"I Have a Dream" that this country can again be reshaped in the image of freedom and equality for all, that we can again look upon our Constitution and Bill of Rights as the bible for democracy, that we no longer see the almighty dollar as the basis for everything we worship in life, that we become color-blind, tolerant, and compassionate of those with different viewpoints and lifestyles. Am I asking too much? Perhaps, but if we don't redirect our country from its current path of self-destruction, we'll be nothing more than a fascist, goose-stepping society.
There's absolutely no chance for us to succeed as a viable, dynamic nation with the Far Right controlling our every move. We need to wake up America, particularly those who say politics is not their thing, and convince them with our strongest arguments that we are in jeopardy of losing our freedoms, both social and economic, and they must get involved. They owe it to themselves, their children and grandchildren to work for positive change before it's too late because the Bush administration and Congress, instead of using 9/11 to build a stronger nation looking for rational solutions to our problems, have used that horrific event to destroy every part of our society.
As a resident of the Tenth Congressional District of Illinois, I am fortunate to have Dan Seals, a Democrat, running for office against the incumbent, Mark Kirk, who sends little pork bones our way, but when it comes to the big issues, we can count on him voting with his buddies in the Bush administration. This sounds like a PR speech for Dan Seals, but it's much bigger than that. I have always been a moderate in politics, and in my earlier years, I was a true independent, voting for moderate Republics and Democrats. But now, if we don't break the Republican juggernaut and change at least the House in November, we, as a nation, are in big trouble. We have many excellent Democratic candidates all over this country like Dan Seals running for Congress and ready to help change things in November. We need to keep the grassroots movement growing and we can do it.
I've been speaking in generalities, but let me break down just a few of the many items that scare the #@!+## out of me:
1: The war in Iraq: we left Afghanistan where we could have gotten Bin Laden, where the warlords are again taking over the country; in Iraq, both civilians and soldiers are dying every day but they're treated like nothing more than faceless numbers; we hem and haw about a growing number of permanent bases in the Middle East, yet we're now building the world's largest embassy inside Baghad at a cost of a billion dollars, give or take a few cents, a self-sufficient city with its own water and electricity--5,500 employees, bigger than the Vatican, and its own airfield; yes, of course we'll have more permanent bases; how else will we protect the massive embassy; while we build this incredible American fortress within Iraq, the Iraqis suffer daily without adequate water, electricity, sewage, we've failed to complete our promises on schools, clinics, and the infrastructure, and we blame it on the insurgency when the blame should go to the no-bid contracts and payments to Halliburton and others for unfinished or poorly designed construction projects.
2: The Bush administration has given us a black hole of borrowing for its military toys and handouts for the rich, both here and abroad, but back home they are trying everything possible to bankrupt our government through the removal or steep reductions in taxes, using the excuse that too much money is wasted on non-working social programs; they claim they're for fiscal responsibility, that is unless it's something they want like a Star Wars project or the War in Iraq.
3: The Right is attempting to deregulate every government agency, essentially handing ultimate power to their lobbyists, cronies and corporations that run the agencies; they now have control the media, stifling those who disagree with them; and, of course, they are attempting to stop the freedom of the internet.
4: They don't believe in helping anyone except the rich, and, of course, everyone must pull themselves up by the bootstraps; in other words, the Far Right is pro-life before birth, but as soon as that child is born, that mother is on her own to raise that child, move out of a gang-infested neighborhood, get a job, go to school, and then have her child reach eighteen, enlist in the army because of a lack of opportunities elsewhere, only to die or come home maimed from a needless war.
5: Since I could go on forever, let me end by saying that if the Bush administration has its way, there will be no Head Start, no publicly funded education, no quality health care for all, no restrictions by the SEC on corporate malfeasance, no renewable resources for energy, a total privatization of this country, and one that is based on fundamentalist Christianity.
I know, as well as most of you do, that the private sector has a tendency to gouge, to show profits by reducing the labor force, to cut corners in pension and health plans, to give astronomical pay increases to corporate executives.
I agree that government and public programs are not perfect, but unless we have a balance between the public and private sector, and improve, not eliminate social programs, we'll have nothing left by the time we get to the '08 elections. So vote Democratic now, if for no other reason than balance in Washington and then go after Congress to give us what we want.
