Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Barack Obama is the coolest man on the planet.

President Obama gets it. Watching the coverage of him at the Nuclear Summit was another first for me. I've said before that although I never took my vote for granted, I didn't have any real interest in what my government was doing. Until Bush. His election got my attention and not in a good way. Obama has me writing about politics. I never thought I would do that. President Obama handled the press after the summit with careful, well-thought-out responses to sometimes curious questions by the press. (You know, it's amazing how the press wants to be taken seriously, but how can we take them seriously? (...real news coverage is only had by those who seek the truth. That means picking through the blog-0-sphere.) The mainstream media has gulped down the reality TV kool-aid and is licking the last few drops from the punchbowl. It's unbelievable. America is getting a very small percentage of what's really actual news and still we have the press acting like a pack of hungry wolves snatching at the most inane aspects of a story and leaving the meat on the ground. Maybe because their salaries are paid by the corporations who influence the country through them. This behavior seems (to me) to diminish the history that's happening right before our eyes. Is no one watching what I'm watching? Pardon me for gushing about having the coolest man on the planet for a President. History is being made in a big way because of this man and the negative side of our society is what gets covered. But I'm hopeful. I think that having a 24 hour news cycle is actually going to help with the race issue in this country because it will shine a light on heartbreaking moments like the one that had shoppers hearing from their neighborhood store speakers that all the blacks should leave (a teen dipped in an intolerance coating... yummy). When I look down the road I don't see the current intense racial issue. It seems this is the residual energy from the civil rights movement.

(I think the Christian community should be really careful about who they associate themselves with. If Christians are watching and supporting the Glenn Becks and the Tea Party Patriots, the violence and vitriol is going to hurt image-wise.)

That's just my thought. This country really has tried to move past race and yet there are still places where the old ways are still practiced. When the Baby Boomers who still harbor feelings of rage and doubt become smaller and smaller in number, it will be a thing of the past and the children who thrive in a multi-cultural society will outnumber the children who still cling to the old ways. All societies must evolve in order to survive. It's exciting and I'm pleased that the country made a course correction from the Neo-conservative war and world domination agenda. These are just my thoughts. I like to keep it positive for the most part. I read that the majority of the country thinks we're going in the wrong direction and that boggles my mind. All signs point to the economy getting better. All signs point to our standing on the world stage being one of respected prominence once more. All signs point to the possibility of future space exploration that is more spectacular than the Apollo program was. Reforming our educational system will produce great thinkers and inventors. We will have colonies on other planets. (OK, maybe that last one is a little dreamy, but dreaming is what this life is all about. Dreaming and then making those dreams a reality. This is just what I see. True, it's what I want to see, but what's wrong with that. It's said that there is so much bad in the world. There is so much good in the world as well. I would say that the good outweighs the bad. I'm sitting at my desk listening to CNBC. The news is the consumer has turned. The economy is getting better. Yippee!!! Let's hear more about the good things that are happening. We could collectively choose to dream a different dream. I like the dream that President Obama is dreaming. It's so much better than the nightmare we were living a mere year ago.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Jobs, Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

It's very easy for me to sit in my easy chair and tell you how to run the country. I know that you have very smart people in Washington telling you how to do it. Maybe one reason independents are wary about you is because your message is being lost amid Sarah Palin's soundbites. The only way to be heard is to get America back to work. If more and more people have jobs, they won't have time to protest. Protest what? Their success? More money in their pockets? You figure out a way to get people focused on work and you'll get a positive reaction. I know what you've done for the economy so far. Giving people 288 billion dollars in tax cuts and helping students by making 275 billion dollars available for student grants and loans is a giant step in the right direction. This along with HCR is going to turn our country around faster. I try not to pay attention to the negative talk. I voted for change and I'm seeing change. As long as that is the case, I'm good. This country was stripped bare in the eight years that Bush was president. I honestly don't expect one man to solve all the problems on day one of this journey to change. I expect to see steady progress. I expect it. So the Republicans can make all the noise and they want. They can tell horrible lies and try very hard to stall progress. The law of attraction says that you get more of what you give your attention to. They are focused with a razor sharpness on Barack Obama. They can shout NO all they want. They will most certainly create the most effective president this country has ever seen. Then, they'll have no one to blame but themselves. As if they would.