Why Today Matters for Tomorrow

It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog.  Life is busy, time slips by, but then one day you wake up and say, today is the day I have to say something. For weeks I have had this idea for a blog in my head inspired by a favorite quote and lyrics from a few favorite songs.  Sometimes in life you hear things, they move you, they make you think, they motivate you to action.  Well here is my example of what moves me, makes me think and motivates me to write this for all of you.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field.  I’ll meet you there" Rumi

Here is a challenge, turn off your TV’s and your radios and turn on your brains.  Turn off the lies and face the truths that surround us.  Begin to imagine a world where we face our challenges head on and actually have a discussion about real issues and real ideas.  Imagine a world where compromise isn’t a dirty word and working for a better tomorrow together is a singular goal that we all share.  Imagine a world where we might have different ideas on how to solve our problems but our goal is to get to the same place and find a way to take the best of each of our ideas, and make them one.  Imagine a world where we don’t judge a man by his name or destroy him because of fear but we listen to that man that we as a nation elected to our highest office and we work together to make this world, this country a shining example of exceptionalism.  We show the world that no matter how big our differences are we can come together to solve our problems. Instead we try to eviscerate each other, we lie and we cheat and as a country, as a people, we pay the price for this childish behavior.  We lose our credit rating, our employment numbers are still low and our roads are still in decline.  Compounding all of this is the Republican party who’s only platform is to say “no” to reasonable ideas without offering real ideas of their own and so we sink a bit lower. Anyone who is married will tell you relationships are about compromise and right now to live in a better world today we need to learn to compromise and put forward real ideas that serve all our citizens not just the richest people, corporations and business.  If we want to have a future brighter then today we must put aside all that has happened yesterday and truly begin the hard work of solving our problems.  

We need to do this together, so let’s meet in a new field, with new ideas and be ready to compromise with each other, to listen and build on each others ideas.  Let’s create a future that makes sense for everybody.

“Don’t pay no mind to the demons –they fill you with fear” Phillip Phillips

Okay so Phillip Phillips didn’t write those lyrics but he sings them with passion.  The demons today that fill us with fear are beyond reproach.  Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Fox news.  They will all tell you why Obama is evil and why he “hates” America. They might even try to tell you he isn’t really even an American.  They will disrespect the President at every single turn in a way that is unprecedented in modern culture.  They despise him for helping the poor, trying to sustain the middle class and asking the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.  They hate our President because he refuses to subscribe to the notion that corporations are people and because he wants to modernize our defense from a cold war military to a modern 21^st century military that can face the challenges of this era.  Submarines and fighter planes are not going to find terrorist in Times Square or reach extremist in the hills of Pakistan.   Furthermore they hate the President and anyone else who stands up for civil rights and who believes that if two people of the same sex love each other than they deserve to marry just like everyone else. They hate Obama because he believes you shouldn’t have to hide who you are to serve this great country.  In their obsession with returning this country to the 1950’s they loath Obama and the Democrats because they stand up for women and believe in equal pay for equal work.  Here is a news flash for the Tea Party Republicans:  This is the 21^st century and the time for discriminating because of gender is over. They hate the idea that the President and Mrs. Clinton will go to other countries and listens to their leaders and say, “let’s work together.” They hate the President yet he exemplifies the very best of what it means to be American.  They all say they love Jesus, yet they hate a man who represents the best of what Jesus preached.  They are the ones with the demons and they want to fill you with fear so you see their demons too.  Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Fox news, and too many others to name will spend every single day of the year and every single hour of the next 8 weeks until the elections trying to convince you that Obama is the worst demon this country has ever seen.  And Mitt Romney, a man who has no original ideas of his own, who has outsourced his soul, who wants power so badly he literally would make a deal with the devil himself, will tell you the biggest lie of all.  He will tell you that he cares about the middle class, that he will keep you safe, raise America back up to greatness and save Medicare and Social Security.  He is lying.  His time at Bain clearly illustrates who he is.  He said, “Let the auto industry fail,” even if it cost thousands of AMERICAN jobs.  He said in his speech at the RNC that he wants to give parents the choice of where to send their kids to school, which is code for turning the public education system into a voucher system that favors the wealthy and will decimate schools for the poor.  Mitt Romney, as my husband likes to say, will paint you a Norman Rockwell vision of what our world would be like with him as President but I have news for all of you, it’s not 1950 and it never, ever will be again.  We need to move forward and Mitt Romney wants to take you back to a time that no longer exists and he wants to return to policies that have failed time and time again.  Mitt Romney wants to live a fantasy and he will sell you on this fantasy all the way to the poor house while his rich friends sit high atop the mountain eating all the cheese, bread and wine while the rest of suffer, struggle and wither.  Mitt Romney will fill you with fear, he will tell you Obama isn’t fit for our highest office, he will tell you that an American is fit and he will tell you he is that American. I am asking all of you to please not let the demons fill you with fear.

“Imagine all the people, sharing all the world” John Lennon

America has the opportunity to try and get it right.  We will need to be bold, we will need to be brave and we will need to be smart.  We need to rise up together, put our fears aside and make the right choice this November 6^th.  Barack Obama is the single best chance this country has to continue to heal the economic havoc left by the previous administration.  This is our chance to continue to guarantee a bright future for us, for our children and for the world.  The earth is small, it gets smaller every day, our resources, our environment, our livelihoods all depend on each other.  We have serious issues that face us and we need a leader who understands this and who will work with world leaders and our own elected officials to continue to take us forward and not back.  Americans love their independence.  It has served us well in our past and will continue to serve us well in the future. However the United States is not an island, the world is much smaller, our lives more intertwined, we need to make sure today that we make the right choices for tomorrow for all of us, you, me and even the world.  Please brush away your fears, please open your eyes, your minds and your hearts.  Please think of others, not just yourself and your pocketbook.  We need to make the right choice on November the 6^th to insure that our future continues to shine bright.  Please America get this one right!