Mr. President:
I listened with what I must admit is confusion as you spoke about the events transpiring in the City of Baltimore. This is not a new feeling where you are concerned Sir. On many occasion you would give a speech or answer an off the cuff question from a reporter that seemed completely at odds with the way your Administration was operating.
Your Baltimore Speech is one of these confusing moments. On one hand you point out that the problems go back for many years, and among these problems, here I will use your own words:
".......In communities where there are no fathers who can provide guidance to young men; communities where there’s no investment, and manufacturing has been stripped away; and drugs have flooded the community, and the drug industry ends up being the primary employer for a whole lot of folks......"
You have, in my opinion hit the proverbial nail on the head. The communities where the poor people are struggling to survive are places where there is no investment in education and where good paying jobs are non-existent. These are places where events such as the one in Baltimore happen. Over the last 7 years I have heard you preach the necessity to "invest in our young", again and again. That we need to create opportunity for our children. Where you, personally, stand on this issue seems pretty straight forward. So why am I confused?
The question is why would you stand up and give one speech after another supporting a policy that would do the exact opposite of what you say we need to do? If we need to create investment in manufacturing and good paying jobs, how does the TPP do this, when its predecessors, NAFTA, etc. did the exact opposite? Thus we come to the basis of my confusion.
For the moment, lets Put aside the fact that the TPP will, as its predecessors NAFTA, SHAFT, CAFTA have, cost the United States good paying manufacturing jobs in the future. These are the very jobs you so eloquently spoke about in your speech, jobs that have been removed from the people who reside in American cities such as Baltimore, and Detroit and now reside in Shanghai and Hanoi. Let us put that aside for a moment. Let us, instead, talk about the real threat to American sovereignty and security that this trade pact known as the TPP poses.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would give corporations the right to sue national governments if they passed any law, regulation, or court ruling interfering with a corporation’s “expected future profits.” They could also sue over local or state laws that the Corporation claim would affect these "PROFITS". The TPP would cover 40 percent of the world’s economy. Existing laws and regulations on food safety, environmental protection, drug prices, local contracting, and internet freedom would all be up for challenge. And the decision-makers on such suits would not be local judges and juries; they’d be affiliated with the World Bank, an institution dedicated to corporate interests.
Now I am sure you will assure us that such suits would never happen. I am sure that you have been told that this is necessary to protect "American Interests" in places like Vietnam or China or Venezuela, or Bolivia, whose governments are based on Socialist ideas. Sir, with all due respect, such assurances are as valid as the one that Justice Alito made when you criticized the "Citizen's United" verdict. Do you remember his response to your assertion that this verdict will open up the election process to huge amounts of money used to fund election campaigns from unknown donors that would result in elections for public office become beholding to big money donors. Remember what he said? I do. He said "That's a lie."
Well Mr. President I believe that you are doing the same thing to the people of this country. What I cannot figure out is why? Are you are simply lying to us as Justice Alito did, or is it that you have been led to believe what you are saying is the truth? I can understand how you might believe that this is a good thing, surrounded as you are by a large number of corporate shills. These people do not have the best interests of the American People, or the President they advise as a priority. On the contrary, these people will go to a large 6 or 7 figure job in International Corporations when they leave public life. It would be hard for me to believe that they are not acting, advising you what to do, with that fact in mind. The thing is, you need to be mindful of this obvious conflict of interest before you on their recommendations. Recommendations that appear to be in direct opposition to what you personally believe.
Sir, I believe that if you locked yourself in a room and read this Trade Agreement without any input from your advisers you would come to the same conclusion I have. (Since the Trade Pact was written by Corporate Lawyers it might be a good idea to have your wife assist you in the reading of this proposed Treaty.) I believe if you did this you would come to see that the TPP will not benefit the people of this country. It will not provide the people with good paying jobs. It will only continue the slide of the U.S.A. into otherworld status. There will be no well funded education system; no single payer healthcare systems; no $15.00 national minimum wage; no strengthening of the Social Security System. No the TPP will not even provide the necessary economic stimulus to finally get this Country out of the Great Recession of 2008. . No. The TPP will remove the ability of the United States from self governing, turning over our country to Corporate Interests whose only concern is profit. The data doesn't lie. NAFTA was suppose to create American Jobs, but its net result has been the loss of 650,000 good paying jobs like those that used to employ the people in Baltimore, when Baltimore was a prosperous city.
Now we get to the crux of the matter. What will you, President Obama, be remembered for when the history books are written. Will it be for the ACA a flawed law that has still managed to positively affect the lives of millions of poor and working class people in the United States. Or will you be remembered as the President who presided over and pushed for the destruction of millions of American jobs with the passage of this TPP Trade Agreement. Will you be listed with Lyndon Johnson who signed the Voters Rights Act and put in place programs that lifted millions from poverty, or will you be remembered as an associate of Ronald Reagan whose sole claim to fame is the destruction of Unions and the loss of most of the Savings and Loan industry in this country? Will you be associated with President Bill Clinton whose shinning achievement was the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act which was the direct cause of the crash of 2008. Or will you be remembered as someone who stood up for the American People as FDR did when he got SSA and unemployment insurance and used the government as the last ditch employer to begin to move the US out of the Great Capitalist Depression of the 1930's?
Remember when you gave your first victory speech in 2008. In the back ground was a song by Sam Cooke, "A Change is Gonna Come". I actually believed that you would effect change. I believe a lot of people who voted for you in 2008 believed you would make an effort to change things. We are still waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. The question is, are you up to the challenge
Sincerely yours,
W.J. Pellegrini
American Citizen, Tax Payer, Combat Veteran.
PS;
Sir,
I strongly advise you to see the movie "The American President". The last speech in particular is appropriate here.
W.J.P.