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Hernando Today

Who Is The Man With Peculiar Name?

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Hernando Today

Published: June 11, 2008

Who is Barack Obama and from whence has he come?
Obama was born 1961 in Hawaii, graduated Columbia University in 1983 and Harvard University in 1991 (magna cum laude). At Harvard he was elected the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review, a high honor indeed. Although his educational honors would have brought him an excellent position and salary, he chose to work for only $8,000 per year as a community organizer after some time at a law firm as a civil rights attorney and organized voter registration for Bill Clinton's candidacy for president.
His work as a community organizer was for the benefit of the poorest areas in Chicago, and has made his life's work the concerns of the middle class workers. One of his beliefs is that if you raise opportunity for one man, that man will then raise opportunity for his children, taking our country to the heights a great nation should take for granted.
Elected to the Illinois State Legislature in 1996, he worked with both Democrats and Republicans drafting legislation on ethics, expanding health-care services and early childhood education programs for the poor. He created a state-earned income tax credit for the working poor. He was an early opponent of the attack on Iraq, saying he was "not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars." He has been steadfastly against wars declared to satisfy ideological agendas, "irrespective of the cost in lives lost and in hardships borne."
He acknowledged Hussein was a "bad guy," but no threat to the U.S. He stated that an invasion of Iraq would only "strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda", which has proven to be too true. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, only the third African-American elected to the Senate since Reconstruction.
And, there are those who now would vote against their own best interests because they cannot conceive of a man of color leading the United States as President. A woman told me, with her arms waving excitedly, that she would never vote to put a black man in the White House. She used the "N" word. I wondered at the time, suppose she and her child were in a car accident, trapped in their auto and severely injured and suffering, death a real possibility. God, watching over her has arranged for a doctor to be three cars behind her, and he rushes to help save her and her child. Problem is he is African-American. Would she tell him she did not want his help and choose to perhaps forfeit their lives to preserve her bigotry? Is hatred more powerful than common sense and the love of her child?
With homes being lost, people who cannot afford to fill their gas tanks to go to the job they still have, with soldiers dying in a war proven, beyond any doubt, to have been based on blatant lies fed to a public incensed by 9/11, will we value our bias or vote for our best interests to end this "war" and spend war money on our needs here at home? McCain openly stated in a speech he made that the "economy is not my strong suit!" Real good news right now isn't that? And, believe it, if this recession deepens, if it becomes a depression, as it may, the rich and powerful will fall along with the everyday middle class worker. Something to think about??
McCain insists on saying that Obama wants to raise taxes, but what Obama has said was that he would end the tax breaks currently being given to the wealthiest of our citizens. Read his lips, there will be no tax increase for the middle class or poor, but an end to our tax dollars being used to support government while the richest among us get tax breaks they don't need, including Obama himself!
This is not a tax increase on the everyman but only fair and just payment of income taxes by the wealthy. Those tax changes would go a long way toward rebuilding our infrastructure, once again fairly funding education in our public schools, guaranteeing health care for all of us.
An end to an unjust act of aggression in Iraq would save us billions of dollars to save our economy, provide new jobs with good pay instead of watching inflation rise while salaries decline and jobs disappear overseas. He would penalize the corporations who have taken jobs from Americans and shipped them to China, Taiwan, India. Is this not the fighter we so sorely need and have been praying for? I firmly believe him to be one of the great men of our century and beg you to pay attention. It may be your last chance to save the decline of your life and that of your loved ones. fearl@tampabay.rr.com

Frances Earl, a former vice-chairwoman of the Hernando Democratic Central Committee, can be contacted at fearl@tampabay.rr.com.

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