Finally!, Obama brings me hope...
Here are some of the things that should have been done long, long ago, or should have always been a part and parcel of the United States of America. Obama is the first candidate since RFK who brings some hope for the return of democracy. Is it possible that Barack Obama can make these long-awaited things happen for the majority of Americans...
Universal, one-payer health care. It is easy to simply blame the pharmaceutical companies. Too many groups have their hand out for what they think is their God-given right to a big income. This includes the drug behemoths, but it also includes the family doctor. It includes the hospitals. It includes the insurance industry. It includes medical suppliers. They are all in this racket together. And U.S. citizens pay much, much more for health care than anyplace in the world. And our life expectancy and general health are approaching that of a third-world nation. This is a disgrace! One-payer nations have healthier citizens. Canadians are healthier than us, Brits are healthier, Germans are healthier, Scandinavians are much healthier, the French are healthier. When will we wake up? There is absolutely no reason for not having a universal system for U.S. healthcare. Tell your physician that the jig is up.
Get out of Iraq now! We invaded Iraq illegally, and based upon a battery of lies by an administration that has absolutely no moral or ethical grounding. The cost in human lives is atrocious. For what? Bush's war has ruined the American dollar. Your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will have to pay for this horrible indulgance to build astronomical profits for Bush and Cheney buddies. This illegal war will impact the U.S. negatively for generations. And our presence in Iraq is building a growing hatred for America, and is endangering the entire world. We, the U.S., can be held accountable for much of growing terrorism in the world. The U.S. is the best recruiting machine the terrorists have.
Work to put an end to the bigotry and religious nonsense that fills American society. Obama will bring with him a call to tolerance and understanding, so badly needed in America today. Since Ronald Reagan we have suffered from top-down bigotry that infests all aspects of American society.
Take the masks off all the religious hypocrites, and all the sinister nuts who try to bring silly religious ideas into the mainstream. It has no place. Jefferson said so, Adams said so, the Constitution says so: religion must be kept separate from our political, social, and economic activities. The Founding Fathers demanded it. Tell these religious hypocrites to crawl back into their anti-intellectual caves. We will then be on the dawn of a great, new era.
Get rid of federal budget deficits. Ending the war will help. Getting on a one-payer health care system will help. But the Bush administration has dug us into such an economic hole that it will take some additional, carefully-crafted taxes to get us back on a solid economic footing. Look around you. There is plenty of evidence that there are huge numbers of people who accumulate wealth without considering that they must pay their fair share. We are in this together, Americans. Get over your self-indulgent selfishness! Look around you at people in need. Do you feel ANY guilt?
Besides getting out of the illegal and immoral war that Bush wages in Iraq, the most deeply-needed change in the U.S. is to get over our economic dependence on self-indulgence. Selfish, greedy spending on ourselves is now seen as necessary to our being a successful society. Wrong! Our success as a world leader depends on how we use our tremendous resources for the good of all humanity. Thus far we should receive failing grades. We sit in our gated communities, waste fuel in our huge gas-guzzlers, fight every attempt to raise taxes to support the greater good, see ourselves as empire builders, indulge in hypocritical religious selfishness, have lost any altruistic horizon, and now are seen worldwide as pariahs who have been given so very much and given back to the world so very little. We are so selfish individually that we cannot even provide for the poor on our doorstep, let alone for needy people worldwide. Shame on America! Obama, lead us on a new course so we can serve the world in a way that justifies how much we have been given, how much has been simply laid at our doorstep. Much has been given America, much should be expected.
