Tag Archives: Change

While Obama talks about “hope and opportunity”

Does anybody know how he will derail the recession?

Bring the troops out of Iraq (after all he never supported the war ya know?)

Honestly, the more I hear and see about Obama is just disappointment.

He is a politician first, his orations on hope and opportunity don’t mean squat — there are serious problems in the US that need answering to, and while they play egotistical maniacs, the economy needs serious help, as well as a host of other problems.

let’s put it like this, if the situation was reverse, would Obama step down for the good of the country?

No — he has a super-ego just like HRC or McCain or any other presidential election.

The only thing that separates him is not the fact he will accomplish anything, but that he inspires people — but don’t go comparing him to a MLK or anything — Obama has no weight behind his words.

He can talk about race and international community, sure, by the nature of who and how he was raised, but honestly the question about Obama should not be “do you have experience?” but the question should be

What did you do in the last 8 years you were a politician.

Not, how long, but how MUCH did you do with the few years you had?

That’s the question we should be asking.

I have no doubt Obama will be elected, but this country will be in for a rude awakening when they realize oratory only takes you so far when you realize Greenspan has hamstringed the economy and Bernanke can’t save it.

When GEN Petraeus comes back and says the surge has done little to nothing in Iraq.

When we still have millions of uninsured americans, senators taking billions in pork projects (including Obama himself who took $300 million I believe, much of which was alotted to his mentor who gave him free pass in Illinois Senate), and those same black kids he talked about who are the victim of years of segregation will languish in their crummy, poor neighberhoods meanwhile his family sits comfortable in their $1.65 million house.

Man of great ideas, great speaking abilities, and great cogency he certainly is — but a man of the words he preaches he has not been seen.

Change I don’t believe in.

Generation Obama

A politician is a politician is a politician.

Again, real change does not come from the top, it comes from each one of us on the bottom.

This doesn’t mean that Obama agrees with Wright’s thoroughgoing and conspiracy-heavy anti-Americanism. Rather, Obama seems to have seen, early in his career, the utility of joining a prominent church that would help him establish political roots in the community in which he lives. Now he sees the utility of distancing himself from that church. Obama’s behavior in dealing with Wright is consistent with that of a politician who often voted “present” in the Illinois State Legislature for the sake of his future political viability.

The more you learn about him, the more Obama seems to be a conventionally opportunistic politician, impressively smart and disciplined, who has put together a good political career and a terrific presidential campaign. But there’s not much audacity of hope there. There’s the calculation of ambition, and the construction of artifice, mixed in with a dash of deceit — all covered over with the great conceit that this campaign, and this candidate, are different.

The Loftiest poetry won’t change anything…

I saw a great quote today in an LA times op-ed piece, written by three of RFK’s kids, supporting HRC whilst speaking on some pertinent issues in this country, stating “the loftiest poetry won’t solve these issues.

Well the loftiest politics won’t change this country either.

While I admonish all the Presidential candidates for their lofty aspirations and goals to change this country, and put us back on the right path, the whole Presidential race underscores one key thought: Americans put way too much stock in politics as the vessel for change.

How many of my friends have I seen supporting Senators Obama or R. Paul because they feel those two, for their respective parties, represent new ideas and change.

Hmm, I’ve been to some of the poorest areas in the world, and in fact I’m writing this from the poorest city in the United States, and I haven’t seen a positive effect from politics improving the plight of the people that inhabit these hope-forsaken blots on a map.

We need to understand one thing: if change is coming, it is a change in the hearts and minds of the people, not to go out to the ballot box and put their 50 cents in to decide who should be President of the “greatest nation” on the face of the planet.

Change comes from each and every one of us — it is within us, the power to change — by changing the way we think, by changing the way we speak, and by changing the way we DO.

Another great op-ed by Nicolas Kristof in the NYT, citing how the number one issue in Evangelical America is fighting poverty (distantly followed by abortion and thirdly fighting genocide.) Kristof also wrote a great article about this same issue: how politics aren’t necessarily the vessel for change.

This shift in thought could be the thing that finally unites this country — the desire for social change.

I once read that this society works in cycles — 30 years of a “me” focus, followed by 15 years of a “we” and “us” focus.

Well, if you haven’t noticed the “green” revolution, outcry for an environment that has become “inconvenient,” or the push for sponsoring businessmen and women in other countries (read: kiva.org), than you must have been in hiding for the last 5 years.

Change is here, and I’ll tell you what, if you’re looking at politics — you’ve got your eyes set on the right thing, and it’s time to “get your mind right.”

I just read a recent article in which it infers that the Director of Ashoka , an organization that supports social entrepreneurs, believes “such people neither hand out fish nor teach people to fish; their aim is to revolutionize the fishing industry.”

Revolutionize the fishing industry indeed.

Now that’s change I can believe in.