Tim D. Culey
The past four years may not have been the best in American history, but compare them to the pervious 8 years.
During the previous 8 we started two illegal wars .. invading sovereign nations with no provocation (and Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, bin Laden was a Arab, and not any more popular in Iraq than he was in the U.S.)
During the previous 8 years, we went from a record surplus and a balanced budget to record deficits and no budget.
During the previous 8 years unemployment went up to the highest it had been since the Great Depression. New houses were essentially not being built and when they were could not be sold.
Foreclosures were at an historic high, as was bankruptcy. Homelessness was the highest since the Hoover Administrations.
The automakers were nearly bankrupt. In addition, Wall Street was out of control with the 1% raping and robbing the 99% with impunity.
Four years later, we have ended one illegal war and are in the process of ending the other one.
As far as we know, people are no longer being tortured anywhere at the behest of the US Gov't.
Four years later if you attend a speech or a public gathering of people who support Mr. Obama, and happen to wearing a T shirt that has "Romney" printed on it, or carrying a sign supporting Romney, you might be subjected to some uncomfortable conversations. However, you will NOT be arrested and send off to some country nobody has ever heard of to be boiled alive.
Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom to Peacefully Protest have all been options in the past 4 years, whereas they were not during the previous 8.
What happened in New Orleans during Katrina is metaphorically the same as our country.
The Bush administration dynamited the levy system and let the Mississippi River come crashing through destroying everything it its path.
There were those who profited on the misery of others, during those 8 years, the special interest groups made up of billionaires and the business owners who paid others handsomely to lobby on their behalf.
Mr. Obama came along and started repairing the levies to keep any more water from coming in. Then he started pumping out the remaining water. Then came the cleaning of the sludge left behind, then the rebuilding of the homes and businesses. During this process it was incumbent upon us to care for the sick and injured and those displaced and beaten down by Hurricane Dubya
He started the cleanup process, and then the rebuilding. If there are citizens in this country who for no reason of their own have been swept away by the hurricane of poverty, despair, helplessness, lack of educational opportunities, we need to give them a hand up when possible. If they need medical care, we need to see to it they get it.
We traditionally have not been a country which encouraged its citizens to set at the gates of the city begging for alms.
The clean up and restoration of New Orleans didn't happen over night. There are some areas that look the same as they did the day after Katrina. (Which begs the question .. if we have this 47% of our population sitting on their hands collecting government money for doing nothing, why not send them to NOLA, introduce them into the fine art of using a shovel, or driving a nail straight into a couple of boards. Put them to work on landscaping and replacing trees lost during the storm.
During the depression years we had the CCC the PWA and the WPA and the other "alphabet agencies" who did just that. It worked then, why not now?
There are those who go to NOLA now and are taken aback by what they see. Those who have never left will say, "If you think this place looks bad now, you should have seen it before."
If you think our country is in bad shape now, just look at the mess we had during and after the eight years of Hurricane Dubya. Then make the comparison of now and then.
Just as in NOLA, our country is not fully recovered. However, we have to keep working at it one day at a time for as long as it takes.
When we turn the country over to billionaires whose only interest is making more profits, despite the hardships they inflict along the way, when their path to riches includes 2 or 3 more wars causing the maiming and death of thousands of Americans, when retired people who have worked for decades are denied Social Security and Medicare all for the sake of corporate greed we are taking a dangerous path.
History is full of examples of great societies, wealthy and powerful countries who took this same path until the citizens finally said "Enough" and took matters into their own hands.
We are fortunate in this time and place that we don't have to take shovels and hoes and home made swords and storm the castle. We can make our wishes known by visiting the polling place and casting a ballot.
The choice becomes whether or not to let the person who is on the job, and has made considerable progress in our post hurricane country, continue to keep working to get it finished, or hire a person who guarantees that Hurricane Mittens will be making landfall moments after he takes over.
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