1st Post

Greetings to all my readers,

As you can see from my title this is the first post of my new blog, Word of the People. Since I've never done this before, I'm sorta making it up as I go. I'll be posting up the usual stuff: personal opinions and reflections on life and the such, but the general focus of this blog is politics.

I've found that we've reached a turning, or maybe it's a tipping point, in American politics. As Globalization becomes a reality, we find that we can approach it from two different paths-as conqueror or ally. America will take the lead, but unless we find a way to amend and correct the mistakes of the past, our fallacies will corrupt the rose that this world can possible bloom into.

I find that many of the policies of the Bush administration exacerbate this already tense situation towards the negative. Preemptive 'defense,' aggressive posturing towards the rest of the world, including our own historically closest allies, his exiting from treaties which have maintained the peace for years, and his domestic policies which favor the few over the many, has lead me, among many others, to feel a sense of acute apprehension for the future.

Yet in the midst of this fear I choose not to panic but to instead to see this moment as an opportunity for great change, not only to get Bush outta office (vote Kerry/Edwards!) but as a time in which we can make great intellectual, cultural and humanitarian advances. It has always been my theory that the dropping of the A-bomb came too soon for our world. It was like dropping a gun in the middle of a pack of monkeys who couldn't appreciate or value the weapon's destructive power. Now is the time for us to rally together and to have a revolution of sorts. Not one of violence, but one of communication and unity. This is the time to demand the changes that we have put off for too long, changes that I see as a redistribution, not of wealth, but of opportunity in this country. We ask for the chance to fulfill this American dream for all of our citizens regardless of class, gender, race and sexuality. This is not a handout, or a giveaway. Instead it is the union of individual prosperity, national prosperity and global prosperity. I submit that the good of the person is the good of the world.

Abraham Lincoln said that the role of government is to "Do for the people what they either cannot do, or do well, for themselves." This is what we demand.

I hope to hear back from those who both agree and disagree with what I have said. Only through an active dialogue between us can any goal be met. I only ask that those who do post here, write from their hearts and not from their minds. Please no "Devil's advocate" writing. As an intellectual exercise that might be entertaining, but if you want that I suggest you watch the Fox News Channel.

The time for playing is over, the time for real change is now.

PS: I just copped the new Roots album, and listened to the first three tracks. It's pretty hot so far. More to come...