Have you ever wanted to say something but could not find a profound way to articulate it?
Well, that had been my dilemma about my thrill for the Obama candidacy for the president of the United States of America. It turned out that I wasn’t alone. Chris Matthews, host of NBC’s Chris Matthews Show and MSNBC’s Hardball, recently appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and gave an answer to the same question that had eluded me.
Chris Mathews has been on a receiving end of criticism for saying that Obama’s speeches bring “thrill up my legs.” Here is Mathews’ defense:
“I’d rather be honest and say what I feel than sit there like some kind of statue and say, ‘Oh that was noteworthy.’ I’m a frickin’ American. I do have a reaction to things. And I do react emotionally to my country. I care about this country, I wanna look out for it. It’s my job. I’m not just some umpire. I take a side: us. That’s who I’m rootin’ for.”
It wasn’t Obama’s speeches that thrill me, though they are excellent. It was rather his significance.
In presenting his defense, Mathews stated that he would wish that people look at Obama through the eyes of their kids. Here is how he put it:
“I hope for one thing when people go to vote: that they look at Barack’s background, that they look at the age of the two candidates, that they look at their abilities and really open up their hearts and say “what’s really good for my kids,” who don’t have any color awareness…. Kids don’t think about race. Think like your kids for once. Think the way they think… It would be great if the older people in the country, the 70 year olds, the 80 year olds who are suspicious of change to say, “you know, why don’t I think the way my kids are thinking and think about the future… Whatever they decide, just open up your heart to this prospect of something different.”
In Why Obama is My Man and other musings of mine about this election, I have essentially been concerned about my kids. My time here on earth is as good as gone. All I now ask for is, What are the things that will be good for my kids, Ijeamaka and Ogonna?
And Obama will be good for my kids.
Though we often forget, the world that our kids will inhabit will be a lot different from the one that we know. It is important to remember that. Always.
To understand how different that world will be, we need to look back at the generation before. The generation that struggled with the Civil Rights issues got credit for deciding that their children must live in a new world where the search for a fair and just society must be made plausible.
How did they achieve it? Supremacists, former supremacists, children of supremacists, teamed up with the victims, former victims and children of victims to demand a paradigm shift. It wasn’t an easy task. It was resisted by many in several quarters for varying reasons, many of which sounded credible at the time and some of which sounded scary even at this time. But it did not stop the march of those who believed in change.
In this our time, and for our own generation, the challenge is not any different. We have to magnify the possibilities, pull down the remaining ceilings, widen the horizon and draw the rainbow closer to our rooftop. In our quest, we will face the same challenges like those faced by the generation before. Many will march out in stern opposition. They will say that it cannot be done. They will say that we are too ambitious, too arbitrary, too obscure, too aloof and too abrasive. They will inverse their fear and spread the scent of that fear in the air. The fear in them of change will be marketed and advertised as fear of undue risk we are taking with our collective essence.
We shall persevere because we know that it is the only way to triumph. When beaten down and outfoxed, we shall remember Franz Fanon’s charge that, “Every generation, out of relative obscurity must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it.”
We have the power to decide what we bequeath our children. But we have no power to choose what they inherit. May we fulfill and not betray the noble mission of our generation.
And if I were to need payment it has to come from Republicans. And it will be for a job. And the real job there is out there is to sell John McCain.
... Whatever I am, I am in good company - Chris Mathews, Brian Williams, Kathie Couric, Charles Gibson etc etc
You have kids? Are you married? I thought you were the most charming eligible bachelor after reading some of your articles. Man, you stand to break my heart.
:-(
I am married to a gorgeous woman named Edna. And we have two kids – Ijeamaka and Ogonna.
Of course, you are gorgeous and there is a handsome man out there coming for you. You just have to open your eyes when he gets there.
How did Kenny Rogers put it? ”There’s someone for everyone...”
JOHN McCAIN’S 3R ECONOMIC PLAN 2008
Abbreviated version
Progressive thinking Republican Candidate John McCain comes through for America with his 3R economic plan. In the persona of Theodore Roosevelt, McCain’s plan just makes sense.
FIRST , keep in mind that to drop the fuel tax, the local gov’ts would crash. We must use the 3R to replace taxes lost from replaced fuel through green energy (Yes, we have it ready to go!)
www.betterconstructed.com
1. RETHINK: America must see globally on what America is capable of in our current state of technology, engineering and meet the demands that face the world.
Private Sector framework is in place and current laws allow the 3R to happen. The Progressive attitude of John McCain to get things done by crossing party lines will resurrect America.
2. REFORM: The American people must demand higher quality products and less restricted trade routes for Made in USA components. We will lead the way of MFG again!
The USA will reform its dead manufacturing base
3. REINVENT: America and Americans must reinvent themselves to reach and maintain these standards and by sheer American ingenuity, control the world’s marketplace in the competitive manner, as the USA has always been proud to be #1.
NUTS AND BOLTS of the plan are simple.
Billions of savings equates to millions of lost tax revenue from energy companies. The US needs a separate tax revenue source before we can move away from fossil fuels.
McCain 3R solution.
McCain’s 3R is about technical, closely monitored and rapid hands on training from pros to create new pros. Thousands of currently-job-displaced “once leaders in the manufacturing arena” will be asked to train and play instructor rolls in the 3R plan. Paid, of course, as these new leaders will help create a whole new style of prosperous America. A massive restructure providing thousands New American MFG means millions of new jobs for infrastructure alone.
We have the buildings, needs and infrastructure to do this!
New jobs is the mainstay for Creating a new guard for Social Security.
This is the new place for financial speculators to invest!
McCain’s Progressive nature embodies Theodore Roosevelt more than any US presidential candidate in history since the original Rough Rider blazed the greatest era of growth in America.
We need John McCain to lead our nation with the same type of change.
Men and women of all races on equal ground operating their own businesses or taking part as an employee. No more hyphenated Americans! Thinking like Theodore Roosevelt all the way to a stronger America.
www.betterconstructed.com
THIS 3R DRAFT COURTESY OF:
John Lewis Mealer, Founding President of Mealer Companies
Obama’s speeches and website outline his plans.
IF Obama is elected he would crush this nation by doing the following:
Obama’s World Poverty Bill (Google it) would be passed and take ALL of the US Gross Domestic Profit earnings to give to the UN for distribution to African nations (seriously, GOOGLE IT) (All 7%. Which is the US profit margin).
Guns would be also gathered up according to Obama’s Global Poverty Bill plan (Did you Google it yet?)
Obama plans to heavily tax the investor class and no new small businesses would come into being (esp with the bank failures going on at the moment and no new loans being issued).
America would stagnate and begin to fall apart without small business growth.
Obama’s tax on the investor class also takes away incentives for lower classes to strive to become wealthier people.
Did you hope to begin your own business someday?
Obama says NO! Only Obama’s guidelines of new businesses and new business owners with or without training to run a business.. He could care less.
Obama must keep us in our place, after-all.
Obama would immediately tax the large corporations which are already just barely balanced between the democrat instituted American Workers Union ridiculous demands and simply closing up and moving overseas or to Mexico.
The USA corporate infrastructure would be destroyed within a year.
Obama would force the remaining small businesses to pay totally unaffordable health care for employees and they too, would close up and go out of business even before finding health care, IF it were available.
This will really hurt the women business owners who employ mostly younger women in retail, who have higher health care coverage.
THEN Obama comes up with some LIE that he wants to give small business $5K per covered worker. Do you realize how many workers there are in small businesses throughout America? How would he pay for those TRILLIONS?!! Talk about not even thinking about how grand of a lie he tries to weave.
Obama will over tax and over extend this country so quickly and at the worst time that we will DIE as a nation.
If you want the USA to watch America die, then you surely want Obama to become president and vice versa.
Note to Obama:
Terrorists do not eat crumpettes, they send their brainwashed neighbors into tea N crumpette shops with bombs strapped to their bodies.
They do not negotiate!
This is not some game where we can push reset and this certainly is not a basketball game or charisma pageant.
This is the cold hard reality of Obama that people play deaf and dumb to.
This is real life.
McCain 3R Plan is a start, but Obama’s view is obviously the end of the USA