Submitted by sudhama on Thu, 06/16/2011 - 5:47am.
President Obama swept into office in 2008 based in large part on what he said. Hs speeches were the stuff of legend. There really had not been a presidential candidate perhaps since president Kennedy that could rival his oratory skills. He commanded attention, respect and inspired a vision for a better future. He evoked the sense in us he would stay true to his word, though most of us realized he would not follow through on all of his promises, the major ones – the ones we were most interested in seeing the next president put into action – we felt he would make good on.
And those speeches rung in our ears long after his physical presence left the stage. The water cooler talk was often about the speech the candidate gave and how inspiring it was. The talk on the corner was often about how with speeches like that he might win and be different both. The web was festooned with WOW's and that was from both sides of the isle. The country wanted change and he had the recipe for the perfect dish – seasoned just right and cooked as close to perfection as it got.
Funny thing happened on the way back to reality though. We started not getting much. There was this huge, low boredom inflected groan where the inspiration once was. It was like two years of “here it comes” followed by two and a half of... “eh, it was aiight.” I mean we didn't think Camelot would rise and he would head the round table with his knights of change set to lance away the rot on the constitution and our hearts from the pile of junk we were handed and still trying to come to grips with from the other two characters.
We didn't expect magic pixie dust filled peace bombs to be dropped from B-2's that would magically turn the country into Disney World or have us all living on yellow brick roads. On the major issues promised; yeah we expected something. We did expect to have an accelerated drawdown in Iraq, and if Osama Bin Laden was captured or killed to be hearing about accelerated drawdowns there. We did expect intrusions on civil liberties to be addressed – we didn't expect the entire Patriot Act to be repealed, but sincerely cut back, yes.
We expected problems with the nation's education situation to be addressed. After all we used to be number one in the world in education. It fed our standing in the rest of the world with regards to so much else. Now we see the disintegration of our standing in education and as a result so much else is left with grumbling hunger pangs. This goes for college level and high end blue collar education. We have high unemployment – yet in certain sectors of the job market there is a serious dearth of people with the necessary skills to fill the jobs.
In fact according to the Wall Street Journal there are millions of them. CEOs Jef Immelt and Ken Chenault report, “There are more than two million open jobs in the U.S., in part because employers can't find workers with the advanced manufacturing skills they need. The private sector must quickly form partnerships with community colleges, vocational schools and others to match career training with real-world hiring needs.” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230425930457638032331152353...)
But this is nothing new. When the president was running he said some of the stimulus money would be pumped into getting people to work and in part that would include vocational training of the sort needed now. So what happened? Education in America is failing right now, and the jobs right here in America that need people are going unfilled, because there aren't the workers with the training to fill them. These are good jobs, and they will – like so much else previously in America's manufacturing sector - go overseas to people ready to be trained by companies or governments that are willing to pay a little now to for sustained profits into the future.
We cannot allow more jobs to go overseas because of cruise control action and waiting around for... well whatever exactly it is the president waiting around for. He got the money in 2009 and even a quiet stimulus passed this time with the help of Republicans in 2010 and where is that money going? (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/09/AR201012...) Is it just siting on some shelf? Wherever it is it should it should be going towards training for manufacturing to fill jobs and stay competitive worldwide and it should not stop there.
When I'm in urban neighborhoods in my city and state I don't see people are wealthier, happier or more prosperous. Yet, those things can come through better schools and safer neighborhoods for the kids walking home and playing outside. They come when more money is put towards college scholarships and grants for students that can't afford tuition.
Schools around the country need that money and dollars spent on the wars would do well to help with that. If we took those billions being wasted on Iraq imagine how much better our schools around the country could be from nursery schools to institutes of higher learning and vocational schools. We bring in students from other countries to get training at our colleges to then leave to benefit and better other nations. Why haven't we benefitted here?
Instead of homeownership through subprime loans how about homeownership through an increased standard of living across the board? Iraq is already contemplating its own standard of living and guess what – we are not included in the plans. In fact when one member of the House from California suggested they pay us back some of the money for rebuilding their nation they said “no” flat out unanimously. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56776.html)
That money could be going towards fulfilling one of the promises of then candidate Obama mentioned in many eloquent and stirring speeches but that so far has not packed the oomph promised. And that thus far has been the story. We need the wars to wind down. Iraq cannot be won because it has already been admitted to be a mistake – no WMD remember? How can we win? It's like a policeman on COPS pulling over someone and then admitting on camera he was wrong about them traveling over the speed limit. Then for some odd reason he decides to hand out a ticket and put all his energy into going to court to defend the ticket when the defendant decides to fight it. Of the two guess the person that ends up looking like the fool? Why do it?
Regarding Afghanistan he told us in moving speeches we would finish the job by finding Bin Laden and either capturing or killing him. We did. What are we doing there now? Their government will not be what we want it to any time soon and we are dumping billions there. Why do it there when we need it here? We have vast numbers of ordinary Americans under surveillance due to the Patriot Act that really don't need to be. 9/11 didn't happen because we didn't have the Patriot Act, it happened because the Bush administration failed to act when they were handed a memo in August of 2001 that read “Bin Laden determined to strike in US.” (http://articles.cnn.com/2004-04-10/politics/august6.memo_1_bin-conduct-t...) It warned of hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
Let's get the money to the real security problems; the economy and the future of America. Here's a newsflash, it ain't in Iraq, Afghanistan or in becoming a nation that believes the people we can trust least are Americans like Communists in Russia and Nazis believed. “In response to (President Lyndon) Johnson's comment that the military remained optimistic (on the Vietnam War in 1968), (Dean) Acheson replied, 'Mr. President, you are being led down the garden path.'” (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2751/is_54/ai_53972637/?tag=conte...) In many ways that quote applies today to much of what is going on regarding our foreign policy.
I like to hope President Obama is the man in his speeches not the hit and more often miss man of the past two years and almost five months. I like to believe he is a man that keeps the promises he makes and doesn't go around saying essentially, “I'll do whatever you want” with no plans to do a thing. In his recent trip to Puerto Rico he said during one speech, that regarding the island's commonwealth status he would let them decide. In other words again he is already saying, “whatever you want tell me and I will do it... after the election.”
If his track record on his promises so far says anything Puerto Rico will be waiting a long time. Hopefully between now and 2012 President Obama will fulfill some of those promises not to lean left, right or center, but simply to keep his word. That would be something worth learning about, talking about and most definitely hearing about.
To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.
