The future is in OUR hands

As actively blogging as I was during the last Presidential election, some have wondered why I’ve not been so much this time around. I guess I’ve seen the choices as simple ones this time: two honorable men who love this country – one offering to lead us in the same direction we’ve been headed for the past eight years, the other offering a new, different course. Now I’ve recently learned that I have some friends who are as yet undecided, as well as many who seem overly confident as to the outcome.

I could spend hours writing about why I support Barack Obama for President of the United States, but our former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, expressed my exact sentiments with eloquence and passion in his own endorsement:




My former roommate, and good friend, who just recently moved to the other side of the country, is a registered independent voter in the swing state of New Mexico. As I collect and sort our mail, I find an abundance of mail for him from the Republican party and the McCain campaign, all of which smear Obama – painting him as a Socialist with terrorist connections. I, like General Powell, find this level of campaigning quite alarming.

I can’t even respond to the terror implications, only that it has already incensed some smaller minded individuals to plan harm towards Obama, proving such rhetoric to be irresponsible and dangerous.

As for the Socialist charges, his plan is not about punishing the successful to give to the lazy, as many on the Right have stated. It’s about affording the same opportunities for success for everyone. Anyone in this country who has achieved success did not do so alone. If you own a successful business, for instance, your merchandise is transported on public roads, which cost money to build, maintain, and patrol. Those who protect us - police, firefighters, and military, as well as teachers, are paid from our collective tax dollars – and should be paid well enough to attract good people to these professions.

McCain is proposing an across the board spending freeze. It really boggled me when, in the final debate, he stated that we could work on research for Autism without funding it. It made me wonder just who, exactly, he thought could work on such things for free. Doctors and scientists have bills to pay like the rest of us! Everything we have must be paid for. Many have wondered where Obama would find the funds to do all of the things he proposes, such as funding for universal health care, education, and energy independence. Well, is it too much to ask that those who are abundantly successful, giving that they could not get there alone, give just a little more than those who are struggling just to put food on the table and work equally as hard?

Secondly, those who are struggling will struggle less when there are more employment opportunities – when jobs that have been shipped overseas are back on American soil for American citizens. When jobs are created to find alternative energy sources, creating thrice the benefit – employment, as well as a reduced dependence on oil and non-allied countries, instead of compromising our environment with excessive drilling which will reap much less than we sow, and much later.

So, even though middle class workers will see a tax reduction, revenue will increase because of volume - more jobs means more workers paying taxes. This isn’t Socialism; it’s the American Dream at its best: Opportunity for ALL, not just the privileged few. We have found that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation of Wall Street, which John McCain has supported, are not working. It’s time for a new way of doing things. It’s time to rebuild America from the bottom up, on a solid foundation.

These are just some of the reasons I support Obama for President. What frightens me now is the feeling of excitement I see in fellow supporters, as if the outcome is in the bag. But we must remember that the McCain camp is still fighting strong. We must not get too comfortable, for if any one of us stay home on Election Day, figuring the outcome is already decided, we give our vote to the other side. We must all get out there, wait in line and cast our vote – even if it’s nasty out or we’re not feeling well. It doesn’t take that long. We can take America back. What’s an hour or two out of our day, when it affects the next four to eight years? Let’s get out and vote! We can do this. Like Obama says, “I’m fired up and ready to go!”

YES WE CAN!!!