Posted: Jul 18, 08 11:47pm
Given all that is going wrong with our economy right now, we really have to think hard and long about the person we want in the White House and who we want in Congress.
For the last seven and nearly three quarter years, we've had Congressional stalemate as both parties jockeyed for supremacy. The result was that little happened which actually made the lives of middle Americans and their families better.
Now we are at a major turning point, one which will set the stage for the world to come; one which will lead the world forward towards resolution and peace or not; one which will lead us and the world forward towards the fulfillment of our founding fathers stated goals or not; one in which we are a leader of world admiration and thought or not; one in which we can hold the lamp of freedom and opportunity to succeed high or be defeated by prejudice and amity. We are obligated to return votes that speak to our best interests: moral, ethical and honorable interests.
Since the death of Robt. Kennedy I have waited for a presidential candidate who could inspire me with his/her vision of the future of our great country. For me, it's not just a matter of techniques--health care, leaving Iraq, etc--but of strategy. Who has the best strategy--the best vision--of what the US can become?
For me that vision has been best articulated by Sen. Obama. On seriously listening to him, he articulates best what I want this country to become: a country where each and every person is valued and appreciated, and where our national prestige worldwide is honored and respected as the original and best country where democracy sprang free of old world prejudices, and where any person, regardless of race, creed, culture or gender, can go as far as his or her native abilities will permit.
Regarding tactics, I believe that between the two candidates, he has the better ideas:
-Health care: in nearly all of world's industrial nations, health care is considered a right of all people...not just for those with the cash to afford it or the vast amount of time to negotiate the best terms with the many health insurance companies.
-Leaving Iraq: This is not an easy tactic. We are enmeshed in a turbulent sectarian war...one which anyone who knew the area was clearly able to predict before the war. After WWII, the British army was caught in the same conundrum. The British did not want to leave Iraq because they wanted the oil resources as their companies had in Iran. But staying meant far too many deaths of British soldiers. Leaving meant an increase in sectarian violence. Not leaving meant more British soldiers died. A conundrum. The British finally decided to leave. Violence did escalate over the short term, but the Iraqis CHOSE to end the violence and put together a democratic government. It was a government that actually worked, until selected assassinations brought Saddam Hussein to power. But now the Malaki government wants to end our occupation of their country. The Bush administration previously stated that it will leave Iraq when the government is willing to stand up and take on the responsibility of defending the country for itself. It has stated now that is is willing and able to do so. We should leave as we said we would. After all, Iraq belongs to the Iraqis. Remember history? Imagine how Americans would feel if the British had chosen to interfere militarily in our Civil War and occupy the US for as long as the British government felt like staying.
Leaving is the best thing we can do for Iraq. They need the freedom and ability, without US interference, to determine their own destiny.
-Energy costs: Everyone is concerned about the enormous costs of energy. Gasoline prices are destroying businesses and ruining family budgets. But this is a problem that has been on the horizon for over 30 years. The fact that we've not dealt with it sooner is a mark of our own laziness. We knew when Carter was President that this day would come, but instead of doing something about it then, we collectively turned a blind eye to the upcoming problem.
Not a nice indictment but true. But given that the oil industry has over 70 million acres of leases to explore that they did not because, as they have stated over and over again throughout the last 30 years, the cost of drilling was too high based on their expected returns. In other words, it cost more to drill domestically than to buy foreign oil. Nevertheless, oil companies are currently sitting on perhaps billions of barrels of oil on leases they already own. According to oil industry execs, the reason these leases are not being explored is because the industry does not have enough equipment available to drill on their existing leases. So, tell me, how is giving the industry even more leases supposed to solve the oil shortage problem when they freely admit they don't have the equipment to drill on the oil rich leases they already have? A good prosecuting attorney would say follow the money. So, who's getting the money? Where...or to whom...is the money leading?
Further, the oil industry and analysts admit it will between 5 to 10 years for any leases to produce oil. In other words, it takes 5 to 10 years to find and bring a well online. That time line is not going to solve the immediate problem. Nothing is going to solve the immediate problem of oil and energy shortages. To think otherwise is sheer fantasy...or political rhetoric. It won't be solved overnight. And there are NO simple, easy answers.
But we can begin to work now to reduce or eliminate our total dependence on oil. There are many small companies researching alternative energy sources who could benefit enormously from federal help. The oil industry currently is being given huge subsidies. What if those subsidies were moved over to companies developing clean, sustainable energy resources? Brazil did it. They are nearly free of any dependence upon oil: their cars and trucks don't require gasoline. As a result, their economy...their jobs, their businesses, and their family budgets...are not subjected to the vagaries of oil prices.
Obama has stated that he wants to lead the country into a new age of energy independence by financing alternative energy resources that will never again cause us to be dependent upon an ever reducing supply of oil as geologists predict. The age of oil is over. We need new sustainable, clean energies ideas to fuel our economy.
-Trade deals: Free trade deals should exist. But all trade deals need to be fair and equitable. There needs to be a mechanism written into them that protects workers and the environment and is fair to workers on both sides of the deal. So far we've not seen much of that fairness. When NAFTA was put into effect, many US companies shifted their manufacturing businesses to just south of the border in Mexico. Enormous factories were built. But the cities built up around them suffered from massive pollution and disease. A few years later, those same factories sat vacant when US companies moved to China.
World trade organization reports state that NAFTA has left Mexico worse off now than it was before. And for the average Mexican, their prospects of a bright future were never very bright, but it's worse now than ever before.
-Immigration: This is a huge issue for many US citizens. With good reason. But it won't be solved by building taller fences. Mexicans and others will just build taller ladders. One devastating report stated that Mexican farmers were unable to compete with cheap imports from the US and thus had given up their farms to emigrate to the US. In other words, they were being put out of business by imports from our enormous industrial farms. These are the people who are crossing the border illegally: people who cannot find jobs in their own country. What needs to be done is to engage the Mexican government in talks to solve the problem of why so many people want to emigrate to the US. Let's face it, if Mexicans could get good paying jobs or make enough on their own farms, why would they want to leave their families and communities to come to this country where they are strangers?
We need to engage the Mexican government in talks and treaties to solve the emigration problem, including solving the problem of poor education and opportunities for Mexican citizens. Mexico actually has enormous natural resources, but few Mexican citizens profit from those resources. Most of the profit goes to a few well connected owners who support current policies that deprive the mass populace of decent living standards.
Along with that problem is our own xenophobia: fear of foreigners. Right now our high tech industries are severely lacking in highly skilled tech workers that could be supplied from countries such as India. But our immigration policies refuse to allow those workers into this country. Yes, there are valid arguments on both sides: companies pay foreigners less than US citizens, not only bringing down living wages but refusing to hire native born Americans to keep wages low; that the high tech employment needs are greater than the supply of educated and skilled US workforce can supply. Who's right? I don't know, but it's high time we found out. Would we need to import foreign workers if we supplied enough domestically educated highly skilled workers? Would US companies complain about skilled worker shortages if this country alone could supply the demand?
-Education: Our educational system is a mess. If we want our kids to be the best educated in the world, we have to invest in the best teachers in the world. Teachers who are themselves highly educated in their field and motivated to be the best. For most of the 20th Century, teachers were paid less than garbage men. Think about it. The guys who picked up your garbage were paid more than your kids' teachers! Who would want to be a teacher under hose circumstances?
Why be a poverty-stricken teacher when you could enter private industry and make twice the salary? It's only logical that if you want the best teachers you have to pay them a wage comparable to private industry in order to lure them to teaching. As it is right now, too many who are not intellectually capable of making it private industry are becoming teachers because it's the only salaried job they think they can get. Moreover, they can get tenure after a few years which means that after a few years of being a decent teacher, they can slack off because to get rid of them is nearly impossible.
Are these the people whom you want to teach your kids? If you want the best quality, you have to pay for it. We all know that maxim. Just testing kids is not going to cause them to think and imagine and, over the long term, learn. It just causes them to memorize. That kind of teaching does not create the next Edison or Bill Gates or Albert Einstein or William Shakespeare. I believe our kids deserve a better educational system than what currently exists: better teachers, better labs, better technology, and the freedom, nay the requirement, to experiment and learn from other cultures. And ridding ourselves of a tenure system that sponsors ineffectiveness. Senator Obama has been speaking about this throughout his campaign.
-Financial crises: As the current home mortgage and credit crisis exemplifies, a totally unfettered and unregulated financial marketplace does not always work well for everyone. Greed too often gets in the way. Twenty some years ago, the savings and loan industry crashed because greed became the byword of the industry. At the beginning of this century, another fiscal crash occurred as a result of greed. Now we have another. People's lives and savings are being destroyed everyday. I remember hearing Ronald Reagan say greed was good. He was wrong in that statement. There is nothing wrong with being rich...although Jesus said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to attain the kingdom of heaven. But greed is a sin. There is a reason why it's considered one of the seven deadly sins. Greed destroys lives and families and businesses. Greed needs to be regulated. We need to have finances regulated just enough to prevent sharp declines caused by over-speculation yet still allow innovation. We need financial institutions regulated just enough to insure fairness and equity and honesty as well as honorable practices. In the old text of the Bible and even in Muslim society today, charging interest is prohibited. While I don't subscribe to that strict adherence of fiscal policy...after all, financial institutions need to make money in order to survive...interest rates and policies and financial mechanisms do need to be regulated in insure that overwhelming greed is not the order of the day.
When Alex. Hamilton, the founder of our country's financial system, learned that his brother-in-law was involved in a speculation scheme, he was very upset and deeply embarrassed. He felt it besmirched his honor. It did. He lost much of his credibility as a result. Perhaps it's time to get back to the old fashioned ideals of honor and ethics.
As I stated at the beginning, we are at a cross roads. We can fall back on the same old rhetoric and party divisions or we can choose to take a bold leap forward and demand a better, brighter and more effective future. Our government works for us. We are its employers. It's long past time for us to take back our government and let those in Washington know that they work at our leisure. Not we at their leisure. We are their employers. We need to hire them judiciously to fulfill our collective needs and those of the our children.
So, I ask you to think about...to imagine...the future you want, not just for yourselves but for your children and grandchildren as well, and then think seriously about who has the kind of vision and pragmatic intellect to secure that future. After listening to Obama and every thing broadcast about him very closely over the last year, I believe Obama has the qualities of intellect, honor and ethics to be a truly great president. I believe he has a vision of the future that will lead us out of the morass we are currently experiencing.
