Everyone has something to say about Obama's speech today in Philadelphia.
Here's what I think.
More under the fold...
Barack pitched a perfect game with this speech. From the idea that you may never achieve perfection (but that's no reason not to try), to the wake-up call that it's not about black or white. It's about those that tell you "I have the freedom to be rich, you have the freedom to starve" (as Isaac Asimov once framed it).
And I faced that choice too. As it turned out: when my parents divorced, I threw myself into schoolwork because it was the only structure I could rely on. And it was the right choice, but it was only a choice. And I was only seven at the time. I'm just thankful there was that safety net to catch me when I fell.
Treating greed like it's some kind of virtuous ideal for the country is sick. And I say it stops, right now. Being a Libertarian must be easy for some. And by "some" I mean the mega-wealthy. After all: if you've never needed a safety net, why would anyone need a safety net?
It's about greed. Always has been. Narrow-minded people that want to keep other people down (because if everyone had a fair chance, these people think they would not fare too well). So that's why so many people that prospered through the era of the Yuppies still hang onto those out-dated ideas: everything counts in large amounts, greed is good, I got mine so screw you. Screw you because you're black / poor / an immigrant / different / a threat to my money.
But that way of life was always a Ponzi scheme. A big pyramid of nothingness, where only a few of the rich got richer and made "you can be a millionaire too" commercials that print "EARN $50,000 A MONTH OR MORE" in big type and "results not typical" in small white type on a white background... and everyone else gets to live in fear. Fear of losing the job you hate. Fear that you're one missed payment away from becoming that guy that talks to the dumpsters behind the Burger King. Fear that the holes in the net are too big, and you will slip through those holes.
Or you can say FUCK fear. I'm voting to kick fear's balls so hard, they end up in fear's mouth. I'm doing this for Ashley, and for those kids that are living the life I lived three decades ago.
Barack said it better. But I believe the message is the same. Do it for Ashley. Time to fix the net, close up the holes, stop so many damn people from slipping through. No matter who they are, and no matter what color they were born with.
Now: who's with me?