Enough of this hysteria! "Blind ambition, bad judgment:" that is what McCain is saying about Obama. Obama is calling McCain "erratic."
I care about the fact that I can't retire, my cousin Edie can't retire, my husband can't retire, and everyone I know is suffering personally: unemployment, immobility, insecurity, health care consequences, and general fear.
After 911, this country could have launched an initiative to explore new energy sources so that we weren't sending all of our money to the "erratic" Middle East while at the same time infusing our economy with new goals and producing new ideas to send abroad to keep the planet liveable. Instead Bush and Cheney chose to keep people disengaged through constant and escalating fear, and proving to people that government is indeed incompetent. We could have used the force of government for true leadership and direction. They instead assured that their oil company buddies, and themselves, would get richer.
We know that fear makes us stupid. We know that our country's current leaders, rather than inciting us to new commitments to excellence and devotion to our community, have been appealing instead to our lowest common denominator. (Remember that Bush only asked us to Shop for America after 911!)
Barack Obama talks to our higher selves. Listen, no one knows what to do now. We can agree that we got to this low through a combination of poor choices: deregulation (forgetting that greed is one of the deadliest sins and remains as one); cleverness (the debt swap, the sloppy bundling of high risk mortgages; hedge funds; and sub-prime mortgages); exploitation (mortgage brokers targeted poor, communities of color just to make commissions, despite the knowledge that many of the homeowners could not afford the monthly payments or even the upkeep of these homes); and delusion.
All of this celebrity worship has led too many people into believing that somehow they are entitled to live like they, too, are rich and famous. Delusion has resulted from incessant advertising and marketing of everything, and a lot of available credit. The bombardment of "desire" is too much for most people. It causes rich, middle class, and the poor to live beyond their means. It's cruelest to those who don't have a lot of hope, education, or access to opportunity.
Wishful thinking and spending beyond our means is not the way to get ahead anywhere, and never has been. The lottery and gambling casinos don't help either. Neither does the proliferation of "designer" off the rack clothes, made in China and in sweatshops across the developing world. These coveted items are mass-produced and then inflated in value because of someone's logo flashed across it. We don't need any of this.
What we need is a commitment to integrity, community, and creativity. Um, sounds more like Barack Obama.
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