Homestead mailing list

[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Gene GeRue wrote:

> Now comes Barack Obama. He is the product of a challenging 
> background.

We all are products of a challenging background, Gene.  It is just a
matter of reference.  Those who grew up on the gritty streets of
Chicago's southside or in south LA/Watts might think Obama had life
pretty good.  He and I are the same age, I know the atmosphere he grew
up in...I'm sure my generation/Barack's generation was far more tolerant
of those with 'challenging backgrounds' than your generation was on the
whole.


> Due to some spark within he has lifted himself through education, 
> experience and great effort to become a most extraordinary 
> politician. Throughout the increasingly harsh primary campaign and 
> now the general election campaign he has held himself to higher 
> standards than his opponents. Others have attempted this. They have 
> lost their elections.

I certainly don't think he has held himself to higher standards.  You
will have to give examples for me to buy that.  He has run just as many
negative or false advertisements as any other candidate.  He did not
even dispute that allegation in the debate.  He has taken money from
foreign countries and contributors, which is illegal. Pick your news source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/06/politics/main4505113.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4505113
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Alt/alt.politics/2008-08/msg02326.html


> Obama is imperfect, as are all humans. He says things that he must 
> say to get sufficient votes to attain the office.

And this makes him special how?


 He has taken positions
> that I feel were wrong.

Namely?

He has yet to prove that he is capable of
> being a strong, effective leader, beyond having directed a 
> surprisingly successful campaign over the course of nearly two years,
>  surmounting the large obstacles of the color of his skin, his name,
>  parts of his past, the opposition of a mighty political machine in 
> his own party.

Are you kidding?
It seems to me you make excuses for the guy because of his race and his
raising.  That is, in a way, biased thinking, too.  99% of us come from
adverse backgrounds.  I may be white, but I've overcome just as much
shit as Obama, maybe more.  I could tell you stories that would have
you in tears.  I don't get any favors or special considerations or
allowances in life, so why should he?  In fact, when I needed
scholarships and loans during my college years, I could not get them
based on need and I had 3.98 GPA and graduated with an A.S. in Science
summa cum laude! I needed to be of a ethnic minority like Barack, or
have some other extenuating circumstance live being raised by a single
parent. At that time, there were a bazillion such grants for minorities.
 He actually had an easier time getting educational loans than I did,
and I had no family support whereas he had his grandmother.  I was abused
physically, sexually, and emotionally, abandoned by more than one
person, including my father, like Barack.  None of it makes me special.
Point is, Barack isn't special.  He's just a guy with foibles like the
rest of us.  He deserves no special consideration because of his
'challenging background'.  I need to find some kids I fostered for a few
months.  Both girls were bi-racial.  Father in prison, mother was a drug
addict.  They were living on the streets in a cardboard box, not in
school.  Now, THAT is a challenging background, a lot more so than Barry
had.  I'd like to see how the girls are doing today, 25 years later. I
just might look for them.  Last I heard they were in Greenville SC with
a great aunt, but that was 20 years ago.  Compared to what those girls
went through, or even what I personally went through, Obama seems
'priviledged' to me..he went to private schools, then to the best
colleges, he travelled around the world, played on sports teams, partied
hard during his freshman and sophomore years, was doted on by
grandparents, etc. etc.  It is all relative, Gene.


> Obama has himself under control. He responds to attacks with dignity.
Ignoring an allegation or lying is not dignity.  All questions are not
attacks.  In reference to his association with ACORN, he said he gave no
money to them, and we all know that isn't true.  Even though the media
knows that it is untrue, and knows the problems with ACORN, no one has
pressed Obama or confronted the lie.  Now, the media has taken it all
like it is a big joke or something.  It is like we all know 2+2=4, but
if Obama says it = 3, then the media soon adopted the 2+2=3 mantra..No
one ever challenges "the notion" that 2+2 does not equal 3.


> He persists in his vision for a more successful and more just 
> America. He has strong feelings about what needs to be done but he 
> surrounds himself with those of greater experience and he listens to
>  them with an open mind. He does not shoot from the hip. He makes 
> reasoned decisions. He is dependable. He is to me a breath of fresh 
> air.

Well, I can understand that.  I can see how you would reach out and
embrace such with enthusiasm based on what you feel about the country
and what you see in Obama.  No everyone feels so distressed about the
country and not everyones sees Obama as the solution/revolution.  My
opinion of the guy really hasn't changed that much.  He is definitely
different. He is the first nationally loved Socialist that has gotten
this far.  Our country will never be the same.  I do hope, for my
descendants sake, that Obama is the revolution you claim he is, but I
still don't see that he is any kind of special human being-he is
certainly no more special than me or you or Moon or James or Lynda.  I
see him as just another politician who will say anything to get elected,
and I think his socialist policies and programs will finish off this
country financially.  He's right, in 10 years, we won't be buying oil,
because we will be bankrupt.  After we pay off Bush's trillions, every
last dime will go to his socialist programs and off to Africa and SE
Asia.  It may be a noble cause, but it is unsustainable, and in the long
term, detrimental to the survival of our country.  We are all about
sustainable living, aren't we?  Respectfully, I don't see how you can be
so short sighted concerning the guy and not look at the long term
consequences of what his polices will do to the country financially.
I kind of feel that we are traveling down that Road to Hell that is
paved with Good Intentions.


> The majority of voters of all political parties have long been 
> injured by politicians who follow the same old corrupt pattern, using
>  the voters but serving the power brokers at the expense of the 
> people. Finally, in Barack Obama, we have a successful candidate who
>  shows that he puts the people first.

And ACORN is not corrupt?  It seems to me that Obama has definitely
followed a different pattern, but it, too, is corrupt. Your brainwashing
 is fully intact if you cannot see this.

> And that, to me, is a revolutionary condition.

Gene, you have not written here any ideas that you have not expressed
before.  We all knew how you feel.  When you hinted that no one has
asked you about the revolution, I thought you were going to say
something new-maybe even a joke, so I asked you about it, but I actually
feel stupid now.
I feel like I just opened a spam email when I should have known better.


Bev