SIbilA – AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POETRY
WHY OBAMA?
Senator Barack Obama reflects the reality of the majority of Americans—a mix of races origins and cultural references—as the son of a white mother from Kansas and an African father from Kenya, which makes him especially knowledgeable and sensitive to the important issues facing the nation and the world today. His position regarding immigration favors connecting families and strengthening struggling economies, namely Mexican, so that individuals are not pressured to choose illegal status and precarious working conditions in the U.S. in order to support their families. He knows that helping to strengthen the Mexican economy supports both American workers, by keeping their jobs from being sent over the border, and Mexican workers who are being exploited, which feeds only corporate bottom lines. He is solidly rooted in self-definition as a black man, dedicated to civil rights and human rights in general, and a fierce supporter of dignified work, decent wages and working Senator Obama writes his own speeches, and they are eloquent. Raised by a single mother, Senator Obama is personally sensitive to the issues that the 10.4 million single mothers in the U.S. face daily. He supports the Arts and Arts education with plans to increase NEA funding, establish an Artists Corps to serve the nation’s low-income urban centers, forge public/private partnerships between schools and arts organizations, streamline visa procedures for artists in order to attract artists from abroad, facilitate international exchanges, provide health care for artists and more: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/additional/Obama_FactSheet_Arts.pdf He is dedicated to clean environmental practices, including especially the use of biofuels to curb global warming, and to researching abroad for innovative models to steer a green course: “Such a course is not only possible, it's already being pursued in other places around the world. Countries like Japan are creating jobs and slowing oil consumption by churning out and buying millions of fuel-efficient cars. Brazil, a nation that once relied on foreign countries to import 80% of its crude oil, will now be entirely self-sufficient in a few years thanks to its investment in biofuels. ”So why can't we do this? Why can't we make energy security one of the great American projects of the 21st century? “The answer is, with the right leadership, we can. We can do it by partnering with business, not fighting it. We can do it with technology we already have on the shelf. And we can do it by investing in the clean, cheap, renewable fuels that American farmers grow right here at home.” For a full description of Obama’s energy and environmental plan: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/energy/ But mainly—and this is the MAIN reason and the decisive division between the two senators—we believe HE WILL STOP THE INSANE VIOLENCE AND SUFFERING THE USA IS PROLIFERATING ABROAD. He spoke out and voted against the invasion of Iraq and has CONSISTENTLY voted AGAINST THE “WAR” in IRAQ, whereas Senator Clinton has consistently voted in favor of it. In a speech made on the Senate floor on March 21, 2007, Obama stated: “The sacrifices of war are immeasurable. “I first made this point in the fall of 2002, at the end of the speech I gave opposing the invasion of Iraq. I said then that I certainly do not oppose all wars, but dumb wars – rash wars. Because there is no decision more profound than the one we make to send our brave men and women into harm’s way.…There is no military solution to this war. No amount of U.S. soldiers – not 10,000 more, not 20,000 more, not the almost 30,000 more that we now know we are sending – can solve the grievances that lay at the heart of someone else’s civil war. Our troops cannot serve as their diplomats, and we can no longer referee their civil war. We must begin a phased withdrawal of our forces starting May 1st, with the goal of removing all combat forces by March 30th, 2008.” While it would be a much-welcomed change to finally have a woman in the presidency, obviously gender is not enough. We condemn Senator Clinton’s recent suggestions that Obama has connections with Louis Farrakhan because of [some loose][a vague] tie with [the controversial] Reverend Wright, and we consider this a move that makes Senator Clinton sound like a lunatic as well as serving as a despicable kind of fear mongering, appealing to the worst in white America, and beyond redemption. Ultimately—though some of us are in self-imposed exile—we still believe that perhaps the American experiment, of a nation that not only respects difference but also thrives on and finds strength in difference, has not been completely dismantled and that with the leadership of Senator Obama we can live in a nation honoring difference and uniting the forces of peace and brotherhood. “There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.” – Senator Barack Obama
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