Today I heard a message from Obama that was clear to me

I love to hear Obama speak. There is something about what he says that appeals to something deep rooted in me. I have not been able to quite figure it out until today, when I heard his “closing argument” speech in Ohio. I’ll try to explain it.

First, let me say that I agree with some of his policies, and I disagree with others. For example, I like the idea of policies that encourage a fairer tax policy – I mean, who can say it is fair when a CEO walks away with millions and does not have to pay taxes on it due to big loopholes. And that money he or she walked away with was earned through, basically, fraud. And now my taxes are going towards cleaning up that huge mess while I see my savings shrink to nothing.

And who thinks it is fair when Bush provides tax incentives to mining companies who rape and pollute the land for their own gain, then leave the rest of us with a toxic landscape to clean up.

The current administration should be prosecuted in my opinion. I see them as criminals.

But I digress. These behaviors really get under my skin and I am ashamed of these people. But I do not see them as part of me or my country really. I know what makes me proud to be an American. I think of the day after 9/11 when I was in Manhattan and I saw strangers helping and comforting each other. When I see small communities bind together to help neighbors who have gotten ill and cannot pay their hospital bills. When my neighbor Edwin and his wife take an afternoon and mow the lawn and clean the yard of the fellow down the street who has injured his leg. I think of the members of Flight 93 who, in one of the more heroic times in our history, joined together and gave their lives to save others.

Americans come together and we help each other. We solve hard problems as a team, we boost one another as a community, we show compassion to other countries as a nation. Our strength is in our unity.

The babble babble of the right lately about Obama has rung hollow to me. Oooooh, socialist, liberal, marxist, blah blah. What childish name calling. They are basically saying “he’s going to rob you to give your money to someone else.”

That is what the GOP has been pushing since Reagan. Instead of America being about community, it is all about “me”. My money, my ideas, my buddies. Me me me me me. Good Lord, what are we, two years old?

In Obama’s speech today what I heard was, it is about “us”. All of us. We are stronger together than apart. We have a responsibility to not only ourselves, but to each other. And if we work together, and support one another, we will all benefit and as a whole we will be stronger. We are a family, and it is time we started acting like one.