Gentle People:
Remember when Barack Obama was an idealist? Back in 2008 he made a great speech that inspired millions of people within the U.S.., and around the world. At the time I desperately hoped protecting the environment would be a priority for the Senator and his Democrats. When Obama finally won the White House his new government did make some moves to slow global warming. He changed the CEO of General Motors and that move reduced the gas consumption of G. M. cars...however, that was off-set when...with a minority government bullied by a Republican minority...the Democrats approved deep water off-shore drilling. That move led to a horrific disaster! The 'Deep Water Horizon' oil platform exploded and polluted the Gulf of Mexico.
Following the U.S. lead, Car makers around the world quickly improved the efficiency of their cars which unfortunately created another problem. The new technology today is so popular that twice as many people are buying Hybrid cars. Unfortunately, the Hybrids continue to burn gas. With twice as many machines, the gas continues to pollute the planet and this consequently is creating global warming!
On any given Sunday, giant Box Stores on this planet are surrounded by thousands upon thousands of little cars jammed sardine style together in parking lots. In Bejing China, the pollution is so bad people are wearing hospital masks to protect themselves from tiny particulates. I remember when those humongous parking lots were farmer's fields producing vegetables. In North America you can't see the pollution but Cancer rates are going through the roof!
Here is Barack Obama's great speech.
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Article Details for President Barack Obama's Promises. Lets help him keep every one of them and more!
Date 11/05/2008 12:36 AM 12:41 AM
Title President Barack Obama's Promises. Lets help him keep every one of them and more!
President Barack Obama,
Twenty-one months later, my faith in the American people has been vindicated.
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama (Jacksonville, FL)
Jacksonville, FL | November 03, 2008
It's great to be back on the First Coast. I have just one word for you, Florida: tomorrow.
After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George Bush, and twenty-one months of a campaign that has taken us
from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are one day away from change in America.
Tomorrow, you can turn the page on policies that have put the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street before the hard work and sacrifice of folks on Main
Street.
Tomorrow, you can choose policies that invest in our middle-class, create new jobs, and grow this economy so that everyone has a chance to succeed;
from the CEO to the secretary and the janitor; from the factory owner to the men and women who work on its floor.
Tomorrow, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election; that tries to pit region against region, city against town,
Republican against Democrat; that asks us to fear at a time when we need hope.
Tomorrow, at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change we need.
We began this journey in the depths of winter nearly two years ago, on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Back then, we didn't have
much money or many endorsements. We weren't given much of a chance by the polls or the pundits. We knew how steep our climb would be.
But I also knew this. I knew that the size of our challenges had outgrown the smallness of our politics. I believed that Democrats and Republicans and
Americans of every political stripe were hungry for new ideas, new leadership, and a new kind of politics -one that favors common sense over ideology;
one that focuses on those values and ideals we hold in common as Americans.
Most of all, I knew the American people were a decent, generous people willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations. I was convinced that
when we come together, our voices are more powerful than the most entrenched lobbyists, or the most vicious political attacks, or the full force of a
status quo in Washington that wants to keep things just the way they are.
Twenty-one months later, my faith in the American people has been vindicated. That's how we've come so far and so close -because of you. That's how
we'll change this country -with your help. And that's why we can't afford to slow down, sit back, or let up, one minute, or one second in the next twenty-
four hours. Not now. Not when so much is at stake.
We are in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. 760,000 workers have lost their jobs this year. Businesses and families
can't get credit. Home values are falling. Pensions are disappearing. It's gotten harder and harder to make the mortgage, or fill up your gas tank, or even
keep the electricity on at the end of the month.
At a moment like this, the last thing we can afford is four more years of the tired, old theory that says we should give more to billionaires and big
corporations and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. The last thing we can afford is four more years where no one in Washington is
watching anyone on Wall Street because politicians and lobbyists killed common-sense regulations. Those are the theories that got us into this mess.
They haven't worked, and it's time for change. That's why I'm running for President of the United States.
Now, Senator McCain has served this country honorably. And he can point to a few moments over the past eight years where he has broken from
George Bush. But when it comes to the economy -when it comes to the central issue of this election -the plain truth is that John McCain has stood with
this President every step of the way. Voting for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that he once opposed. Voting for the Bush budgets that spent us into
debt. Calling for less regulation twenty-one times just this year. Those are the facts.
After twenty-one months and three debates, Senator McCain still has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing he'd do differently
from George Bush when it comes to the economy.
John McCain just doesn't get it. Remember what he said when he was here on September 15th?
That day, more than 5,000 jobs were lost and more than 7,000 homes were foreclosed on. The day before, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said
we were in a "once in a century" crisis.
And yet, despite our economic crisis, John McCain actually came here, to Veterans' Memorial Arena, and repeated something he's said at least sixteen
times on this campaign. He said -and I quote -"the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
Well, Florida, you and I know that's not only fundamentally wrong, it also sums up his out-of-touch, on-your-own economic philosophy. It's a philosophy
that says we should give a $700,000 tax cut to the average Fortune 500 CEO and $300 billion to the same Wall Street banks that got us into this mess.
It's a philosophy that says we shouldn't give a penny of relief to more than 100 million middle-class Americans. And it's a philosophy that will end when I
am President of the United States of America.
Look, we've tried it John McCain's way. We've tried it George Bush's way. Deep down, Senator McCain knows that, which is why his campaign said that
"if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose." That's why I'm talking about the economy. That's why he's spent these last weeks calling me
every name in the book. Because that's how you play the game in Washington. When you can't win on the strength of your ideas, you make a big
election about small things.
So I expect we're going to see more of that in the next twenty-four hours. More of the slash and burn, say-anything, do-anything politics that's calculated
to divide and distract; to tear us apart instead of bringing us together. Well, that's not the kind of politics the American people need right now.
Florida, at this moment, in this election, we have the chance to do more than just beat back this kind of politics in the short-term. We can end it once and
for all. We can prove that the one thing more powerful than the politics of anything goes is the will and determination of the American people. We can
change this country. Yes we can.
We can prove that we are more than a collection of Red States and Blue States -we are the United States of America. That's who we are, and that's the
country we need to be right now.
Florida, I know these are difficult times. But I also know that we have faced difficult times before. The American story has never been about things coming
easy -it's been about rising to the moment when the moment was hard. It's about rejecting fear and division for unity of purpose. That's how we've
overcome war and depression. That's how we've won great struggles for civil rights and women's rights and workers' rights. And that's how we'll write the
next great chapter in the American story.
Understand, if we want to meet the challenges of this moment, we need to get beyond the old ideological debates and divides between left and right. We
don't need bigger government or smaller government. We need a better government -a more competent government -a government that upholds the
values we hold in common as Americans.
The choice in this election isn't between tax cuts and no tax cuts. It's about whether you believe we should only reward wealth, or whether we should also
reward the work and workers who create it. I will give a tax break to 95% of Americans who work every day and get taxes taken out of their paychecks
every week. And I'll help pay for this by asking the folks who are making more than $250,000 a year to go back to the tax rate they were paying in the1990s. No matter what Senator McCain may claim, here are the facts -if you make under $250,000, you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime
-not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes. Nothing. Because the last thing we should do in this economy is raise taxes
on the middle-class.
When it comes to jobs, the choice in this election is not between putting up a wall around America or standing by and doing nothing. The truth is, we
won't be able to bring back every job that we've lost, but that doesn't mean we should follow John McCain's plan to keep promoting unfair trade
agreements and keep giving tax breaks to corporations that send American jobs overseas. I will end those breaks as President, and give them to
companies that create jobs here in the United States of America. We'll create two million new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads, and bridges, and
schools. I will invest $15 billion a year in renewable sources of energy -in wind and solar power and the next generation of biofuels. We'll invest in clean
coal technology and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. And we'll create five million new energy jobs over the next decade -jobs that pay well
and can't be outsourced.
When it comes to health care, we don't have to choose between a government-run health care system and the unaffordable one we have now. If you
already have health insurance, the only thing that will change under my plan is that we will lower premiums. If you don't have health insurance you'll be
able to get the same kind of health insurance that Members of Congress get for themselves. And as someone who watched his own mother spend the
final months of her life arguing with insurance companies because they claimed her cancer was a pre-existing condition and didn't want to pay for
treatment, I will stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care most. That's the change we need. That's why
I'm running for President of the United States.
When it comes to giving every child a world-class education, the choice is not between more money and more reform -because our schools need both.
As President, I will recruit an army of new teachers, pay them more, and give them more support. But I will also demand higher standards and more
accountability from our teachers and our schools. And I will make a deal with every American who has the drive and the will but not the money to go to
college: if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford your tuition.
And when it comes to keeping this country safe, we don't have to choose between retreating from the world and fighting a war without end in Iraq. It's
time to stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq while the Iraqi government sits on a huge surplus. As President, I will end this war. I will ask the Iraqi
government to step up for their future, and I will finally finish the fight against bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. I will never
hesitate to defend this nation. And I will make sure our servicemen and women have the best training and equipment when they deploy into combat, and
the care and benefits they have earned when they come home. That's what we owe our veterans. That's what I'll do as President.
I won't stand here and pretend that any of this will be easy -especially now. The cost of this economic crisis, and the cost of the war in Iraq, means that
Washington will have to tighten its belt and put off spending on things we don't need. As President, I will go through the federal budget, line-by-line,
ending programs that we don't need and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.
But as I've said from the day we began this journey, the change we need won't come from government alone. It will come from each of us doing our part
in our own lives and our own communities. It will come from each of us looking after ourselves, our families, and our fellow citizens.
Yes, government must lead the way on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and our businesses more efficient.
Yes, we must put more money into our schools, but government can't be that parent who turns off the TV and makes a child do their homework. We need
a return to responsibility and a return to civility. Yes, we can argue and debate our positions passionately, but all of us must summon the strength and
grace to bridge our differences and unite in common effort -black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American; Democrat and Republican, young and old,
rich and poor, gay and straight, disabled or not.
In this election, we cannot afford the same political games and tactics that are being used to pit us against one another and make us afraid of one
another.
Despite what our opponents may claim, there are no real or fake parts of this country. There is no city or town that is more pro-America than anywhere
else -we are one nation, all of us proud, all of us patriots. The men and women who serve on our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and
Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America
or a Blue America -they have served the United States of America.
It won't be easy, Florida. It won't be quick. But you and I know that it is time to come together and change this country. Some of you may be cynical and
fed up with politics. You have every right to be. But despite all of this, I ask of you what has been asked of Americans throughout our history.
I ask you to believe -not just in my ability to bring about change, but in yours.
I know this change is possible. Because I have seen it over the last twenty-one months. Because in this campaign, I have had the privilege to witness
what is best in America. I've seen it in the faces of the men and women I've met at countless rallies and town halls across the country, men and women
who speak of their struggles but also of their hopes and dreams.
I still remember the email that a woman named Robyn sent me after I met her in Ft. Lauderdale. Sometime after our event, her son nearly went into
cardiac arrest, and was diagnosed with a heart condition that could only be treated with a procedure that cost tens of thousands of dollars. Her insurance
company refused to pay, and their family just didn't have that kind of money.
In her email, Robyn wrote, "I ask only this of you -on the days where you feel so tired you can't think of uttering another word to the people, think of us.
When those who oppose you have you down, reach deep and fight back harder."
Florida, that's what hope is.
That's what kept some of our parents and grandparents going when times were tough. What led them to say, "Maybe I can't go to college, but if I save a
little bit each week, my child can. Maybe I can't have my own business but if I work really hard my child can open up one of her own." It's what led those
who could not vote to say "if I march and organize, maybe my child or grandchild can run for President someday."
That's what hope is -that thing inside that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that there are better days ahead. If we're willing to work for it. If
we're willing to shed our fears. If we're willing to reach deep inside ourselves when we're tired, and come back fighting harder.
Don't believe for a second this election is over. Don't think for a minute that power concedes. We have to work like our future depends on it in the next
twenty-four hours, because it does.
But I know this, Florida, the time for change has come. We have a righteous wind at our back.
And if in these final hours, you will knock on some doors for me, and make some calls for me, and go to barackobama.com and find out where to vote. If
you will stand with me, and fight by my side, and cast your ballot for me, then I promise you this -we will not just win Florida, we will not just win this
election, but together, we will change this country and we will change the world. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless America.
