I am a small businessman that has run his own business for over 15 years. I have had to fight off much bigger businesses who tried to take over my turf, I have been virtually robbed by an international corporation that does not play by the rules, and now I must fight off a declining economy.
I am handicapped in the sense that I have had a profound hearing loss since birth and I have to deal with a chronic rare disease that has no known cause and is incurable and yet I fight on. I speak orally and read lips as my bridge to society, and I have to take medicines from another country to hold my Meniere's Disease at bay because it is prohibitively expensive here in the USA.
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I am just an ordinary American that lives in Florida that loves my country but dislikes the establishment in Washington D. C. who have led us astray, who have stripped us of our civil liberties bit by bit, who are slowly eroding our glorious U. S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and who are no longer representative of the people - only of big corporations and special interests.
I am deeply concerned about how we are taking care of our Mother Earth with deteriorating environmental laws and protections. Will my children have a future that is still green?
I am disappointed that virtually the entire world is ahead of what was once an innovative, leading nation -- the United States of America -- in the quest for alternative energy sources to start weaning us all off of oil.
I am tired of all the corruption that exists at the top, where cronies and corporations are enriching themselves at the expense of the common folk like you and I, who have built this country and continue to support it with our taxes at our peril.
I seek peace for all of us today. I lent ambivalent support to the Iraq war at the beginning, but now I am aghast that we have been conned and mislead into what has now cost us over 4,000 soldiers and billions of dollars. It has been high time to set aside our pride and get out as soon as reasonably possible. We have waged war for the wrong reasons and we continue to be wrong by staying in Iraq while the world no longer looks upon us favorably.
I am a long time independent who used to be a Democrat back in the day, but was disillusioned with the party and broke from the ranks. I have felt disenfranchised with the status quo and have lost faith in our government to lead and do so with integrity and honesty.
In short, I have felt for a long time that we could not make a difference as a people of our great country. I have felt that we don't matter anymore and that there was not much hope in the future of our government the way things were going.
Today, I now have hope and feel that we can truly make a difference. It is time for sanity to finally prevail in Washington, D.C. and it is time for all of us to come together - the world and America, to help solve the problems that press heavily on all of us.
All this is because of the real chance of being able to call upon our new leader as "President Obama." Yes, it will be a long and bumpy road, but he can do it and so can we.
Thank you for the inspiration, Barack.
Ray