BARACK OBAMA’S IMPACT ON THE MASSES

I talked to around fifty (50) people today in Virginia as a campaign volunteer for the Obama for America Campaign.  A few people told me they and their families  would be voting for Barack Obama in Tuesday’s Democratic Primary.

A number of the fifty were undecided.   And a few I talked to said they were voting for John McCain.

After I told one lady that I was calling her on behalf of the Obama campaign and asked her who was she planning on supporting.  She said, ”It Won’t be him” and “Why do These Representatives call and bug you at Home all the Times of the Night”.  It was early afternoon when I called her.  I thanked the lady for  her time and said good bye. 

She pleasantly said good bye to me.  I gave the polling locations to a few voters who weren’t sure of their polling locations.

I talked to both the young and to seniors.  I spoke to people of various races, and I would assume, many backgrounds and religions as well.

I really enjoyed talking to the people of Virginia  as a volunteer campaign worker living in San Diego CA.   Working the phone bank for the Obama campaign from my home PC. 

My job is to call and remind voters about the upcoming date of the primary and to educate them on where Obama stands on the issues.  I make sure they know where their polling locations are located and thank them for their time. 

I have never been civic minded to the point where I personally will get physically involve in a political campaign,  Hear comes the testimonial.

Seriously, I have never gotten involved in actually calling and campaigning before.  I never knew it could be so enlightening. 

I spoke to people who have different existences and lifestyles in far away places.  I really plan to be active in the political process again in the future. 

 It’s something I recommend everyone should do in their life, if they haven’t already.  Hopefully someone will inspire you as Barack Obama has inspired me to see him become President of the United States of America.

Give us a Public Option, Or the Status Que. No More and no Less

Today the finance committee in the senate voted down the public option amendment. This bill coming out of that committee will not contain the Public Option. Some of the senators had smirks on their faces and appeared cavalier with a Country Club aired about them. While saying resoundingly clear, No to any competition to the health insurance industry. which is exactly the intention of the Public Option. I wonder if some of the senators equate the  word “Public”with the Projects, or Welfare, or some other negative connotation, therefore a “Public Option” to the Health Care Bill, must be bad?

Back to the country club, smirking U.S. Senators. We can’t allow them to deny us the right to competition,
And then still give a gift of 30 to 40 million new customers to to the Health Care Insurers. After all they will still be in control as they are today. They will have no competition as they have none today. The health care cost curb will continue going North.

So Senators of the U.S. Senate, The insurance companies may have helped you get elected, by contributing to your campaigns, But know this, It is us, We the People, who turn out in the sun, rain, cold, and snow to pull that lever.

Beyond the issue of removing those Senators who don’t serve us, The next issue before we let them go, is to make sure that without a public option, We demand these Senators pass no Health Care Reform at all.   And leave us with the status Que until such time that we elect officials who will give us True Health Care Reform. The last thing we should be doing is rewarding big insurance by giving them a Windfall if Health Care Reform passes without a Public Option.  That would just be business an usual, in government.  Quid Pro Que.   We cannot let that happen people.

Acorn, Singled Out, Unjustly

The Nationally known community organization Acorn, has been under intense scrutiny after Fox News aired secretly taped video of Acorn employees allegedly engaging in questionable behavior. These employees were “Jack Asses” if the allegations are valid. Be that, as it may be, I must say, that Acorn, the organization, apart from the two or three people caught up in the Fox News entrapment., Or was it really the witnessing of the Fox actors being: “Rocked to Sleep” by the street savvy workers? After all, I think the young lady, acting like a woman of the night, was only 18 or 19 yrs old. The Acorn people work directly with ” People of the Street” and I think they may have just played along. They didn’t realized they were being secretly recorded for the Fox News Network. That is Fox’s crime to answer for unless they are “Above The Law? Acorn has filed a suit and rightfully so. The question is whether it is legal for Acorn’s contractors both public or private to arbitrarily cancel their contracts with Acorn based on tapes from a right wing entertainer on Fox News? It seems to me that Acorn’s due process rights are in violation. Is Acorn the new template, on how the government will handle all contractors who are embroiled in a scandal? Even if the employees involved were tiny people in the organization. Should we shut down the government the next time we catch a Senator or Representative involved in shenanigans? Fox News was not removed from the air when Glynn Beck called President Obama a “Racist”? We didn’t demand it. And he still has his job. Acorn accomplished the registering of two million new voters in 2008, Two million new voters can decide elections, The Tea Party Protesters have eclipsed the W.E.B. Du Bois’ term: “Sleeping Giant” for themselves. W.E.B. Du Bois, in a book entitled: “The Souls of Black Folk” published in 1903. In this book W.E.B. DuBois was examining the African-American experience some 40 years after the Civil War. He referred to those African-Americans as the original “Sleeping Giant”. At that time the powers that were in charge knew who the real sleeping giant was and they were the oppressed African-Americans. The Tea Party Protesters have been the ones in control from the foundation of America, and their past generations, Not mine. Now, they are suppose to be the Sleeping Giant?. I think they better wake up! How ironic…it is. The Tea Party Protesters and their generations were never sleep. Nor are they sleep now and they never were the sleeping Giant. Acorn is waking up the real Sleeping Giant, I think that would be about two to four million new voters. While it appears that the Republicans figure if they can get rid of Acorn, they will also get rid of two to four million new voters in future elections. . Acorn should be treated fairly. And where they are not let the Courts decide the issue

Swim Clubs and Gross Pointe Michigan, Shameful!

I just returned from visiting family and friends in Detroit over the July Fourth weekend. While there as I often do when I visit a city or town, I like to read the local paper. I picked up the July Fourth edition of the Detroit paper and there I came across a story, A story about an interracial couple’s harassment complaint which was filed with their local police department.

The couple stated that their home was “Egged”, and the criminals also scribbled the “N” word on their vehicles.
The couple stated that they decided to file a complaint because the egging has crossed the line into using hate language by writing the “N” word on their vehicles. Prior to this latest incident which resulted in this complaint the couple stated that they have been the victims of having their home egged in the past but did not file a complaint with the Gross Pointe Police Department.

I am prompted to write this article today because of a story I saw reported on CNN this morning. The story was about black and Latino children who were told they were no longer welcome to swim at the local swimming club.

Initially, the swimming club accepted money from a contract the club allegedly signed to share their Swimming Club with these children. CNN interviewed the little boy who said he personally heard racial statements being said about the blacks and minorities in his presence. Then the little boy broke down and began crying because he simply had not experienced racism before. Yes it hurts like hell, at his age, and at any age. When will we see the light.
We as Americans only months ago voted for the first Black President of the United States. We no longer are required to sit in the back of buses or eat at separate lunch counters and the like. But we most continue to teach are young that although we have “Equal Rights”, racism, hate and intolerance are still alive and well. This is despite the fact that we as a Nation, just elected an African American President. We must continue to educate our youth to the reality of today despite what is on the surface called progress.

Why does an interracial couple, consisting of a black man and a white woman living in Gross Pointe Michigan still have to suffer at the hands of vicious racist in their communities?

Why must little black boys and girls and Latino children still feel the pain and sting of hearing that they are somehow inferior or inhuman because of the color of their skin and are not welcome!, in 2009. Why!!!

How About Twenty-Five Billion to Save Detroit, the City

Recently I wondered what if the past and current administrations had invested the roughly fifty billion dollars that it “invested” in the auto industry in redeveloping the city of Detroit?

What If the federal government had invested half the amount of money that it invested in Chrysler and G.M., which is about twenty-five billion to redevelop the city of Detroit? What might  the results be?  I believe that such an investment would have lifted up the overall auto industry in Motown?

Today there is no other word to describe Detroit other than just sad. You walk around downtown as I did a few months ago and you see all these great old tall buildings and it makes you cry to think about how awesome a downtown this once was.

Using twenty-five billion in redevelopment capital targeted towards making Detroit a World Class city once again verses Bailing out G.M. and Chrysler with fifty billion dollars might have been a better investment. After all both companies still went into bankruptcy and are being sold off in parts to other auto makers. We could have just saved that fifty billion and just let the business cycle be fulfilled under the capitalist system we believe in..

Who would have thought back when the government was debating what to do to save the auto industry other than me, that a better way to help the “Big Three” is to rebuild the city of Detroit. History has repeatedly demonstrated the obvious, and that is a region goes up together, as well as, falls down.

When a city or region is infused with a massive amount of targeted development and redevelopment, you not only reinvigorate the city, but also the industries and businesses in that region, as well as bring in new industries and businesses to meet the needs of a reborn World Class City.

Twenty-five billion would go a long way in making this, my dream, a reality.

GLBT Lobby Must Be First, Give Obama a Chance.

Today, Wednesday, June 17, 2009 The president signed a Presidential Memorandum extending “Some Benefits” to same sex partners of federal employees. Some in the GLBT community and its lobby has signaled their dissatisfaction because they say the measure does not go far enough. And that it is nothing more than simple tokenism.

This is an opinion piece by the way, therefore, what I am about to say is simply that, my opinion.

In my opinion, I sense an impatience with some in the GLBT community with President Obama’s pace in overturning the “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Which he has not done yet. And I think the word yet, is the operative word in this case. I think it is very significant because the President has a lot on his plate to get a grip on.

President Obama is addressing a myriad of issues, two wars, an inherited recession from the previous administration. He is working to achieve universal health care for all Americans, extending benefits for the unemployed. Putting together a team to come up with some guidelines to prevent the collapse of the country’s financial system from endangering the entire U.S. economy in future years.

No one appreciates being pressured and prodded and neither does the president. The lobby’s interest are first in their minds but not in the President’s at least not first. I am for the abolishment of Don’t ask, Don’t Tell, but give the president a chance. When you push and make demands of a person even though he said on the campaign trail that he would overturn D.A.D.T. Those tactics will not make the President acquiesce to such demands.

What some in the GLBT lobby seem to not get is when a new President takes office he must build a relationship of trust and credibility with the top brass of his armed services. This lobby seems to care less if he lost all that credibility from day one had he came into office and immediately overturned the policy of D.A.D.T.

Those who criticize the President’s signing today of the Memo to extend federal benefits to the same sex partners of federal employees as tokenism are simply being selfish and impatient.

I believe the President will eventually over turn that policy. I think he would be wise to build a little support among the rank and file first. I also think that he has 3 years and 6 months before his presidency is over at least the first term. And I believe he will keep his word if he can. So all I can say to those who want change today is you will just have to wait your turn.