THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION
A bold statement perhaps, but one that I will do my best to defend. The only choice for the United States of America, its people and the entire world, free or otherwise, friend or foe, industrialized or third world country, is to elect Barack Obama as the next President of these United States of America.
OUR DOMESTIC PROBLEMS: Hard working Americans that love their country will never give up the fight for their families, friends and a better life for themselves and their children, yet that fight and their faith has been shaken to the core by the failures of this government towards its people - health care, eduation, employment - the basic tenets and infra-structure of what enables people to grow, learn and expand their lives have been taken away from the average citizen. Few among us have not weighed and often postponed medical treatment because the deductibles involved cut significantly into monies that go towards our mortgages and utility bills. The high school graduation rate in Detroit, Michigan, a city that drove our economy fifty years ago as the transportation hub of the world, is 25%, a statistic that is shocking, but also not much worse than the equivalent number in many other population centers. Technology workers have acquired skilled degrees while seeing their skilled jobs disappear en masse to foreign countries as corporations are able to pay a fraction of American wages to workers in these countries with no penalty whatsoever and only increasing incentives to continue this trend.
A fundamental purpose of government is to provide for its people the fundamental things that make life possible and fruitful: security, education, health care and employment. With the privatization of health care being placed in the hands of corporations, the fundamental goals of these corporations are to generate the highest profits possible for their shareholders, not to insure the health and well-being of its policy holders. Imagine if a person called a fire department and then was forced to pay $500 before the firefighters commenced their work or if a victim of a robbery had to pay $100 before a police report could be opened - that is exactly the situation in which virtually every American finds themselves today when debating when to seek additional medication for themselves, their children or their parents, or to determine when to undergo necessary surgery to alleviate a painful condition that is not life-threatening, but merely agonizing.
Jobs ranging from white-collar Information Technology programmers to blue-collar assembly line workers have disappeared in droves for several reasons - United States corporations can out-source these positions to countries such as India, Pakistan, Mexico, China with no penalty and only improvement to their bottom line and their god of profit at any cost. The world and especially the United States was not prepared for the exponential growth of the Internet; along with that growth came the elimination of thousands of clerical, administrative and other positions that are now replaced by a few mouse-clicks by these same displaced technology workers who have time during the day while they look for their next job to balance their checkbooks, shop for a few items or pay their bills at their desktop computer. The workers at these jobs must have an alternative - employing them in clean, alternative energy jobs, as proposed by Senator Obama is as good a proposal as I have heard. The other day, a cheerful meter reader, here in Austin, Texas, knocked on my door to inform me that my electricity would be shut off for a few seconds while he completed installation of automatic meter readers, at which time I immediately wondered where the hundreds of meter readers just locally would find their next jobs. Progress is important, but along with that consideration must be made for the people that will lose jobs because of this progress. Americans are not lazy, nor do they want something for nothing, but they also need to see an alternative, a chance for a second chance.
THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS: Immediately after 9/11/2001, significant in that the date is now over seven years ago, the United States had the sympathy of the world, the goodwill of its people and support for Mr. Bush at one of the highest levels in the history of the presidential office. By any reasonable estimation, "The War Against Terror," would, by its very terms, be against a nebulous, often undefined opponent, not necessarily aligned with any specific country. Because of that, any strikes or offensives made by the United States would need to be as specific as possible given the vague and ambiguous playing field now at hand. On the other hand, a government seeking to exploit these tragic, overwhelming tactics could do so by misdirecting their aims and making allegations for other purposes, all of which the Bush Administration has done.
Iraq played no part in the 9/11 attacks, but became the focus of our military efforts, while the pursuit and capture of the man chiefly responsible for the actual attacks, the infamous Osama Bin Laden, was left in the hands of Pakistanis that in significant part sympathized with his actions and causes. Bin Laden remains free to this day, most likely roaming between the Pakistani-Afghani borders, while the United States spends $10 billion monthly in Iraq with our country's economy and infra-structure crumbling to the worst level since the Great Depression of the 1930's. The PATRIOT Act was laying in wait to be immediately approved within days of the 9/11 attacks - an over-bearing measure that carves deep grooves out of the United States Constitution. Most outrageously, this government has detained United States citizens for years in Gauntanamo and other secret holding prisons worldwide, where the best case result for these detainees, most of whom have not been formally accused of wrongdoing, is to be released and deported without recompense. That is, American citizens are deprived of their liberty without due process and without redress for their grievances.
The world history of empires is that such will eventually fail and, at best, retreat to a fraction of their former holdings and sphere of influence. The reason that this is the most important election in the history of civilization is that the "United States vs. the World" only ends in two possibilities - the United States loses or we take and destroy the world along with ourselves. Given the power, military might and air superiority of this country, we will always be the most powerful nation in the world, but as an increasing number of countries worldwide become our sworn enemies and develop nuclear capabilities, we will have to decide how to abide with friends and foes, the latter of which are clearly willing to die if it means the destruction of the United States in whole or significant part.
THIS CAMPAIGN AND THIS ELECTION: Along with the countless problems inherent in the Republican party, the intertwining of the religious right with the party threatens the erosion of the American way of life as much as any foreign enemy. Regardless of one's beliefs, Athiest or Theist, Christian or Muslim, Catholic or Protestant, it is the basest insanity to battle and seek destruction to support the tenets of faith or religion in the name of concepts that no honest person can say they know for certain and that is more an accident of birth than anything else. Our country was founded on the freedom of religion, belief or not, pursuit or not - our country's dreams, pursuits and endeavors cannot be based on one religion or another. Put another way, in Colin Powell's endorsement of Senator Obama, he cogently expressed an important point - in the course of this campaign, Senator McCain was given some credit for refuting claims that Mr. Obama was an "Arab" or a "Muslim" - the question posed by Mr. Powell was why does it matter? What if he was an Arab-American or a follower of the Muslim faith? None of this can exclude him from office nor should it be relevant any more than any other topic of discussion in passing. And, these considerations, none of which pertain to Senator Obama, an American of Christian faith, are far less relevant than Senator McCain being chastised by a Senate ethics panel for his support of Charles Keating in the Lincoln Financial fraud schemes and of Governor Palin's abuse of state funds for her personal benefit in Alaska.
The campaign and its final days have shown the worst of what little the Republican party offers the American people - in the past few months, Senator McCain and his incredibly unqualified and socially unacceptable running crony, Ms. Palin, have resorted to the lowest forms of personal attacks on Senator Obama, bringing up issues that are of no relevance to this campaign other that to win for the sake of winning with no honor or benefit to the American people. Sarah Palin's selection as the Vice Presidential candidate was and is an absolute affront to the intellect and beliefs of Americans, apparently in an attempt to capture the female vote that would have been cast with Senator Clinton and to capture the hearts and minds of "Joe Six-Packs" and "Joe the Plumbers" around the country. During this same time, Senator Obama has continued the masterful, focused course of his campaign and his plans for getting this country and its economy back to working order and to restore the good name of the United States of American worldwide.
The good news is that this regime can and will change in four days, but as any good Democrat will tell you - "power will not cede control easily or willingly" - a paraphrase of Senator Obama's recent remarks. The Republicans will do what they can, in any way they can, but as far as the elections are concerned, "you can't steal a landslide" - vote, campaign, contribute, do what you can in these last few days before the course of these United States of America is restored to its just and rightful purpose for its citizens and the citizens of this world.