Last Thursday before Obama's speech, they had some regular citizens speak about why they were supporting him. These speakers were great and fired up the crowd. THEY and WE are the reasons why this election is so important. As our President Al Gore (wishful thinking, I know) said, "elections MATTER."
The last couple of days we have allowed McCain to drive our thought around here with his selection of a rather controrversial and unknown running mate. While "vetting" her is important, we cannot allow ourselves to forget what's important.
This diary is to remind us what/whom we are fighting for in this election.
Roy Gross:
My name is Roy Gross. I’m a proud member of Teamsters Local 299 in Detroit, Michigan.
When I was a young man and wanted to start a family, I went to Detroit and landed a job as an automobile transporter. I delivered new cars from the assembly plants to dealerships around the country.
It was a great job, a Teamsters union job. You worked hard and it paid good wages, plus health care and pension. I worked there for 18 years. Working class families were doing well in Detroit until the Bush Administration took office, then everything changed.
Manufacturing jobs were exported by the hundreds of thousands and replaced with minimum-wage jobs in the so-called "New Economy." I’m one of the lucky ones; I still have a job. But many of my friends and co-workers have lost their jobs and their homes.
If you ask me, this so-called "New Economy" is not working. We need a renewed economy. That’s why I’m seeing so many of my friends in Michigan - Democrats, Republicans and Independents - putting aside their differences to join this campaign.
Barack Obama will enact fair trade policies and work just as hard for us as we work for America. I will do everything I can, from now until Election Day, to put Michigan in the Obama column.
Monica Early:
I’m Monica Early from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Last January, someone sent me an e-mail containing so-called "facts" about Senator Obama. The e-mail painted a scary picture, questioning his faith and patriotism. I decided to do some fact-checking on my own and learned the truth.
What I discovered is that Barack Obama is a man of faith, a man of values and a man of action—someone who has shown his love for America by fighting for our people, helping communities left behind on Chicago’s South Side, fighting today for working families and the tax breaks we need to purchase a home, pay for college and save for retirement.
I am grateful for the e-mail that tried to scare me. It brought me here, an ordinary citizen, empowered by a leader who told me I could make a difference. Ohio is home to four of the fastest-dying cities in America. John McCain promises to continue the Bush economic policies that got us there.
Einstein said a definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. If we elect John McCain, then, according to Einstein, we surely would be insane.
We need change. We need President Barack Obama!
Wes Moore: (sorry, no video)
Hi, my name is Wes Moore. Twelve years ago, I took an oath on the Bible to defend, support and protect the United States of America. Today, I cannot fathom a more perfect expression of my allegiance as a soldier and citizen than giving my full support for Barack Obama to be my next commander-in-chief.
Before I deployed for Afghanistan, my grandparents gave me a Bible. Inside, they wrote four simple words: have faith, not fear. Those words protected and guided me and the soldiers under my command during some of the most trying days of my life.
I want a president who has a comprehensive strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan, and who can rally young people to serve, both in and out of uniform, and sees these as complementary, not contradictory goals. I want a president who believes in supporting our troops while we are fighting overseas, and supporting us with proper health care and education when we come home.
This election is not about history. Nor is it about making history. It’s about seizing history.
The charge my grandparents gave me—have faith, not fear—is the same challenge I issue tonight. A faith that this nation can rise to meet any challenge.
Tonight, Senator Obama is not asking you to have faith in him. He is asking you to have faith with him. Let’s make Barack Obama our next president.
Janet Monacco:
I’m Janet Monaco from Rockledge, Florida, by way of Long Island, New York. Fourteen years ago I moved to Florida to pursue my vision of the American dream. Within five years, I had bought a house and opened two pet stores. I was living well.
Then disaster struck: back-to-back hurricanes, and rising costs of food and gas. Today, I’m a struggling small-business owner who is diabetic and without health insurance. I work 70-hour weeks at the store and more hours in a part-time job and still can’t afford insurance.
I don’t tell this story to get sympathy. Everyone has challenges. But what gets me angry is that George Bush and John McCain have done nothing for people like me—and, in fact, have done plenty of things that make it even harder to get by. Huge tax breaks for those at the top. Looking out for the lobbyists and not the little guy. And billions spent in tax cuts for big corporations, but not enough for small businesses like mine.
I’m supporting Barack Obama, because we can’t afford four more years of the same. Yes, we can make a change!
Nathaniel Fick: (sorry, no video)
Good afternoon. I’m Nathaniel Fick. My Marine platoon landed in Afghanistan on a moonlit night in 2001. A little more than a year later, we rolled into Iraq. I’ll never forget one dawn after a vicious gun battle. We’d just medevaced one of our wounded Marines, and I turned to see a small American flag hanging from a humvee’s antenna. For a second, it reminded me of the line we all know so well: "And our flag was still there."
I registered as a Republican at 18 and voted for John McCain in 2000. It took seven years of hard experience to get me on this stage. But we cannot afford more of the same. That’s why we need Barack Obama and Joe Biden to lead us beyond the tired divisions of the past. They have the judgment to make the right decisions, leading our military, and uphold our highest ideals.
Everyone who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan has left something: a friend, a limb, a piece of their youth. In those palm groves and on those ridge lines, this is personal for us. I don’t want to retreat; I want to win.
The past seven years have been hard, often heartbreaking. Our flag, however, is still there. Let’s move forward in our quest to live up to the idea of America.
Teresa Brito-Asenap:
Buenas noches, good evening.
I am Teresa Brito-Asenap from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first nine years of my life my grandparents worked with me to study and learn. They always talked about the importance of education. But it was not until third grade that I realized that mi abuelita, my grandmother, could neither read nor write.
But because of them, today I hold a doctorate in education. I owe them and my parents everything. Strong families raise strong students. All they need are world-class schools and dedicated teachers. Yet because of George W. Bush and John McCain, our schools don’t have the resources they need to meet the high standards of No Child Left Behind.
We don’t need four more years of the same. We need to turn the page and put our kids at the head of the class. Barack Obama will invest $10 billion a year in early education funding and give any student who wants to go to college a $4,000 tax credit. That’s the change we need and the change Barack Obama will bring as president of the United States.
Arriba y adelante – si se puede!
Pam Cash-Roper:
Hello, my friends. My name is Pam, and I’m from Pittsboro, North Carolina.
Wait ‘til you hear what’s happening to me. You might find my story familiar. Perhaps it’s happening to someone you know—a loved one, a neighbor, a co-worker. Maybe it’s happening to you.
Once upon a time in my hometown of Pittsboro, my husband Keith and I had a modest house we could afford, cars, money in a 401k plan, health insurance and, most important of all, our health.
We educated ourselves, got good jobs with benefits, worked day and night, raised four happy children, and saved some money. It was the American dream. We did everything we thought you were supposed to do to live it. We really felt America was working for us.
Then eight years ago, our American dream turned into a nightmare. Keith needed open-heart surgery. His increasingly severe condition left him unable to work as a maintenance electrician. He lost his job and with it the family’s health insurance. On a nurse’s income I couldn’t afford to pay for a health plan on my own, so we sacrificed having health insurance. Keith started receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
Of course, living without health insurance works, as long as you stay healthy. That changed. Five years after Keith’s surgery, I had one of my own, a quadruple bypass. Our medical expenses became even more unmanageable. It was increasingly difficult for me to work. We were buried in medical expenses.
Today, Keith and I get by on the $1,164 a month he receives from SSDI. If we paid full price for our prescription drugs, the cost would exceed $3,000. I’ve had to do some really fancy accounting to make it all work each month. Sometimes that meant taking half doses of my 15 prescriptions or going without medications all together.
I’m a lifelong Republican. I voted for Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Bush. But I literally cannot afford four more years of this.
Barack Obama gets it: quality, affordable, portable coverage for all. It is the least we citizens of the greatest country in the world should have. And that’s why after 36 years of casting my presidential votes as a registered Republican, this year I am supporting Barack Obama to be my president.
Barney Smith:
My name is Barney Smith.
For most of my life, I was a proud Republican.
Growing up in the Indiana heartland, America was a place of boundless opportunity. You could go to the town factory and get a job the same day. You could start a family and buy a house with your salary.
My father started at Marion’s RCA plant in 1949, manufacturing picture tubes for TV sets.
I started in 1973. My wife worked in a high school cafeteria. Together, we made a living and raised a family.
Then, in 2004, the plant closed. Today, a foreign worker does my job.
After 31 years, I received 90 days’ severance pay and was unemployed.
Thirteen months later, I got a job at a distribution center.
Republicans talk about putting "country first," but tell that to Marion, Indiana. They sent my job overseas.
America can’t afford more of the same. We need a president who puts the Barney Smiths before the Smith Barneys.
I’m going to put country first by voting Barack Obama for president.
The heartland needs change. And with Obama, we’re going to get it.
THESE are the people we are fighting FOR and WITH in this election. We cannot let the circus that this election has become deter us from our goal. The Republicans are trying to throw us off of our game, and they won the day yesterday. But now it's time to move on and get Barack Obama and Joe Biden elected as President and Vice President of the United States.
Today Obama and Joe will be in Michigan and Pennsylvania:
11:00 am
Barack Obama holds a "Rally for American Workers" in Detroit, Michigan
1:00 pm
Barack Obama attends a Labor Day BBQ with the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 671 in Monroe, Michigan
2:00 pm
Joe Biden holds a discussion about jobs and the economy at his childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania
7:00 pm
Barack Obama holds a "Rally for American Workers" in Milwaukee, Michigan
You will probably be able to watch all of the events at www.barackobama.com/live or on cnn.com/live. The BO feed has gotten a lot better, so if you can avoid CNN, feel free to do so. Plus, with that feed you can see how many others are watching it (it's always fun to watch the numbers climb).
Here are some pictures from yesterday:
And from Saturday, a video on how Obama would improve our cities:
And pictures from Saturday around Ohio:
I realize that Hurricane Gustav will monopolize the news today (as it should), this diary is a respite from that, as well as a positive reinforcement for why we do what we do. Plus, it's not about Sarah Palin!
As always tips, recs, and comments are welcome :o) Oh, and I promise not to update too much so I don't interrupt your video viewing! Some of you may be seeing these for the first time if you weren't watching CSPAN :o)