The inauguration of America’s first African-American President will soon be upon us. No one can argue that this is a historic event in our country’s history. Who knows? Some day we may even elect a woman as President.I’m not here to talk about gender or race though. What I do want to discuss is the unbelievably vast amount of things that many people are expecting President-Elect Obama to be able to accomplish when he gets in to office. I fear that there are going to be a great many disappointed people when they discover that our new President will not be able to wave a magic wand and make everything that they want instantly appear.Our country is in the midst of an economic and social crisis. The official types have finally admitted that we’ve been in a recession for almost a year. Will we continue to fall and wind up in a depression? The rate of job losses and home foreclosures shows no sign of slowing. At this rate we stand a good chance of falling into a depression.With a massive national dept, several wars, job losses, and all the other problems facing us our soon to be inaugurated President is going to have his hands full.
History is an excellent teacher. Let’s take a look back to see what happened to other President’s faced with national crises during office:- Franklin D. Roosevelt took office during the Great Depression when unemployment stood around 25%. I find it interesting that he blamed the depression on bankers and financiers, the quest for profit, and the self-interest basis of capitalism, a situation very similar to the one we are in now. While he was able to pass much legislation during his first 100 days in office, there were many who opposed him. This opposition followed him into his second term where he was unable to pass much legislation through Congress. Roosevelt was elected to a historic 4 terms in office, but what really brought this country back to its feet was World War II. Personally, I don’t think we need any more wars.
- Jimmy Carter had his share of economic problems while he served in office. When he took office in 1977 America was suffering rising economic inflation and an energy crisis. He accomplished a great deal of good while he was in office: creation of the Departments of Energy and Education, establishment of a national energy policy, the famous Camp David accord, and the establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. However, he had many problems with Congress and was unable to get much of the legislation that he wanted passed by Congress. Very few people think of him as a good president.
So, what does this say for our next President? We need to be realistic about what he will be able to accomplish. Cities, counties, states, and even the Federal Government are getting fewer tax revenues to use to pay for all the services and support that the people need. With little funds to draw upon, there is only so much that anyone can do. We’re in a big mess. We did not get here overnight. We will not get out of this mess overnight either.
I’m not the only one thinking this way either. Check out this political cartoon by Chris Jurek. It was selected as one of the top 10 political cartoons by Time magazine.
Did you get a chance to hear Barack Obama’s Closing Argument speech? View it here at YouTube, or read it here at Politico. Regardless of who you are planning on voting for, you should read or listen to what he said.
I’m not here to tell you who to vote for. I’ve made up my mind and by now most people have too. However, I want to talk about a few things that Obama said in his speech that gave me hope for a better world at a time when I’d just about run out of hope.
In his speech Obama talked of Americans working together towards a common goal. On the surface this seems like such a simplistic idea, but it is a concept that is urgently needed now. For too long we have been a nation divided: blue states vs. red states; ethnic race vs. ethnic race; citizens vs. illegal alien; straight vs. gay; have vs. have not; the list goes on and on. We have become a nation filled with angry people and violence is on the rise because of it.
We have to stop and realize that we are all part of the same country, even the same planet. Here’s a quote from the speech: “There’s no shortage of anger and bluster and bitter partisanship out there. We don’t need more heat. We need more light. I’ve learned in my life that you can stand firm in your principles while still reaching out to those who might not always agree with you.” We need to agree to disagree. We need to remember that everyone, every single person is unique with their own view of the world and their own opinions.
We need to move in a new direction as a nation. We need to regain our belief that tomorrow can truly be a better day. We need hope. Here’s another quote: “Hope is not blind optimism. It’s not ignoring the enormity of the task before us or the roadblocks that stand in our path. … I know that hope has been the guiding force behind the most improbable changes this country has ever made. In the face of tyranny, it’s what led a band of colonists to rise up against an Empire. In the face of slavery, it’s what fueled the resistance of the slave and the abolitionist, and what allowed a president to chart a treacherous course to ensure that the nation would not continue half slave and half free. In the face of war and Depression, it’s what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation. In the face of oppression, it’s what led young men and women to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through the streets of Selma and Montgomery for freedom’s cause. That’s the power of hope — to imagine, and then work for, what had seemed impossible before.”
Regardless of which candidate winds up in the White House in 2009 and beyond I would like to hope that we can pull together and fix the big mess that this country is in. It will not be easy to dig our way out of the pit we’re in. Unless we roll up our sleeves and work together, nothing is going to change and things will only get worse.
My vote is for hope.
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana, the Spanish born American Philosopher, Poet and Humanist who made important contributions to aesthetics, speculative philosophy and literary criticism.History is a subject which does not seem to interest as many people as is should, especially young people. This concerns me because there is a lot that can be learned by looking back at past events and seeing what went right and what went wrong. To me, ignoring history is like ignoring experience. Perhaps you’ve heard the expression “experience is the best teacher.” With all this in mind, I'd like to take a look back in time:In the 1970’s America was suffering through some tough economic times, jobs were being lost, President Nixon resigned, we had a gas crisis, inflation was rising, and we had the Iran hostage crisis (a short history of the 1970's). President Carter proposed some belt-tightening to America, and his suggestions might have worked. However, his opponent in 1980 was the very charismatic Ronald Reagan. America wanted good news, not bad. We didn’t want to take the hard road, we wanted everything nice and easy. So we elected President Reagan and got trickle-down economics – a great program for the rich, who got richer, but not so good for everyone else, who got poorer.Here’s a political cartoon about our last four presidents:
So here we are in 2008 and we’ve got tough economic times, jobs are being lost, we've got a gas crisis, and prices for everything are rising. Wonder where that easy road is going to take us now?
The Associated Press reported today that the Democratic and Republican candidates spent $94,000,000 dollars in August. That’s $94 MILLION dollars in one month. What did they spend over half of this money on? Advertising. Here’s a quote from that AP report:
“Their campaign finance reports, filed before Saturday's midnight deadline, shows that more than half of their $3-million-a-day spending rate was devoted to advertising that became increasingly negative during the month.”
Once again the American political process devolves to a mud-slinging process. The winner is the one with the best spin and the most convincing lies. I sometimes wonder how the rest of the world views us. I’d wager they are having a good laugh at us.
Considering the shape our economy is in I suppose that I should be glad that there is all this money flowing around. They are keeping advertising agencies, television stations, radio stations, and print media employees from loosing their jobs. They even have their own well-paid staffers. Obama has a monthly payroll of $2.8 million and McCain has a $1.2 million payroll. Glad to know that there are still some people with jobs. Maybe I should have gone to work for one of them.
What really worries me thought is that when it comes time to vote the average American won’t have a clue who they are really voting for. Instead they will vote for the one with the best advertising and the candidate with the best spin doctors that money can buy. This country is facing some very serious and potentially catastrophic problems. We should be asking the candidates hard questions about what they will do to fix these problems. Instead it’s all sound-bytes and spin.
For those who might be curious about the truth and lies in what our candidates are saying I recommend the following sites:
Beware though, many sites that profess to provide nothing but the facts are in truth just putting their own spin out on the Internet. Which is, unfortunately, why I am not able to recommend more sites.
Lastly, if you would like to try your own hand – and maybe land a good job with a political candidate – at spin, check out this how-to site at eHow.
Amid all the bad news being reported (record deficit by our current administration; more bombings: Iraq, India, Turkey, etc.; job losses; rising costs; the list goes on and on) is the story about the gunman who killed two people and wounded seven others in a church in Knoxville, TN, because – among other things – he hated liberals and the liberal stance. I find it very interesting that there have been many stories over the years of this type and they are, as far as I can remember, always a conservative shooting a liberal. Remember all those bombings and shootings related to abortion clinics?
What’s wrong with being liberal? Are they anti-society? Are they out to take control of the world? Do they secretly worship the devil? I’ve looked around at a number of Web sites (and a selection of books) and find an unbelievable amount of hysteria and inflammatory remarks about the dreaded liberals. However, real life is not written in just black or white. Everything is some shade of gray. Unfortunately the popular press, the news media, and a great many others want to cast everyone and everything as “us vs. them” – and “them” is always evil.
Do you know where you stand on conservative vs. liberal? If you select several people at random and talk with them you are bound to find out that they have a number of views that are conservative and a number of views that are liberal. Where do you stand? If you are curious, take this Political Quiz to see where on the sliding scale of liberal vs. conservative you stand. You might be surprised.
I also came across another site, the Student News Daily, with a lengthy table listing the differences between liberal and conservative. Personally, I’ve always thought of myself as a liberal (open minded; willing to listen; willing to tolerate other’s views and differences; belief that abortion should be left up to a woman and her family, not the government; pro-environmental protection; pro-science; belief that a huge government is not the best government; among other things). I would hope that this does not make me a target for someone toting a gun just because they disagree with me. Everyone is an individual and if we shoot everyone that doesn’t agree with us there will be no humans left alive on this planet. Oh, for the record, my quiz score puts me only slightly to the liberal side.
What happened to common sense? Is it just me, or is the human race going crazy? Where is compassion, understanding, patience? Current events are scaring the heck out of me. I don’t know whether to go outside and scream at the top of my lungs or build an underground bunker and hide till it’s all over.
I worry that we are becoming a nation of blind people. By blind I don’t mean that we are unable to see, but rather that we lack the ability, and especially the knowledge, to see. The knowledge I fear that has been lost to us is common sense and critical thinking.
Let’s start with public schools. I know that they are failing our children (who are the future of our country) because of something that happened to a friend of mine. He supervises a small staff of warehouse workers, many in their early 20’s. His employees know that he reads a lot (he generally reads a book during lunch), and one day one of the young men there asked him “What are stars?” This young man has a high school education and doesn’t know what a star is (and I’m not talking about the ones in Hollywood)! Another friend of mine got a job teaching at a brand new high school. He told me about his ‘adventures’ there: no books for students (generally there is just a set in the classroom for the students to look at during class), no homework given to students (he was told “they don’t do it anyway, so why assign it to them”), unruly students and limits placed on what teachers can do to discipline them, and that’s just some of what he’s told me.
Humans are not born with the ability to think rationally, it has to be learned. Unfortunately with a steady diet of video games (generally violent), commercial television (look at how families are portrayed), and movies (a co-worker once told me that if stuff wasn’t blowing up in the first 30 seconds that the movie was no good), I have little faith in the future of our society.
Ignorance is a dangerous thing. And things are not being helped by the fact that most television news programs and newspapers are now owed by mega-corporations. Have you ever noticed how no matter what nightly news show you turn to they are all showing the same thing – at the same time? Heck, they even have commercials at the same time! By using a “cookie-cutter” approach it makes it easy for the owners to produce the shows. Unfortunately it also makes it easy to control what information is made available to the public, and what real and vital information is withheld from the public. I did a post on January 1, 2008, about New Years Resolutions, take a look at my fourth suggestion for a list of alternative sources for information.
We as a nation have to do better. We are failing our children. Our educational ranking, as compared to other nations, has been slipping for some time. There is an organization called the National Education Association, they have some interesting things to say about public schools and education. Lastly, because of the Federal No Child Left Behind program, teachers are just teaching students how to pass a test, not the things they need to know to survive in the real world
Wish I could end this on a better note. Parents have a lot on their plates and so many work multiple jobs just to make ends meet which gives them little quality time to spend with their kids. Families are scattered and often don’t have the support of grandparents, aunts, or uncles to help with raising the next generation. There are some volunteer organizations out there, maybe that’s a start.
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