"You see, the challenges we face will not be solved with one meeting in one night. It will not be resolved on even a Super Duper Tuesday. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have so little, who've been told that they cannot have what they dream, that they cannot be what they imagine. Yes, they can."
~2008 Barack Obama
Yesterday, I wrote a fictional letter to President Obama imploring him to speak out against police violence and the importance of the freedom of assembly.
Today, high school students, using the People's Mic, forced the President to address the Occupy Movement and the injustice of 4000+ protestersbeing jailed while Wall Street criminals are free and receiving bonuses this Christmas.
Can we be more proud to be American?
Could the President handle the situation any better? Could he be more calm, and cool? His tone was perfect, yet he still cannot find it within himself to call for restraint from police officers dealing with peaceful protestors. Though the mic checker's were not speaking to that, it seems an elephant in the room whenever the President speaks now.
I commend the President for his recognition of the difficulty faced by the families of millions of Americans left out of the American dream. In this respect, he shows his vast superiority over any of the Republican candidates running for office.
Nevertheless, as with the Bush tax cuts, healthcare, gitmo, and many other issues, the President seems to want a safe, central ground. Great for getting elected President but what about being President? Can the President show leadership in anything?
The President need not side with the 99% protesters, but is seems not too extreme position for the President of the United States to comment about protests raging across his country. To speak to freedom of assembly, and denounce violence.
Children have showed us today that we must not wait for the President or any public officeholder to lead but must force them to do so.
The President took a position today, though perhaps he did not want to. In rhetoric he sides with the people. Force him to say enough and perhaps his actions will side with the people as well.
Thank you Occupy NH, thank you Occupy Movement.