MLK: In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.If your economic anxiety makes you have racist thoughts, guess what infant mortality makes me want to do. I should be having World War III thoughts. But I have been learning positivity from Barack Obama. He is a special person. America is not my country, but Barack is my president.
If your newly minted millionaire leader Sarah Palin wants her guns "reloaded," I am not going to beat around the bush. I got done doing that in 2008. I am going to think she is talking not about lower taxes, or smaller government, I am going to think she is having violent thoughts. That is the Taliban way.
A presidential election guarantees you a president, it does not guarantee you a great president. Democracy has its limitations. About once or twice in a century, someone like Barack Obama shows up and you get to vote for him. You get lucky.
The Palin way is the way for America to lose its number one status in the world. After the Roman Empire collapsed, Europe again became a society of hunters and gatherers. A Palin who urges you to "reload" wants you to more than lose your number one status. She wants you to go back to hunting and gathering.
Citizenship gives you rights, but it also gives you responsibilities.
America is in crisis. America is at crossroads. From here America could go to never before seen heights, and emerge a stronger, healthier, richer country than ever before. Or it could pull a Japan and become a has been country. America could become yesterday's power fast.
The crisis was not of Barack's making. It was the making of the people who have not yet changed the policies that brought the crisis in the first place. They never said sorry. This thing could still get much worse. The hole could go much deeper. Unemployment could go to 29% from 9%. It is still very much possible. When that happens to
Image via Wikipediaa society, suicide rates go up. Palin's "reloaded" is going to have a whole new meaning then. Deep in my heart I believe this crisis is a direct parallel to the crisis FDR faced. But by the time FDR was done, America emerged stronger than ever before. America has huge advantages over its nearest competitor China. Those advantages are democracy and diversity. But those who say "reloaded" do not believe in democracy. Those who talk racist talk do not believe in diversity. Minus those two advantages China w-i-l-l have a shot.
Yes, we Obama people took this country. We did that in 2008. We did that through house parties, not gun rallies. You have a right to organize. But gun talk is Taliban talk. Violence is not the democratic way.
I believe this country could go to new heights of greatness if it handles this crisis well. And this country is lucky to have a global president like Barack Obama. Barack Obama is the most global president America ever had. This guy exhibits at least three different continents in his persona. After his eight years are up, it might be a long time before America sees a global president like him again. America is lucky to have him in the White House. Because the biggest challenges America faces today all have global dimensions. Some people try to teach themselves global world views. This guy was born with those global instincts. They are his reflexes. And so America is lucky.
The Palins of the world should be punished for saying the stimulus bill should never have been passed. Minus the stimulus bill America would have been at a 20-30% unemployment rate right now. If you think 9% is bad, imagine that. If I were America I would go ahead and cancel one of her book contracts. Ask her how much for a gallon of milk.
The stimulus bill was not perfect. The health care reform bill was not perfect. The Wall Street reform bill was not perfect. Barack Obama himself is not perfect. He owned up to it before you ever voted for him.
But the choice is not between perfection and whatever. You put 10 Obama people in a room and they are not going to be able to agree on a perfect health care reform bill. You put 100 Ralph Nader people in a room and they are not going to be able to agree on a perfect Wall Street reform bill. You put 1,000 Sarah Palin people and they are not going to be able to agree on a perfect tax bill.
That is what democracy is all about. There are tens of millions of voters in this country. The political process tries its best to balance the interests, and wishes of all of them. One person's tax cut is another person's many many children left behind. How do you strike out balances? How do you get things done?
When Sarah Palin talks about tax cuts for the super rich, I end up thinking she wants to eat children for breakfast. Not even the Taliban eats children for breakfast. What do we have here?
In many ways supporting Barack Obama on the campaign trail in 2007 and 2008 was much easier than it has been to support him once he got in to office. Maybe back then we did not fully comprehend what we were getting into. Power is a complex thing. On the campaign trail it was only about getting people to show up and vote.
But then the hard part begins. You get into power. And you have to sit in government. There are three branches and numerous agencies to the government. And Sarah Palin goes ahead and retires from being Governor and gets a job with Fox television. I mean, whatever happened to the idea of public service?
Being in power is more complex than being on the campaign trail. A lot of Obama 08 people this year have been acting like they miss being in the opposition. Trust me, you don't want to go back to being in the opposition. When you were in the opposition, you wondered why not even common sense things were getting done. Now you wonder why Barack Obama is not even bigger and better than he has proven to be.
This is a president who inherited a crisis that was on its way to becoming a Great Depression. He did damage control and turned that into a
Image via WikipediaGreat Recession as step one. The jobs will come back. The deficit will go down. The debt will stabilize. But it will not happen tomorrow. Not only that but bigger and better things will happen. This president has been laying the framework to give America its second industrial revolution, one based on clean tech. This president has visions for high speed electric trains that crisscross the vast spans of this country.
This president did not get into the White House on his own. And he can not do his job on his own. He needs the willful participation of the people to take this country to new heights.
I can't think of one reason why the people who supported him and voted for him in 2008 should abandon him in November. If you ever thought pulling a lever for a second is all it takes to change a country, boy, were you wrong! 2008 was about making the change. 2010 is about keeping the change. Change is hard work. It takes years.
There are a whole lot of black people in America who are thinking, okay so Barack Obama is in the White House, and why am I still working this minimum wage job? I am going to sit this one out: change does not seem to be happening. Just like there are a whole bunch of women in this country who kept thinking, if only Barack had let Hillary win, or had not run himself in the first place, they would be seeing gender equality right about now. Let's go sit this one out.
I grew up watching parades of women heads of state in South Asia. Their coming to power did not change the gender dynamic at the ground level much, if at all. The take home lesson is that it helps to have a black president, or a woman president, but ultimately it is for each black person, and each woman to do what it takes at the ground level to make change happen, and even then it takes time. Barack can pump billions into inner city schools like he did, but the kids are still going to have to show up and work hard. And don't tell me you were not having self esteem issues before Barack showed up.
Supporting a president like Barack Obama is sustained, hard work. It asks for governance literacy. You have to feel his pressures of power. You have to understand the principles behind the three branches of government.
The choice is between going backwards in time, or forging ahead into the future. Barack Obama represents the future. Sarah Reloaded Palin represents the past. She is the American Taliban: Sarah Mullah Omar Palin Taliban.
America need not go into the past. America need not relinquish its number one status. But the American people sure have a choice to make. You have to support a president for him to be able to do great things.
The recession has been painful, sure. But this guy did not create it, he prevented it from getting even worse, and he now deserves the time it will take to put things back to normal and to take the country to new heights.
It is not a choice between Barack Obama and Gandhi. It is a choice between Barack Obam and Sarah Palin. Make the right choice. You will be rewarded.
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