I am proud to say that in my life time people have finally been able to look past the color of someones skin and see the real person that they are. I am proud to be part of this! America has spoken! We have chosen who we believe is the best person for presidency. We now know that in America all things are possible.                    "We welcome you Mr. Barack Obama"!

Barack Obama is a strong, proud man. He is also a good man. He is not afraid to show his vulnerable side by shedding a few tears to show his love for his gram for all the world to see. This proves that he is a caring, considerate, loving human being. He shed the tear for his wonderful gram and still was able to go on, stay strong and win the presidency after she had passed away.  Many men have a hard time showing their feelings, it is wonderful to know that Obama isn't afraid to show his true feelings to all the world. I hope that he continues to be open to the public and take the time to explain to the United States people what he is doing. This is a historic and wonderful victory!

"Let's tare down these walls of racism"! Let's move on to a new United States of America. Let's start looking past the color of peoples skin and make this world a better place for all.

I have so much built up energy as I write this, I can already feel the wonderful changes that are ahead for the United States of America. Martin Luther King would be proud to be a part of this history happening today. We all should be proud!

To the republicans that are sad today please put on a smile and lets move on "together" as a whole. Together we can change the world! We can make a difference!

President elect Barack Obama is our forty-fourth president of the United States, he was able to appeal to all age of voters. Many young people voted for the first time. Obama is a pioneer, a historian and now our President. This proves that you can be who ever you want to be.

Welcome president Obama!

In fact in the last five years oil companies have had record profits when the rest of the country has struggled to put food on the table because their  food budgets has been cut in half in order to keep gas in their  vehicles  (try to convince us this hasn’t been price gouging). 

The economy has been so bad that for those of us lucky enough to have jobs we are getting paid less now than when we started because companies have not been able to give their employees raises.  However, employee’s taxes continued to increase as well as the cost of healthcare causing employees to pay higher premiums and more out of pocket expenses.  So although the employee’s gross pay stayed the same,  his take home pay substantially decreased, now subtract from that the higher cost of living, the increase in the cost of gas, food and all the other variables and the average person is surviving on a third less than before.

If ever there was a time since World War II and the Great Depression, that our country needed change, this is it.  When the United States becomes a threat and a joke to foreign countries,  when our votes are tampered with as they were in the past two elections  (something that I am surprised hasn’t caused more of an outcry from us), when our civil liberties have been taken from us like the Patriot Act in the disguise of ”homeland security”, and when so many American citizens live in fear and shame of what our President has done to us and our reputation as a world power, then I say it is time for a change.

We cannot sit and wait any longer, the change must happen now or I fear the direction our country will take and I believe we would only bring more danger and terror to our shores.  Do I believe Senator Obama will bring about enough change to undo some of the damage of the last eight years?  This is where the hope comes in.  I know to some degree a politician is a politician is a politician but at some point, we as a country, have to believe that our system of Democracy works, that the President of these United States is not above the law but is expected to uphold it to a higher standard.  Our next President needs to be a person of high ethics and integrity in order to overcome the obstacles ahead and to fight “business as usual” in Washington.  Do I believe Barack Obama is the man who can and will do this?  Do I believe Barack Obama is our political “Savior”?  God, I hope so.

From a simpler time, came the famous Chevy slogan – “Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet.”  That seems so long ago.

These days nothing comes easy. This decade has presented us with some difficult challenges.

It started early in the decade on a bright, sunny morning on the east coast. The day that changed us forever. The day we never forget where we were when the terrible news broke. The dominant symbols of our financial system were horribly destroyed by ruthless villains commandeering our own airplanes

Once again, not far from that eerie reminder of our vulnerability, Wall Street is crashing down taking with it our pensions, savings and trust in the economic engine of our country.  We’ve been entrenched in war in the Middle East for almost six years now with no clear end in sight. Recent fuel shortages after Hurricane Ike  in the southeast provide painful reminders of long lines and short tempers experienced during the gas crunch of the 1970’s.

Today, Chevrolet and the other automakers are knocking on government doors to ask for much needed cash to keep them afloat. The dominance of the Big 3 is long gone.

These are difficult times. We as nation have risen to greatness when our backs are against the wall. During the Great Depression, leaders made sweeping changes to our financial system and proposed a public works program to get our people moving again. Kennedy rose to the call and helped launch a space program that landed us on the moon. Yes, it was all of us on the moon that July 1969 day when Neil Armstrong declared it a giant step for mankind.

We as a nation now must rise again and take those big steps necessary to move beyond the stagnation of this decade – the war on terror, economic malaise, and a general discontent about our future.

Our future is now. It’s time to start cheering again. We may be in the underdog spot, but that’s ok. Upsets happen all the time. This time the upset won’t be so surprising. It’s just doing what we do best – shaking ourselves off, getting back up and looking forward to greater things.

No longer is our great process a true process. The era of twenty-four hour news has ruined our method. Once the issues have been covered over and over and once again, there is space between commercials to be filled still, so let's look at what our potential first ladies are wearing and what those choices say about them. Let's fill the space between Coca-Cola and Geico with an in depth analysis of how our candidates put their pants on, “It may not be one leg at a time. Tune in at eleven for details.”.

I remember being an average elementary student learning all about the history of the United States and learning about the hard choices made by the people through the vessel that was their elected leaders. I had a certain pride in saying the pledge of allegiance once. Now I am an average thirty-year-old man. I like my group of friends have participated in every election I have been able and I, as my friends feel smaller and smaller with every passing presidential term.

Recently during a phone conversation with one of my more intelligent friends after we had shot back and forth a dissection of issues, after we listened to each other , had every fact we knew examined and had a good laugh that if the government were listening in on the right conversations more change would happen than doors being knocked in for “protection from terrorists”, my friend made it very clear that she would be leaving the country with her husband if the seat of the commander in chief remained in the hands of the Republican party. I was shaken by this notion but not shocked. Her faith in the system and our nation is faltering just like my own faith, just like other members of the population. Just not enough of the population.

This particular race for President is so shadowed by sensationalism and the flash of the media scrambling for not only influence in the election but for ratings, that a true election by the people has become impossible. Frankly, I am worried for the future. I am as worried about us as Americans being manipulated by flash and charisma as I am about energy, economical stability and health care. There is so much lipstick on the pit-bull that it care barely be identified as a junkyard dog. There is so much “Hope” that we can no longer see that we are just crossing our fingers and wishing for change. We may as well be throwing coins into a well.

If and when my friend leaves the country with her husband, a loss in the nation will occur. It will not however be felt as it should. A very small portion of honest tax paying citizens will be gone and a large portion of intelligent voters will have made their way out of the three-ring circus. Fear is my motivation for voting on November 4 th, not patriotic duty. I fear that I will never feel the same pride in our country that I did as a child. I fear I will have indifference during the national anthem, that I will feel nothing for my home and that you too will feel the same.

Naturally, both candidates are telling the American people what they want to hear. However, can they really follow through? Do you really thing we will ever be out debt? I do not care who becomes president as long as they favor the people over there personal agenda.

I think there needs to be a cap on the gas prices. I honestly feel that the only reason gas prices have come down is because it is an election year, which is sad. More to come on my perspective on both candidates from the presidential election. By this time we now know who will be president, what do you think will be the outcome of this? Are we now in danger of a terrorist attack? Will our country become united once more? I am mostly independent but ask myself if I would have voted for JFK. My only hope is Obama does what he is telling us he is going to do otherwise things will only get worse.

Nobel Ideas All

• Health Care for all
• Tax the rich and lower taxes for the rest of us
• Regulate those thieves in the Markets
• I’ll get Osama
• I’ll stand up to the Iranians
• And on and on and on ………

It really doesn’t matter what they say, they have no idea how to implement any of it without shooting the rest of us in the foot! And besides, the President doesn’t make law, the congress does. Did you ever notice that every time congress acts something breaks. The only time the country seems to operate smoothly is when they are not in session. 

But I digress. The loosing party will block the Presidents party at every turn. In order to pass anything (unless it’s a Pork-belly) the opposition will insist on adding or subtracting their special interests from the bill. The result is something totally ineffective and therefore semi-safe for the rest of us.

I apologize for the stereotypes but just think about the consequences of un-tethered rule:

• The Democrats will reward the Health Care Industry with all the tax dollars they need to provide over-priced, substandard Health Care to you and every Illegal Alien in the country and maybe those who return to Mexico.
• Not to be out done, the Republicans would provide the Industrial War Complex with enough tax dollars to arm every man, woman, and child in the U.S. and Canada with a personal Cruise Missile.

We Must Be Thankful

Our real concern in this election is that no single party wins both the White House and a large enough majority in congress to pass any darn fool idea without it being watered down by the minority. If your guy wins or the other guy wins, be of good cheer. You can be sure that his lunacy will be redirected to a remedial course of action by the opposition. So let’s hear it for the loosing party folks. They are our one true hope. 

On A More Serious Note

Have no doubt that the Russian Bear has returned to the world scene. They will find a new name for it but for all intent and purpose the Cold War is on again. NATO threatens Russian Interest’s in the eastern block and U.S. interests are at risk from Russian influence in the Middle East. The conflict is well underway and whoever is elected must have courage and fortitude to stand in difficult times. The first contest turned out to be an economic war of the fittest, so will this new conflict be decided the same way. No body is going to push the proverbial button. But you can be sure this will turn into a “mine is bigger than yours” contest and it is going to be expensive. We must prevail or we will suffer the fate of Russia in the 90’s but I doubt they will be as benevolent as we were.

This is a winner take all game. We either dominate the world, or are dominated by it. If you feel guilty about domination just think how the Georgians are feeling right now. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “the world will never like us but they will respect us.” May it continue to be that way. The next Administration and the Congress better get this economy going and neither one of them can afford to blink in the eye of the Russian Bear (read KGB). 

Baltimore is a city of characters. Everyone you meet, every where you go has a story to tell and will most times will do so with a smile on their face. There is a strong sense of family in the communities and friends and neighbors are for the most part always willing to lend a helping hand. During the warmer months you can drive down the streets and see people sitting on their front steps talking until way past the sun goes down. Kids playing ball in the streets. People just being people. And the ice cream truck is always a welcome sight and sound.

Yes, like any city it has its problems with drugs, crime, prostitution, gangs and etc. But, there is a certain energy to it that can not be put into words. There's a sort of sense of survival in the air. A sense of hope. Baltimore has always been known as a working class town, and they will continue to work to make themselves better people. In 1907 February of 1907 The Great Baltimore Fire burned for some 30 hours destoying over 1,500 buildings. It was later said theat the city had risen from the ashes. Well, once again this city will rise from the ashes.

Obama evidently wrote a book entitled “The Audacity of Hope” and the Republican National Convention turned this into a play entitled “Audacity Watch”. Perhaps this implies that McCain is ready to pounce on any ridiculous mistake that Obama makes.

September 11, 2001

On the morning of September 11, 2001, my wife sent me an e-mail and told me that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. Like so many other Americans on that September morning, I thought it was an accident. What person, what kind of people, would do such a thing intentionally?

But, then I turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit the Towers and I knew it was no accident. It was a deliberate act of terror, designed to frighten and belittle us. This was something that no single nation state could hope to do; it was only something that we could be pushed into doing to ourselves.

Yet, what that act of terror could have gone a different way. You see, what they did on that day was try and destroy a dream. A dream that is something we here in the United States take for granted, but that the rest of the world sees quite clearly.

The Dream

The United States is many things to many people. Some see us as a cultural invader, breaking down traditional values with our movies, our products and our arrogance. But, that cultural invasion is also, perhaps, our enduring legacy. From the windswept Tibetan Plateau to the Siberian Taiga and from the vast plains of the Serengeti to the Amazonian rainforest, the dream that is America exists. Bantu tribesmen in Africa wear Coca-Cola t-shirts while never having tasted that wonderful, decadent drink. Poor fishermen in Indonesia listen to American music while they fish in a way that would be recognizable a thousand years ago. Vietnamese sit in poorly ventilated theatres to watch American movies with sub-titles, while they drink Pepsi-Cola and wish upon a star.

For all of these people and more, America is a dream. For millions, if not billions, of people around the world, cowboys still ride the vast American West. For them, if they can make it in New York, they can make it anywhere. For them, America is a land of vast spaces, unimaginable wealth, peace, prosperity and where the streets are paved with gold. It's a land of freedom, the rule of law, justice, and equality. Where, if a person is willing to work, anything can be dreamed and anything can be achieved.

Out greatest gift to the world is not our military. It is not the concept of freedom, justice and the rule of law. To most people on Earth, those concepts are simply without context. They are meaningless. But to dream? Ah that, that is our greatest gift to the world and that is something that I think, perhaps, we have lost sight of in the years since 9-11. That hope to dream was what the terrorists were trying to destroy.

Hope

You see, America is ultimately about hope. It is ultimately about being able to dream impossible dreams and see them realized. We luxuriate in our vast wealth and power, forgetting that America itself is not the envy of the world, but its hope. We forget that America is the realization of that overwhelming human need to be free to hope. That is what America is to the world. But, that isn't what the United States means to the world. The United States is a country that oppresses people, tells people what to do and then doesn't follow through on those things itself. The United States flag is the flag that the people of Iran burn, not the flag of America. The flag of America is not the Stars and Stripes. The flag of America is Coca-Cola red, Ford blue and IBM computer white, laid in full upon a field of hopes, dreams and the realization that in America, anything, anything at all, is possible.

I wonder why we Americans seem to have forgotten that?

• Charisma
• Eloquence
• Authenticity
• Campaign Strategists
• Management Skills

Frankly, I too had been a bit confused about the Obama phenomena. That is, I was confused until last Tuesday night's Wisconsin and Hawaii primaries. That night, while listening to Obama's victory speech after he'd won Wisconsin, any lack of clarity I still possessed burned away like fog in a hot sun.

It became abundantly clear to me that although each of the above elements plays an important role in the candidate's success, it is his eloquence that propelled him past other Democratic candidates, and still drives his campaign train. And, by eloquence, I don't simply mean his ability to speak articulately, but rather his ability to:

• Convey ideas simply and understandably
• Generate excitement and belief in those ideas, and
• Genuinely touch people's emotions

In my opinion, it is exactly because of Obama's ability to inspire, excite, and activate voters with his speeches that he came under fire with the accusation of plagiarism. I imagine his opponent was also inspired … to do something, anything to debunk Obama's speech-making ability; and as a result launched an embarrassing, failed attempt to discredit him.

In the CNN debate last Thursday evening, Obama, after giving an explanation of his usage of what he described as a couple of sentences in a speech he has given (or, some version of the speech) a number of times over the last two years, he shrugged the plagiarism accusation off saying …”This is when we enter the silly season of politics.”

Now, getting back to my own season of revelation during Tuesday's primaries: it came late in the evening while Obama was giving his victory speech. There it was, one of those “defining moments” when all the pieces in a nagging puzzle finally falls into place. A moment of such piercing clarity, I was baffled that I hadn't seen it sooner.

In the speech, Obama addressed his ability to maintain hope in the face of numerous negatives … he was, among other occasions, referencing his arrival in the nation's Capital when many colleagues who, because of his optimism, treated him as if he wasn't in complete grasp of reality. About Washington in general he said,

“Washington is a place where good ideas go to die.”

About his reception by the Washington players, he said their response to him was …

“We need to season him a little bit more - boil the hope out of him.”

As well, his colleagues used words and phrases like … “Naive”, “He needs a reality check”, and “False hope”, to describe his perspective.

It was at this point in his speech that my mind involuntarily traveled back to a time when I had shared a similar experience. Although currently back in the states, it was a time when I had relocated to an island in the Caribbean.

Applying for work as a freelance writer for the island's major newspaper, I followed the instructions of the paper's editor and submitted an article for consideration that was based on an aspect of island life.

Well, about a week later, I received a nicely written letter of rejection. I was summarily informed by the editor that although my writing was excellent, I was still wearing rose colored glasses when it came to the island. I guess, the implication being that I hadn't reached a level of cynicism sufficient to allow me to focus on the island's problems rather than its many positive attributes. I was a “Johnnie Come Lately” who was so excited, I wasn't objective about my surroundings …and as such was of no possible use to a hard-driving, reality based, newspaper.

In reality, I did see the challenges of the "business as usual” government that was in place; I did see the social problems like poverty and teen pregnancy. But, I, like the people of the island had hope; hope that at some point the right combination of elected officials and public will would help solve these problems. We had hope that these challenges would never grow larger in scope than the island"s incredible beauty; the indomitable spirit of its people; or its amazing history and culture.

Certainly, I was disappointed at not getting the job, but I couldn't change who I was and made no attempt to influence the decision; I simply began writing for other island publications.

Ironically, several years later, after that particular editor decided to step down from a command that had lasted many years, I would end up working for that same newspaper. Through no action of my own, but based on articles I had written over the years for various island publications, I was invited to work as a freelance writer, and for several years wrote a weekly column and did special assignment reporting for the newspaper.

At the conclusion of Obama's speech that night, I considered how he had evoked the memory of my rejection that time. Suddenly, I remembered a comment I'd read on one of the social websites regarding a poem, and as I reflected on that comment I knew I had hit on at least one secret to Obama's speech-making prowess.

The comment came from a fan of a prolific poet regarding one of his poems. She described how the poem had affected her, concluding … “I know that's probably not what you meant, but it's how it made me feel. And maybe, that's why your poetry is so special. It touches each of us in the way we need to be touched.”

And, that I believe is a key to Obama's success: speeches that touch each individual in the way they need to be touched. Speeches that touch on hopes, dreams and experiences, not en mass, but personally, individually. As well, Obama's rose colored glasses are clearly in place as he expresses:

• Hope that change can happen
• Belief that change will happen
• Commitment that will make change happen

Out on the stump leading up to the last Democratic Debate this past Tuesday, Obama's opponent ridiculed him saying, hope is not enough. In one of her speeches she said,

“The sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will sing, …”

It is ludicrous to ridicule hope and inspiration, but that's exactly what was happening. Obama probably felt as he had when he first encountered Washington politics, however I have a suggestion for the Senator from Illinois.

I find myself still in possession of a few extra pair of rose colored glasses. He is more then welcome to borrow them and pass them around to those who seem to be in serious need of some hope and inspiration.