Back to basics for Obama

The following letter was published on July 30, 2008 by
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles, California

Re "In Berlin, Obama calls for unity with Europe," July 25

Barack Obama's speech before 215,000 Germans shows that glimmer of hope so many of us can see coming if he is elected president of the United States.

The lack of global respect for the U.S. can be traced to the disrespect for the international community President Bush showed when his administration decided to ignore so many during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.

I believe those 215,000 people who showed up to hear Obama in Germany share what many Americans and others around the world feel right now. Maybe the America we all once knew will come back thanks to Obama's leadership.

Denial of a brewing civil war

That feeling that the Bush administration may have over played its hand when no WMD were found is echoed in John McCain’s claims that the surge is working and the US is winning. Are we really winning, and can we call refereeing winning? “Bomb Attacks in Baghdad and Kirkuk Leave Dozens Dead,” reported 7/28/08 by Richard A Opper Jr. and Sabrina Tavernise in the New York Times, left me with the feeling that our troops in Iraq are delaying the inevitable; a civil war is coming like a forecasted storm with all the signs.

Glimmering hope

The following letter was published on July 26, 2008 by
The Houston Chronicle
Houston, Texas

That speech in Germany before 200,000 people by Barack Obama shows that glimmer of hope so many of us can see coming if he is elected president of the United States. The respect lacking around the globe for the United States might be traced to the disrespect for the international community the Bush administration showed when it decided to ignore so many during the lead up to the invasion of Iraq.

I believe those 200,000 people showed up to hear Obama in Germany to share what many Americans and others around the world feel at this moment in time: Maybe the America we all once knew will revive through his leadership.

Global warming waits for no man - The energy crunch

The following letter was published on July 26, 2008 by
The Boston Globe
Boston, Massachusetts

Like many, my admiration for Al Gore for his work in bringing to the world stage the effects of global warming puts him among my greatest heroes.

Looking at the larger picture, global warming and wars are like two related cancers; both feed off greed.

We are running out of time. The next administration must put forth an effort toward steering the world in the direction of using our resources to stop wars with the same vigor Gore is using to get the world's attention on global warming.

Patriotism being questioned again‏

The dispute between the two presidential hopefuls concerning troop withdrawals is losing ground in the McCain camp. It seems McCain/Bush focus on the success of the surge is being undermined by the Malika government and people of Iraq; they seem to want a time line which is in support of Obama’s camp. Even though the Bush administration would like to call it a time horizon, Americans and the world are very much aware that this is a goal post moving time for a cause slipping away; it is very much like that WMD cause that evolved into an Iraqi freedom cause.

Could it be that one camp can see the handwriting on the wall while the other frames the troop withdrawals in terms of winning or losing a war projecting a false sense of patriotism as done during the lead up to the invasion of Iraq?

Can an immigrant get fairness?

There are some that are stubbornly refusing to connect to any form of fairness to the plight of immigrants. To work hard, to love your family, to help your neighbors and pay taxes are values that productive people share to maintain a viable system. Daniel Tacuri, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, had a successful roofing business in Milford Massachusetts; his business was successful because he worked harder and charged less than other operators in the area. From a moral perspective no one can blame Mr. Tacuri for leaving a hopeless life of poverty in Ecuador for a chance of decency for him and his family in the US. To hunt a productive person down, bankrupt him, and deport him and his wife somehow goes against the spirit of liberty and the respect for fairness given to any struggle.

The surge will never right the wrongs

In response to the column written by David Brooks, “The Bush Paradox,” which appeared in the New York Times on 6/24/08, allow me to challenge this type of understanding of a president many compare with some of the worst criminals in history. Even now those guys, I feel are admired by many that have blinders on.

The dead has no voice in judging George Bush; but the some two million Iraqis that fled their homeland that are now living in run-down neighborhoods in surrounding countries described in “Books Not Bombs” Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times, can see the surge for what it is; a desperate ploy to try to make a wrong look right.

The most transparent understanding of how the Bush administration is perceived is in the dilemma that the most powerful leader of the free world has to sneak in Iraq when a less powerful leader from Iran makes an announcement to visit and is greeted as a hero.

So you see those 28% in which David Brooks is a part of, that approves of George Bush’s three billion dollars a week war in Iraq might be compared to those that approved of such leaders as Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler when they thought they had moments of getting it right.