the polls. He is perceived as an intelligent, cool and dynamic individual. And by the time questions about Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers and others were raised, it fails to undermine his candidacy. This was because for months on end, he and his campaign were able to drum it into the American psychic, that candidate Obama is above them. Charismatic leadership, ability to communicate and to inspire and to raise people’s hope remains an important ingredient for leadership and Obama possess it all. He used it well and as we found out words do matter. Since that evening four years ago, at the democratic convention, when he introduced him self to America that: There is no red America and no blue America but a United States of America, he laid the foundation and the recipe for his success. The audacity to aspire, run and play on the tuff of the Republicans couple with buying into Howard Dean’s 50- state strategy worked perfectly well for his campaign. For several election cycles, democrats have always limited themselves to their blue states and then hope to win but this time Barack Obama went for all the marbles in all the states and it paid off. This was a winning strategy that will reshape the way Presidential politics will be played in the future. We also have new generation of voters. These new voters were not only the under 30s years of age, who were post racial in their world view but also new registrants who want to be part of history. These new voters came out in drove to cast their votes on the day of the election. When you combine this with the energy of the Barack Obama’s grass-root organization and mobilization, which doomed the Clinton machine earlier in the year, it was a tall order to expect the Republican Party to win. The Republicans also helped Obama by nominating their best candidate capable of winning this election cycle but fails to support him enthusiastically. This forced Senator McCain to gamble and play safe to rally the base, by selecting Governor Sarah Palin. The choice was palliative at best with little lasting effect. In fact about 19% of them voted for Barack Obama in the end. The choice of Palin combined with the newness of Obama on the national stage initially kept the race within reach, at least until the financial melt down. And then it was down hill from then. Obama also had the heavy financial advantage. The fact that he was able to raise over 160million dollars in the last month before the election alone makes the task even more difficult for McCain as it was for Mrs Clinton earlier during the primary. The effective use of the internet and the effect of the grass root fundraising capabilities help made it happened. The implication for the future is two fold: From now on, more and more Americans will able to support their candidates through small donations, the way millions supported Obama or we will see another campaign reforms which will force a limited financial options on the candidates for the most powerful office in the world. From the Republican enabling factor, with the financial meltdown, President Bush’s problems to Barack Obama‘s charisma, his campaign strategy, the financial advantage and the time for change, the election of Mr Obama became inevitable. Obama has a lot of people to thank too. From Booker T Washington to W E B.Dubois, to Martin Luther King Jr, to Rosa Park, To Malcolm X, to Louis Farrakhan (even if one disagrees with him, his mere existence helps one to appreciate the other alternative-Obama) and to Jesse Jackson. There are many others to thank as well, the list include those who have blazed trails in their respective professions such Cornel West, Louis Henry Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Tiger Wood, Wills Smith, Michael Jackson, Bob Johnson and thousand others. These people while excelling in their professions have proved somehow to America that, yes it can be done.. The next step is for all, to now dream of this possibility. From Women, to Hispanic Americans, to Asian American and Native American, from Americans in the remote towns of Maine to the suburbs of California, Americans can now hope and yes it can be done. And to all of us in Africa, Latin America and Asia and of course in Europe, we can do it and this world can surely be a better place if we can put our differences and aim beyond our fears and limitations. Democracy is also the winner because however long it may take, everybody wins in the end and that is why we must give kudos to Jesse Jackson for inspiring us to ”keep hope alive”.
*Bamidele A Ojo.PhD .Professor of Political Science .African Studies Program.School of Political & International Studies.Fairleigh Dickinson University. Nj.
** Watch out for: Obama and African Leadership: Time for Tough Love
(It is time for a responsible and accountable leadership on the continent of Africa and a for an American President to make that call which will no longer be seen as neo imperialist because a son of Africa is now the one making it.President Barack Obama should start calling these leaders to order. It is time for re-liberation of the African people. It is time to bring our two worlds and the rest of the world together. It is time for real American leadership that inspires all on behalf of all.
Where Do You Stand: Energy for America and the Truth about Energy?
We Are in a Crisis
Our dependence on foreign oil forms the intersection of the three most critical issues America currently faces: the economy, the environment and our national security.
There is a Solution
America is blessed with the world's greatest wind power corridor and abundant reserves of clean natural gas. The Pickens Plan will utilize these tremendous resources to build a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives and buying time for us to develop even greater new technologies.
The Plan calls for building new wind generation facilities that will produce 20% of our nation's electricity and allow us to use natural gas as a transportation fuel. The combination of these domestic energies can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports. And we can do it all in 10 years.
We Can Bring Change On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office. We're organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration. Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America's energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability.
You can start changing America's future today by supporting the Pickens Plan. Join now.
The Man with the Plan
T. Boone Pickens, founder and chairman, BP Capital Management, is principally responsible for the formulation of the energy futures investment strategy of the BP Capital Commodity Fund and the BP Capital Equity Fund. With more than $4 billion under management, BP Capital manages one of the nation's most successful energy-oriented investment funds. Pickens frequently utilizes his wealth of experience in the oil and gas industry in the evaluation of potential equity investments and energy sector themes. He has not been shy in predicting oil and gas prices and — more often than not — has been uncannily accurate.
Pickens is also aggressively pursuing a wide range of other business interests, from water marketing and ranch development initiatives to Clean Energy, a company he founded and is the largest shareholder. Through Mesa Water, Pickens is the largest private holder of permitted groundwater rights in the United States. Clean Energy is advancing the use of natural gas as a cleaner-burning and more cost-effective transportation fuel alternative to gasoline and diesel.
Boone grew up in Holdenville, a small eastern Oklahoma town. His father was in the oil business, and his mother ran the Office of Price Administration during World War II, rationing gasoline and other goods for four counties. Boone attributes much of his success to his mother and father.
Boone graduated as a geologist from Oklahoma State University in 1951 and started work with Phillips Petroleum Co. in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. After three and a half years, he struck out on his own as an independent geologist. Pickens was founder of Mesa Petroleum in its various forms beginning in 1956. Mr. Pickens' career at Mesa spanned four decades. Under his leadership, Mesa grew to become one of the largest and most well known independent exploration and production companies in the United States; Mesa produced more than 3 trillion cubic feet of gas and 150 million barrels of oil from 1964 to 1996.
From its inception, Mesa was at the forefront of change and innovation. Mesa's fitness program is a good example. Boone has long understood the benefits of physical fitness. Mesa's fitness program has become a model for corporate America, and Mesa was the first company to be accredited by the Institute for Aerobics Research.
Throughout his professional life, Pickens has been a generous philanthropist, giving away almost one half of a billion dollars. In 2006, he contributed $175 million to a wide range of causes and the formation of the T. Boone Pickens Foundation. He has appeared multiple times on The Chronicle of Philanthropy's list of top U.S. philanthropists. The T. Boone Pickens Foundation is improving lives through grants supporting educational programs, medical research, athletics and corporate wellness, at-risk youth, the entrepreneurial process, and conservation and wildlife initiatives.
The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans Inc. selected Pickens as a recipient of the 2006 Horatio Alger Award, which epitomizes those who overcome adversity and humble beginnings to achieve success. It is but one of many honors awarded to Pickens for his achievements, including Trader Monthly's 2006 Trader of the Year award, the Texas Business Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
Pickens lives in Dallas and is married to Madeleine Ann Pickens. He has five children and 12 grandchildren.
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A CHANGE!
New Energy for America
The voters have spoken, but I don’t believe this was a mandate for the Democrats. It was a mandate for Obama’s promises of cooperation and bipartisanship, of treating each other with respect and dignity. It was a vote for the hope of a Washington that functions for the good of the American people.
Can Obama lead America to that reality, as he has promised? Time will tell. But, as Obama has said, getting there requires all Americans. It’s not something he can do by himself. It’s a challenge to all of us to work together so our nation can see better days.
Thank you for taking the time to look at this booklet. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden’s Plan for America
Barack Obama Plan for America
Energy and Environmental
Obama's plan to create five million new "green" jobs would depend upon a ten year, $150 billion investment to "catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future."
Obama has pushed for one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015 and a target of 10 percent of all household electricity originating from renewable sources by 2012.
He has also stressed the importance of providing short-term relief, offering to enact a Windfall Profits Tax that would provide a $1,000 energy rebate to American families.
Obama has even announced a plan to eliminate our current imports from Venezuela and the Middle East within ten years. Obama proposes a $7,000 tax credit for purchasing advanced vehicles.
Economy Obama's Stance on the Economy Barack Obama has offered a detailed plan to get America’s economy back on track, by creating new jobs and easing the burden on hardworking Americans by offering middle-class tax cuts three times the size of McCain’s. Learn More
Read the Pickens Plan Pledge below and then tell your Member of Congress to join with T. Boone Pickens and his army of supporters in calling for an Energy Independence Plan to be enacted within the first 100 days of the new administration. CLICK HERE TO EMAIL CONGRESS NOW!
GET THE DETAILS:
Attachments:
November 06, 2008
Dear Mr Barack Obama - President Elect of the United States of America,
Sincere congratulations on winning the election yesterday on such a momentus occasion.
I was very pleased to hear the news of your success.
This will be a day to go down in history as a positive day to remember.
I am an Australian who lives Sydney and the Australian people have been enormously interested in the outcome of your US election especially with the "LIVE" coverage throughout our nation of 20 million people.
It was a joyous moment when I heard that you Mr Barack Obama had won the position of the 44th President Elect of the United States of America.
Hallelujah!
It's a new day for America! It's a new day for the world! I have so many high hopes and high expectations. I know we have an uphill battle from here. It's going to take time, patience, hard work and sacrifice to undo all the damage that's been done in the world the last 8 years (or more).
Today, my prayers are with President Obama, that he is filled with the Holy Spirit in the decisions he is going to make in the coming days, weeks, months and years.
Also, congratulations to us!! All of our hard work and diligence have paid off. See what we can do when we are of like mind? Thank you, President Obama, for instilling in all of us the notion that we can do this. Your positive, can do atttitude is infectious. Let's keep the momentum going!
Like many other people last night, at precisely 11PM when the polls closed in California, Oregon and Washington, and Keith Olbermann called the election, I started to cry. Steady, solid, weeping that kept coming in waves.
Then I glanced at the screen where the MSNBC director was flipping from one celebration to another and saw many others crying: Blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics, young, old, men, women, all over the country. A series of individual shots that, together, redefined the United States of America last night.
There was a student at Spellman College in Atlanta who collapsed in tears and was being comforted by her friends.
Then Oprah was leaning on the shoulder of the man in front of her as she cried uncontrollably, Jesse Jackson standing directly behind her with two rivers flowing freely down his face.
A quick shot of a nursing home day room where elderly white men and woman, some in wheelchairs, one man wearing an American Legion cap, some cheering and some wiping their eyes with tissues.
Cut to a sports bar in Georgia where white and black faces kissed each other, and hugged.
And always back to Grant Park in Chicago. The roar of the poor, the tired, the huddled masses yearning to be free lifting their voices and their smiles and their hands in relief and jubilation and ecstacy and exhaustion.
I thought of my mother, who died in 1996. She had my sister and me sit in front of the television when Dr. Martin Luther King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial before an endless sea of people who only had hope for a different tomorrow. Their - our - tomorrow finally came at 11PM Eastern time last night. I remembered how she wanted to go to that rally but Dad talked her out of it because it might become "dangerous." It turned out, the only dangerous thing was Dr. King's ideas.
John McCain came on screen in Pheonix to concede, giving the best speech of his campaign and silencing the yahoo's in the crowd who booed when he mentioned Barack Obama. Then back to the studio where someone was reading a White House transcript of Bush's congratulatory call to Obama where he told the President-elect to "go out and enjoy yourself." Only George W. Bush would hand the presidency of a country he came close to ruining to someone by saying Obama should "enjoy himself." It was akin to urging people to shop after 9/11.
Finally, there was Obama himself. He gave a better, more encompassing vicory speech than most inaugural addresses over the past 30 years.
Someone, it might have been Chris Mathews, said he looked "exhausted." He may have been that after 20 months of campaigning but, to me, he looked somber. Written all over Obama's face was the reality of the burden he suddenly bore, not just for himself and the country but the entire world. Even after his speech, when Joe Biden and his family and the throng of relatives and well-wishers crowded around him, he couldn't shake the look of a man who suddenly realises how alone he is.
I remember what Jack Kennedy said the first morning he was president and walked into the Oval Office. Surrounded by long-time aides and advisors, he sat in the chair behind the Lincoln desk that he requested be brought out from the Smithsonian Institute, looked up and asked, "Now what the hell do we do?" Last night, Obama's face showed that he knew full well "what the hell do we do."
But he's not alone. He has tens of millions of people around the country, and around the world, there to help. For those of us who helped make this morning possible, our work has just begun.
Congratulation Obama,
It's a previledge that first black America from Kenya descendants be the prez. of our great Country America (a country of opportunity)Accept my condolence about the passing of(TuT) your grandmama that stood by you when your parents passed away.I get their spirit is with you to guide you at this crucial time. My regards to your beautiful wife ,your two sweet daughters,Hillary &our fascinate former prez;Bill Clinton and your VP Joe Biden very humble man that are with you .May God be with you,guide you& give you the wisdom to rule America very well. I pray that God will spare your gently soul and go the second time Amen.
We from African Continents loves you and continuing praying & intercede for you. God bless You ,your family and everybody in America. Go OBAMA! OBAMA!
We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated.
America, we have finally sought out change. To say that change is inevitable, that one voice can change the very foundation and very ground we walk on, is inevitable. We rally what we believe in, our hearts sing praise while our mouths often sing prejudice of what we can't understand. Of who looks different - talks different - sounds off different - for those who are not cookie-cutter politicians. For those who push the envelope and dare to expression a vision viable as different. For those who believe in the hope and honest to goodness of America. From small cape towns to the biggest cities far and wide in our great country... Someone dared to step up, stare prejudice in the face, and declare proudly yes we can. Because we can, America.This election has truly stirred the very ripple in the pool of America. We needed an election to bring our country and bring our sisters and brothers in America together. And thanks to Senator Obama, we had that election. The very foundation that America has thrived on for hundreds of years... this election is specifically what Martin Luther King Jr. thrived for. The fruition of our fathers and activists before us... this is THE election they dreamt up. And we finally got to see it. With a new president, comes a new vision. A new hope. Change. Like it's said that change is the only constant, so Senator Obama will bring forth the inevitable in 2009 for America. I believed in change, you believed in change, together we believed in hope. Obama/Biden 08 ... change 08 ... hope 08. We did it, America. We brought forth something bigger than ourselves. Bigger than our nation. Bigger than racial segregation. Bigger than the very stage our country was formulated on. Thank you voters, for believing in the same hope and the same change ... for seeing the same vision as our NEW PRESIDENT. Bring forth the change, thank you Obama. Thank you Biden. Thank you America.I believe in the greater hope of our economy. I believe in the greater ambition of a country that has since lost it's moral and lost the very heart in which it beats. We lost equality. We lost our unity. And now, it's time to bring unity and our equality back together again. It's time to bring forth this change, America... it's time to state loudly and proudly that we, the American people, CAN make the changes. We CAN bring forth a better tomorrow. We CAN do it. United we stand, divided we fall... and under the Bush Administration ... we fell to the lowest point in well over a century. Under Obama Biden, we shall stand united as one. A country with the greater hope and greater promise for our children, our grandchildren and our future generations. Let's make change our present, America... let's stand together, hands held and arms held high in victory as we celebrate tonight, victors in a war against segregation and decades of oppression.Let's stand, not as individuals. But let us stand together as one united, the united states of america. God bless America.
In the midst of this historic election, I can’t help but wonder whether an Obama presidency might represent a “finale” to the 60s movement that we never had. I mean, it has only been in recent years that the 1960s have been ramticized by youth and marketers eager to capitalize on its popularity. Obama's rise to the presidency is an American story brought about in large part by the revolution of thwe 1960s. But it wasn’t romantic by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn’t about selling hamburgers and cars in cool clothes. It was real. It was a difficult period in our history. We nearly had a nuclear war with Cuba and Russia. Kennedy was assassinated. There was the civil rights showdown on segregation in schools. The 1965 riots. Then a worsening Vietnam War and mandatory draft of young men, many going to their deaths for a war that had no direction and could not be won. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Robert Kennedy as well. Americans began to leave their churches, pareticularly, the Catholic church. Young people began resisting and demonstrating. Then there were the Kent State shootings of eight students by the Ohio National Guard. For a kid growing up in the 1960s, it was a lot to absorb.
By the mid-1970s, the Vietnam War, the 60’s activism, and Nixon presidency were over. The country seemed at a loss for direction. I was in college then. Our chief concern was in the nuclear arms buildup in trying to keep up with Russia. I recall numerous pieces in the news then how the world might end by 2008. I actually dropped out of pre-med in part because of a lack of confidence that I (and we in the U.S.) would not have a certain future. As it turns out, we did. But the manner in which it was done has become one of short sighted, weak leadership.
The country merely “moved on” from the 60s. We didn’t get it! It's like we took a “stupid pill” and forgot everything we had gone through between 1962 and 1974 - threw away our notes, and forgot to formalize conclusions that we could follow in years to come. As a result, the 70s were extraordinarily dismal economically and culturally. The leadership of both major political parties was “milk toast.” I mean, “disco” became the highlight of that critical period. That should tell you something. In 2008, we face history with the opportunity to elect a black President. Yet, some in this country who might oppose a black President for the color of his skin never "got it" from the 60s.
By the 1980s when Ronald Reagan took office, he brought a new and different course to economic and military progress. The country was amiss in problems in the Middle East and Russia. Reagan introduced trickle-down economics that sparked a new economic era, but it included cuts in needed government services and in exchange ushered in a new more accomodating view of U.S. corporate mergers and acquisitions, the real beginning of today’s deregulation that in my view led to the excesses that brought down our financial markets and economy in 2008. Despite economic prosperity in the 1980s, it was “politically incorrect” to bring up the 60s in reflection. Political candidates and business leaders frequently denounced their 60s involvement in order to become successful businessmen. Still others ended up on the street as Vietnam War Vets with PTSD and similar disorders. They and others became the illegitamate offspring of a difficult, revolutionary, and defining period in American history. Depending on who you asked, you would hear either good and bad views of this period.
By the mid to late 80s, the country had seen fairly widespread growth and prosperity, except for the forgotten war vets and increasingly crowded and poorer inner cities like Los Angeles and New York City, that had been left out of the economic expansion as companies took jobs and fled the inner cities in huge numbers for the suburbs and first wave of outsourcing with cheap foreign labor. At that time, no one figured there would be a sizable unrest just a few years later in the 1992 Los Angeles riots. We weren’t looking for it. We had Bruce Springtein, the very successful 1984 Olympics, the expansion of professional sports, the fall of the Berlin Wall, with Russia right behind it. But per the stresses released in the 1992 riots, there were siginificant pentup issues, and arguably abandonment. Also, by 1992 the U.S. and particularly California, was in the grips of a sizable recession.
Somehow - we got through the 1992 riots and that recession. And by the late 90s, we had the tech boom, NAFTA, and more outsourcing of jobs. It wasn’t real apparent, but there was a growing divide between the middle class. A lot of people lost money when the tech boom went bust, yet it gave us insight into new and creative funding of economic expansion, including, new and creative tools to fund the economy, particularly, “derivatives.” Real estate values soon began growing at a never before seen pace. Life in the U.S. between 2002 and 2006 was all about money, and how an average Joe Homeowner could pull from their home, like an ATM or slot machine. But with this period, was increasing homelessness and poverty, and failed opportunities to invest in our nation’s infrastructure and new technologies. We “jacked off the dogs to feed the cats” so recklessly, that when we woke up, we realized the dogs had died and much of everything else was starving. By 2007, an ugly handwriting was on the wall. But, Wall Street gurus responded with increasingly brazen attempts to spin and create money. Then came the news of Bear Stearns, and the 1st governemt bailout.
For too long as a nation, we have ingored the obvious, our people, our infrastructure, our sick and needy - and all in exchange for leveraged riches for just a few. And now our ways have caught up with us. But, I must correct myself here. I was NOT a part of this reckless economic expansion. Since 1992, I’ve been undergoing a series of brain surgeries to get a shunt to correctly relieve fluid pressure on my brain. During this period, my life, health, and recovery were blocked by Wall Street and FDA level failures and coverups of safety issues with a popular CNS shunt device. Yes - I was sold out for Wall Street riches - just like many of you. Brain shunts are big business. In order for me to have any hope for a future, I had to become a health advocate, FDA policy and law expert, a neuroscientist, an expert in artificial intelligence, and an inventor of a diagnostic shunt test. But no matter what I did, it was never good enough. On every occassion, I had to fight Wall Street influences. In fact, I directed my 2 most successful surgeries. But, it’s taken me 7 surgeries in all, including, my recent successful surgery in May of 2008 that finally relieved the swelling on my brain, albeit after 16 years. Why 16 years? It took that long to convince the powers that be on the right way to implant shunts, as well as numerous supportive scientive papers I had written. I nearly got my shunt of today implanted back in 1998. On that occassion, the FDA stopped me. Then, on numerous times since, each and every neurosurgeon I saw was somehow affiliated with a (Wall Street) shunt company, whose shunts all failed me. So - I am kind of like those in the inner city. Like those being drawn in or brought here illegally to work for cheaper wages than a residing American. I am an American, disenfranchised and deprived of life and liberty by today's Wall Street and its influences. Now, as much as half of the country has also been disenfranchised albeit by the same dishonest mechanism. Yes - in September/ October 2008, shit hit the fan in the U.S., and government and business leaders who had prided themselves on deregulation, low taxes, and outsourcing were brought to their knees - and in the balance, a nation waits, eager for any hope of new leadership. And, then came Senator Barrack Obama.
Yes - I had a vision today of what was, and what could again be. A proud and homogenious America, an accomplished nation. I saw Barrack Obama at the helm. I believe the excitement that so many see is that of an Obama presidency and the prospects that we might once again reconnect with our past, perhaps in a revolutionary type of way as I expect the change and resulting progress to be unharalded per any other era in our history. And we need this. We need this to help us better understand who we are as Americans, and the course we must plot in moving ahead. With the ascention of Barrack Obama as our favored next President, I couldn't think of a better "finale" and tribute to an era and movement I and others knew as the "60s."
So, with this critical election so close at hand, I again choose "us," just as I did in the 1960s.
Barack Obama has talked about how we have “big elections about small issues.” For example, while the economy is in crisis, we spend time talking about his minister.
This doesn’t just apply to the presidential election. Consider the congressional campaign in Washington's 8th District. Dave Reichert, the Republican incumbent, has accused his Democratic challenger, Darcy Burner, of lying when she said she “got a degree in [Economics] from Harvard.”
After five minutes of in-depth research, I learned that Burner has a computer science degree from Harvard, with a concentration in economics. Evidently, Harvard doesn’t offer an economics degree. The closest one can get is “a primary concentration … in economics" (href="http://www.economics.harvard.edu/undergrad), which Burner earned.
Before going on, I must admit that I can relate to Burner’s situation. I have a degree in English, with a concentration in writing, which I sometimes refer to as a degree in writing. This is a lot simpler than explaining that "my school didn't have a writing degree.…” I hope that doesn’t make me a liar.
Getting back to the Washington election, it would probably have been smarter for Burner to have said she “studied” economics at Harvard. This would have allowed her to avoid this tempest in a teapot while making the relevant point that, in an era of economic uncertainty, she has far more formal education in the field than Reichert does.
More importantly, when deciding how to vote, don’t be persuaded by insignificant arguments.
