I HAVE A DREAM

I have a Dream
By Allen Van Hoosier

I am one who always votes for my pocket book. Always.
But this is the first time I am voting based on what I see as a national crisis in the American Identity.
This country is a nation of revolutionaries escaping elitism - to create an invented nation predicated on the notion that in this land - you are not borne to any sentence of trial or tribulation solely because of who your father was, or the way you chose to love God. This was the greatest Utopian experiment in recorded history - representational democracy.
For decades now - this country has been on the teetering edge of revolution. Watts, LA riots, on and on. And the reason for this? We created this utopian one nation under God where all men are created equal with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with invisible footnotes;

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. **

** All men are created equal except Negros and Women.

They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ***

*** With the exception to Negroes, Jews, females, foreigners and Catholics.

We founded this great nation of ours with subjugation, xenophobia and sexism as its base alloy... a base alloy for hypocrites. And because of that grand mistake in our philosophy - we - the USA, the wealthiest Nation in the History of the planet has been a ticking time bomb, not a melting pot. In our history, we have seen where the pressure boiled over. The first explosion of course was the Civil War. And yes - the primary issue that caused the war was the unanswered issue of slavery, but it was class war - make no mistake. The war did liberate 4 million blacks but the violence, and the inequalities and denied opportunities to them, the South won that war of attrition.

We stand now on the eve on the single most important election in the course of human history. I am not one that favors McCain or Obama, but there is a greater good to be voting for. This country is in crisis of volcanic proportion. We have an entire section of middle class Americans who are the very circulatory system of this nation and they are grossly disenfranchised. I have been in cars with some of friends of mine, and just by chance a Mercedes Benz runs beside them, they have made the comment that, "Love to slam that car in the ditch, those stuck up blah blah blah."
And for the record, these friends were Joe the Plumber voting republicans.

Additonally to the class-disgust with white elitism, or what I call “The Golf Course Party,” we have had 140 years of an entire race of people who have been raised with the notion, and somewhat accurate, that "work hard all you want. There may still encounter the great white obstacle standing in your way."
When the leaders that the black community have produced have been assassinated or are so far leftist that they are ridiculed to the point where no one listens to the anymore, we have an entire race of people with no one to look up to. They have no one to pattern their lives in terms of who to endear themselves to. We are left with the tragedy of an entire race who have no one to look up to for their national identity except for entertainers or athletes. A bigger tragedy still is to achieve the same success as a rap star or professional athlete is statistically impossible. We have a large population of blacks in America who have adopted the angry antiestablishment mentality rapped and shouted at them by the black entertainment elite. It is a sad day when I see a young black man with all wealth of knowledge in libraries, and even a click away on the internet about history and political science, yet can recite the lyrics to any 50-cent song. In all fairness I am even more disgusted looking at a Sarah Palin rally where both her and “M.C. Hank Williams Jr.” are both making idiots of themselves; he for simply being there singing his re-worded intrinsically country songs on her behalf, and more over the republican party to allow it.

Now we have a solution for this identity crisis, and more important, a solution for saving the faith its citizens have in its system.

Enter Barack Obama. Here is a man who grew up with no silver spoon in his hand, and - in the very theme of Lincoln's "Rise as far as time and talent will take them," rose from nothing, and graduated from Harvard Law, and became the first Black president of the Harvard Legal Review. From there he went to work for an elite Chicago Law firm, only to be pulled to the Illinois State Senate because he felt that he wanted to give back to a country that had allowed him to raise to a a level - not what the government had allowed him, but to a country - like no other in the world would allow a man like him to raise to such greatness. And even as a junior senator, he grew restless being unable to accomplish what he wanted to for his state, so he opted to run for congress - something virtually unheard of. Most view this as a self-imposed demotion, but for Obama, it was move to get closer to localized politics so he could get ore things done for the people of his district.

He eventually went back to the senate, and now has already made history being the first Nominee for the Presidency of the United States of America.
I am surrounded daily by members of party that I myself have some affiliation with who grumble and pick away at everything "Obama."
“We don’t know nothing about him! He’s not really a Christian! Didn’t you hear who he used to hang around with?!”

Yes. I heard. I respect him for at least acknowledging the fact that as a student discovering his world and forming his own opinions of it as a college student, that he explored all sorts of avenues and when it was all said and done, he ended up in the right state of mind, caring for all Americans. I laugh now when I hear anyone make the argument about who Obama listened to or hung around with in 1983. It now sounds like pathetic whining about “their great white hope” is going to lose and they can’t accept it. The Rush Limbaughs of the world, the talk-radio hosts of the world, the Fox news anchors of the world. They can’t stand it because their losing, Period. And they cannot stand to lose. However – after much open mind and ear to Rush Limbaugh, I am convinced he is a nabob. I have no doubts that even if a convicted child pornographer drug lord ran on the Republican ticket, Limbaugh would be the first to give a him a “whooohaa” over his IEB network. The only radio talk show host I have found who has any credibility is Mike Savage. This jewish ultra conservative is just right of Attila the Hun in his politics, but I admire him for his honesty: he hates everyone equally.

But the republicans hate Obama for one reason. It’s not “him” per se – it’s because THEY LOST. Accept it. They lost. And so did their antiquated ideologies of race, religion, wealth and status quo.

All of them have lost sight of what this election is all about. Something very important is at stake with this election. This does not happen often within a nation. It is not economic policy or how other nations view us that is at stake here; moreover, it is the very fiber of the faith we have in out country that is at stake. It should be seen as a war that is being fought by Americans for all Americans. And it is a war that can still be lost.

When you have the rich elite - some of those by birthright and others by sheer hard work and determination who are both perceived by the middle class as "silver-spooners," or "golf resort Lexus driving snoots," then there is a dangerous pathology there. When you have an entire race of people who still have the inclination, to blame Caucasians for standing in their way of progress, then we have a powder keg on our hands.

It is so invigorating to see an entire generation of voters get excited again - not about politics mind you, but having faith once again that they do live in a country that will listen to them when their voice in the form of political and social activism is heard.

We have a responsibility as Americans to ensure his nomination. For when he becomes the First Black American in the History of the United States, it will change the national identity forever. No more will the excuses that "I ain't rich, I can't go to college. I ain't one of those doctor's kids or oil-company kids" or "I didn't get that job because I'm black" are to be tolerated. When Obama is elected president it will forever put to bed the ability to use that as an excuse. Using it will no longer be tolerated.

Barak Obama's inauguration speech should end with him thanking Divine Providence for all that he has been blessed with in a land as great as ours, ending with the quote, looking directly at the camera, "Look at me America. All of you. White, black, latino, asian, poor, rich...look at me and know this fact: This could be you."

Barack Obama, having been raised in a poor household by a white woman, having grown up having is feet in two cultures growing into adulthood, who fought poverty, racial discrimination, to rise on his own in the ranks of Harvard to become the most powerful man in the world, elected there by a nation of people who live in a country where the words "all men are created equal" is not just sin and satire, will save not only the internal identity of this nation, but it will make into to law of these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.****

**** I will quote the great benefactor, Abraham Lincoln:

"As a nation we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.'
When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.' When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy hypocrisy."

And if you, the reader, finds all of this to be trite or ridiculous, then simply ignore it and go back to your bible studies held in your shopping-mall super-sized churches that have waterfalls in the vestibules, and remember this…I read the same new testament that you do. And because I am a Christian, is why I am voting for Barack Obama. He is the one walking into the temple amongst the money-changers, and his victory is not just for me, it is for all of us.

He is the very image of hope in this country. And hope is a good thing. It is perhaps the best of things.

And no good thing ever dies.