H.R. 676 Under Consideration at City Council Tonight

Here is the resolution on health care the City Council will consider at tonight's meeting.

The presentation by Rob Stone during the 6:00 o'clock session will be highly informative. He is a tireless advocate for a universal health system for the United States.

Just days away now from the beginning of the Obama administration, it is still possible to hope that the United States will get its act together and become the great country it can be. Proof that we take seriously the promise of equality and freedom would be that we finally recognize health care as a right of citizenship; not a commercial commodity to be traded like copper or soybeans.

The words on the Statue of Liberty say "give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...". If those words were written in modern times, they might include something about sharing in the fruits of the effort spent building this country by the ordinary man, whose life is just as valuable to him as the life of a wealthy man is to him. At least share the bounty by making our time here as healthy and vital as possible.

Don't measure our prosperity in how many iPods we own, or the square feet of our houses. A better measure would be how we treat, as Jesus said, "the least among us". A truly prosperous nation takes good care of its own.



Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.


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WHEREAS: The United States is the only developed nation which does not offer universal health coverage to its citizens, and

WHEREAS: The lack of such coverage places the businesses and workers of the United States at a competitive disadvantage with businesses and workers from those nations with universal health coverage, and

WHEREAS: Employer-based health insurance burdens cities such as New Albany with tremendous costs, and

WHEREAS: This burden, for New Albany, constituted a claim on the 2008 municipal budget of $3,077,340.00 or 14.9%, and

WHEREAS: A universal, single-payer health plan would save the city of New Albany hundreds of thousands of dollars in administrative costs, and

WHEREAS: House Resolution 676, The National Health Insurance Act, now under consideration by the One Hundred and Eleventh Congress of the United States provides for the establishment of a single-payer, universal health plan for all citizens of the United States, and

WHEREAS:The United States Conference of Mayors, and countless local governmental bodies across America have endorsed H.R. 676, and

WHEREAS: Our member of the United States House of Representatives, Baron Hill, has indicated his openness to consideration of H.R. 676,

NOW THEREFORE: The Common Council of the City of New Albany expresses its support, through this resolution, for H. R. 676, and

THE COMMON COUNCIL wishes to express its support of H.R. 676 to The Honorable Baron Hill of the United States House of Representatives, and

THE COMMON COUNCIL further expresses its desire that Representative Baron Hill sponsor H.R. 676, in the One Hundred and Eleventh Congress of the United States, on its path toward the delivery of single-payer, universal health coverage for all his constituents, and for all citizens of the United States.

You Can Leave Your Shoes On

Who knew the international sign of disgust was to fling your footwear at the object of your disdain? As everyone knows by now, an Iraqi journalist offered that very critique of the blessedly departing colonial moron during a press event.

The present incarnation of the City Council, while not departing, is winding down its first year. This seems a good time to reflect on its progress to date.

The first significant decision of the Council was to choose Jeff Gahan as its president. That decision carried two major ramifications which unfolded over the course of the year. First was the shelving of the redistricting plan. A newly drawn Council District map would have had no effect on the current representation on the council, but could have yielded a different roster going into the elections of 2011. Although this issue appears dead, its reappearance should shock no one.

The second major plot point owing to Gahan's position was the smoking ordinance. That ordinance represented a principled stand on an issue about which there should be no debate. That there was debate can not be denied. The outcome of this issue was determined by a Mayoral veto. That decision could have proven an insurmountable obstacle to the necessary cooperation between any Mayor and any Council. It did not, and I am grateful for that. I will not make a categorical statement on future smoking legislation, but I'd be disinclined to revisit the issue in any form, any time, for any reason.

The issue which I feel is central to so many of our problems can be wrapped up in a package called code enforcement. The city, any city, can not sustain itself when housing stock deteriorates to the point it discourages people and families from seriously considering living in it.
Areas of New Albany have reached that point now and the question is, do those poorly maintained neighborhoods outweigh the well maintained areas. Does the potential resident, with no emotional background to influence their settling here, assess the city as a whole, and is that good or bad? Do these people see a city with some neighborhoods that could stand some improvement or do they see a city which has turned its back on certain areas? Can we expect sustainable prosperity if that is how the city is seen? Every city has good parts and bad parts. In a small community, such as New Albany, the fortunes of both parts are more closely tied together. That shared destiny should be one of our assets as a small city. As part of government, I see our responsibility to improve the substandard areas through any means available and to bring additional amenities which might make the city more livable. New amenities are a tall order in these austere times, but we should continue to try.

Enforcing extant ordinances is well within our capabilities. Failure to make a meaningful effort in that pursuit amounts to dereliction of duties. The Mayor has taken some advice from the Council committee formed to look at housing code enforcement. That committee cannot take credit for the results the Mayor will surely realize when he focuses the administration's attention to the issue, which he has scheduled to do early in January. It is past time when this issue must be addressed straight on. Nothing less than the future of the City depends on it.

My wife, one of her granddaughters, and I were in Bloomington Saturday. No surprise, but Bloomington offered a truly festive downtown replete with lights and plenty of people. What fiscal hocus pocus do they possess which eludes us? We saw something more surprising as we returned home through Salem. That magnet of prosperity had also adorned itself for the holidays with lights and presented, again, a festive downtown. It was too late for many to be out on the streets but when they were out they would see a town square of which they could be proud. With no dismissal of anyone's efforts in New Albany intended, I would suggest that our downtown looks drab in comparison. Several stores are nicely decorated for the season, with the new Winery exceptionally so.

To be sure, New Albany's problems can't be solved with lights and tinsel. We can find hope in the fact that several businesses have moved to downtown or have made substantial progress toward doing so. The YMCA is by far the most tangible sign of renewal. It is such a huge step forward, it is like JFK said of America, "we have tossed our cap over the wall of space." His meaning was that we were committted to the space race and would have no way to proceed but forward. The YMCA tosses our cap over the wall of downtown revitalization. Our task now is to smooth the path for anyone venturous enough to follow an entrepreneurial motivation to set up new business downtown. Luckily, unlike Louisville, New Albany will not find itself dancing a quarter billion dollar tune to the likes of the Cordish Group in pusuit of revival. It is unfathomable in light of the continual activity at the Y, that some in our community stood in opposition to this project. Thankfully, we have moved on.

My first step out of the gate this year was a stumble. I attempted to pass an ordinance early on giving the Council the authority to charter boards and commissions comprised of citizens. It turns out the Council already possessed such authority, and the proposed ordinance would have added an unneccesary item to the code book. That ordinance remains on the table and will be withdrawn at this year's final meeting. In its place, during January, a specific ordinance to establish a Chestnut Restoration Project will be introduced in its place. The purpose of this will be to reintroduce chestnut trees, albeit a blight resistant variety, into our floral census. These trees were nearly driven to extinction by a blight during the 1940-50s. Anyone with a negative view of trees is on alert to marshall their forces now. Bets anyone?

Some rumblings on the horizon suggest that the Pater Noster may soon depart from the Council's opening routine. I don't believe the civic arena is an appropriate venue for prayer. The prayer intoned at Council meetings is coerced and, therefore, stripped of its spiritual essence. I believe a more appropriate offering for that time slot would be a "civic prayer". That is, a short speech or presentation by local grade school students who would give a half minute or a minute on whatever topic they choose. It should be an honor to be chosen, and it would give students a chance to hone their public speaking and research skills. If my recollection of grade school is accurate, a half minute to a minute would feel like a lifetime under the circumstances.

Regardless of how people view the action or inaction of the Council, I can say that each member I have interacted with has the city's interests at heart. Each member has a certain role to fill and each member is open to input from citizens. While no one will satisfy all of our citizens all of the time, on balance I have been pleasantly surprised with the Council, especially under the trying fiscal situation we face. I think it has been a pretty good start. I think that start will provide a good base for progress in the next year. Of course I'm biased, but if I were sitting in the audience or assessing the Council's performance from home, I'd leave my shoes on, at least for now.

Important Event Thursday, November 20--Not the City Council

Below is a press release for an upcoming presentation on single-payer health coverage. The speaker is a leader in Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan (HCHP).

HCHP's immediate goal is to build a consensus for HR-676 which has good support in Congress but needs still broader support to become law.

Now that Indiana is a blue state, the time is right to get Hoosier lawmakers on board with one of President-elect Obama's campaign goals. HR-676 is the best means of reaching that goal.

I'd like to attend, but I'll be at a City Council meeting harvesting some of Grover Norquist's bounty.


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NEW ALBANY, In --- A forum on national health care featuring one of the nation's experts on health care insurance will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday Nov. 20 at Indiana University Southeast. Dr. Rob Stone of Bloomington, IN, one of the founders of Hoosiers for Commonsense Health Plan (HCHP), will be the speaker. There will be a public discussion following the powerpoint presentation.
The event will take place on the second floor of the IUS library on Grantline Rd. Sponsors are the Southern Indiana branch of HCHP and the IUS Department of Sociology. The event is free.
A spokesman for HCHP said that the forum will tie into one of the key planks of President-elect Barack Obama's platform on health issues. Questions on the problems of health insurance for post-college students, for those who are not covered by employee plans and for Medicare patients in need of supplement insurance will be answered.

It Still Feels Great

The actual real America is everywhere. It is the America that has been in shell shock since the aftermath of 9/11, when our government wielded a brutal attack by terrorists as a club to ratchet up our fears, betray our deepest constitutional values and turn Americans against one another in the name of “patriotism.” What we started to remember the morning after Election Day was what we had forgotten over the past eight years, as our abusive relationship with the Bush administration and its press enablers dragged on: That’s not who we are.

In case you missed this excellent column by Frank Rich, I think it sums up Tuesday's results brilliantly.

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November 9, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
It Still Felt Good the Morning After
By FRANK RICH
ON the morning after a black man won the White House, America’s tears of catharsis gave way to unadulterated joy.
Our nation was still in the same ditch it had been the day before, but the atmosphere was giddy. We felt good not only because we had breached a racial barrier as old as the Republic. Dawn also brought the realization that we were at last emerging from an abusive relationship with our country’s 21st-century leaders. The festive scenes of liberation that Dick Cheney had once imagined for Iraq were finally taking place — in cities all over America.
For eight years, we’ve been told by those in power that we are small, bigoted and stupid — easily divided and easily frightened. This was the toxic catechism of Bush-Rove politics. It was the soiled banner picked up by the sad McCain campaign, and it was often abetted by an amen corner in the dominant news media. We heard this slander of America so often that we all started to believe it, liberals most certainly included. If I had a dollar for every Democrat who told me there was no way that Americans would ever turn against the war in Iraq or definitively reject Bush governance or elect a black man named Barack Hussein Obama president, I could almost start to recoup my 401(k). Few wanted to take yes for an answer.
So let’s be blunt. Almost every assumption about America that was taken as a given by our political culture on Tuesday morning was proved wrong by Tuesday night.
The most conspicuous clichés to fall, of course, were the twin suppositions that a decisive number of white Americans wouldn’t vote for a black presidential candidate — and that they were lying to pollsters about their rampant racism. But the polls were accurate. There was no “Bradley effect.” A higher percentage of white men voted for Obama than any Democrat since Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton included.
Obama also won all four of those hunting-and-Hillary-loving Rust Belt states that became 2008’s obsession among slumming upper-middle-class white journalists: Pennsylvania and Michigan by double digits, as well as Ohio and even Indiana, which has gone Democratic only once (1964) since 1936. The solid Republican South, led by Virginia and North Carolina, started to turn blue as well. While there are still bigots in America, they are in unambiguous retreat.
And what about all those terrified Jews who reportedly abandoned their progressive heritage to buy into the smears libeling Obama as an Israel-hating terrorist? Obama drew a larger percentage of Jews nationally (78) than Kerry had (74) and — mazel tov, Sarah Silverman! — won Florida.
Let’s defend Hispanic-Americans, too, while we’re at it. In one of the more notorious observations of the campaign year, a Clinton pollster, Sergio Bendixen, told The New Yorker in January that “the Hispanic voter — and I want to say this very carefully — has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates.” Let us say very carefully that a black presidential candidate won Latinos — the fastest-growing demographic in the electorate — 67 percent to 31 (up from Kerry’s 53-to-44 edge and Gore’s 62-to-35).
Young voters also triumphed over the condescension of the experts. “Are they going to show up?” Cokie Roberts of ABC News asked in February. “Probably not. They never have before. By the time November comes, they’ll be tired.” In fact they turned up in larger numbers than in 2004, and their disproportionate Democratic margin made a serious difference, as did their hard work on the ground. They’re not the ones who need Geritol.
The same commentators who dismissed every conceivable American demographic as racist, lazy or both got Sarah Palin wrong too. When she made her debut in St. Paul, the punditocracy was nearly uniform in declaring her selection a brilliant coup. There hadn’t been so much instant over-the-top praise by the press for a cynical political stunt since President Bush “landed” a jet on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in that short-lived triumph “Mission Accomplished.”
The rave reviews for Palin were completely disingenuous. Anyone paying attention (with the possible exception of John McCain) could see she was woefully ill-equipped to serve half-a-heartbeat away from the presidency. The conservatives Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy said so on MSNBC when they didn’t know their mikes were on. But, hey, she was a dazzling TV presence, the thinking went, so surely doltish Americans would rally around her anyway. “She killed!” cheered Noonan about the vice-presidential debate, revising her opinion upward and marveling at Palin’s gift for talking “over the heads of the media straight to the people.” Many talking heads thought she tied or beat Joe Biden.
The people, however, were reaching a less charitable conclusion and were well ahead of the Beltway curve in fleeing Palin. Only after polls confirmed that she was costing McCain votes did conventional wisdom in Washington finally change, demoting her from Republican savior to scapegoat overnight.
But Palin’s appeal wasn’t overestimated only because of her kitschy “American Idol” star quality. Her fierce embrace of the old Karl Rove wedge politics, the divisive pitting of the “real America” against the secular “other” America, was also regarded as a sure-fire winner. The second most persistent assumption by both pundits and the McCain campaign this year — after the likely triumph of racism — was that the culture war battlegrounds from 2000 and 2004 would remain intact.
This is true in exactly one instance: gay civil rights. Though Rove’s promised “permanent Republican majority” lies in humiliating ruins, his and Bush’s one secure legacy will be their demagogic exploitation of homophobia. The success of the four state initiatives banning either same-sex marriage or same-sex adoptions was the sole retro trend on Tuesday. And Obama, who largely soft-pedaled the issue this year, was little help. In California, where other races split more or less evenly on a same-sex marriage ban, some 70 percent of black voters contributed to its narrow victory.
That lagging indicator aside, nearly every other result on Tuesday suggests that while the right wants to keep fighting the old boomer culture wars, no one else does. Three state initiatives restricting abortion failed. Bill Ayers proved a lame villain, scaring no one. Americans do not want to revisit Vietnam (including in Iraq). For all the attention paid by the news media and McCain-Palin to rancorous remembrances of things past, I sometimes wondered whether most Americans thought the Weather Underground was a reunion band and the Hanoi Hilton a chain hotel. Socialism, the evil empire and even Ronald Reagan may be half-forgotten blurs too.
If there were any doubts the 1960s are over, they were put to rest Tuesday night when our new first family won the hearts of the world as it emerged on that vast blue stage to join the celebration in Chicago’s Grant Park. The bloody skirmishes that took place on that same spot during the Democratic convention 40 years ago — young vs. old, students vs. cops, white vs. black — seemed as remote as the moon. This is another America — hardly a perfect or prejudice-free America, but a union that can change and does, aspiring to perfection even if it can never achieve it.
Still, change may come slowly to the undying myths bequeathed to us by the Bush decade. “Don’t think for a minute that power concedes,” Obama is fond of saying. Neither does groupthink. We now keep hearing, for instance, that America is “a center-right nation” — apparently because the percentages of Americans who call themselves conservative (34), moderate (44) and liberal (22) remain virtually unchanged from four years ago. But if we’ve learned anything this year, surely it’s that labels are overrated. Those same polls find that more and more self-described conservatives no longer consider themselves Republicans. Americans now say they favor government doing more (51 percent), not less (43) — an 11-point swing since 2004 — and they still overwhelmingly reject the Iraq war. That’s a centrist country tilting center-left, and that’s the majority who voted for Obama.
The post-Bush-Rove Republican Party is in the minority because it has driven away women, the young, suburbanites, black Americans, Latino-Americans, Asian-Americans, educated Americans, gay Americans and, increasingly, working-class Americans. Who’s left? The only states where the G.O.P. increased its percentage of the presidential vote relative to the Democrats were West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas. Even the North Carolina county where Palin expressed her delight at being in the “real America” went for Obama by more than 18 percentage points.
The actual real America is everywhere. It is the America that has been in shell shock since the aftermath of 9/11, when our government wielded a brutal attack by terrorists as a club to ratchet up our fears, betray our deepest constitutional values and turn Americans against one another in the name of “patriotism.” What we started to remember the morning after Election Day was what we had forgotten over the past eight years, as our abusive relationship with the Bush administration and its press enablers dragged on: That’s not who we are.
So even as we celebrated our first black president, we looked around and rediscovered the nation that had elected him. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” Obama said in February, and indeed millions of such Americans were here all along, waiting for a leader. This was the week that they reclaimed their country.



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GET UP

In what I take as a standard close to his stump speech, Joe Biden recounts the words his father spoke, "when you get knocked down, Champ, Get up. Just get up". Notice there's no further advice. He didn't say get up and do this, or do that. Just, get up. Once you're back on your feet you can start to plan for the next steps and the steps beyond that.

The nation finds itself knocked down now after eight long years of the Bush administration. The list of Bush failings is long and the effects of those failings may be long-lasting. The nation, (and the Democratic leadership bears much of the blame), shirked its responsibility to invoke the Constitutional remedy of impeachment against Bush for his perfidy. The fact is, the nation was taken to war for reasons other than necessity; we attacked a country which may have had ill-intent, but was not responsible for the September 11 terrorist attack. Almost 4,300 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, over 30,000 have been maimed for life, and literally uncounted Iraqis have died for this lie. As part of the series of events this lie caused, the bulwark of our liberties, the U.S. Constitution, was diluted, as personal freedoms were set aside in the cause of fear. Economically, the underpinnings of our system were placed in jeopardy, again the war caused much of this, as ten billion dollars a month was poured onto the sands of Iraq. Mercenaries now carry much of the weight of "defending" our nation, and they make out like bandits. Clinton passed on to his successor a balanced budget, this could have set the course to paying down the national debt (which had mushroomed under Reagan, Bush I, and actually declined a bit under Clinton), instead Bush II drove it the other way, into science fiction territory, where it now promises to hit Ten Trillion Dollars under his watch. While the numbers are beyond a normal person's grasp, the effect of those unimaginable numbers is real indeed as those things which make an average citizen's life better are sacrificed to pay debt service. The wealth of a vital society is lost to this debt, things such as: a dependable infrastructure, available and affordable healthcare, clean environment, a thriving middle class. One item which continues to grow, and has an unlimited claim on our financial resources is the military budget, which only makes sense in the climate of fear Bush has built; his only success. Now, to the fear of others, can be added the fear of losing defense-related jobs in the new economic reality.

Thankfully, the Bush regime is on its way out.

Thankfully, the Obama administration is on the way in.

We still have much work to do. And it starts with the advice Joe Biden's father gave him, "Get up."

Get up and show that racism is a relic of the past. Get up and offer a hand of acceptance to people regardless of their race, their gender or who they love. Get up and recognize that our nation may now be looked upon by other nations as an example of good. Get up and believe that we, of average means, now have a stake in the nation's future. Get up and believe that good jobs, with good futures will once again be available as the economy retools for green jobs and a sustainable future. Get up and plan for our children's future with hope that it will be better than our present. Get up and realize that the nightmare of the Bush junta is over. Get up and hope. Get up and Vote. Get up and vote for Barack Obama.

Get up and take back our country.

GET UP.

Hey, What's the Deal With That Elephant on Your Couch?

A New Albany resident was recently quoted, in the Chicago Tribune, to say he would not vote for Barack Obama "mainly because he's black." His candor has highlighted an obvious subtext for this presidential election. I don't believe most people are blatantly racist, but racism still flows through our society and every so often it percolates to the surface. Our antique dealer happened to bring it out into the open. For that ingenuosness, he is being held up as a poster child for atavistic rubes, hicks and lowlifes. If John McCain had a crack at him, perhaps he'd call him Joe the Antique Dealer.

This man's essential Joe-ness, spread throughout the land, is the reason why the presidential race has maintained some semblance of a real contest. On paper, Barack Obama outclasses McCain in organization, ideas, inspiration, character and vision for the country. McCain carries the genuine banner of failure, a handoff from the generally recognized holder of the title "Worst President in the History of the United States". He also carries the counterfeit banner of Maverick.

* Obama lives in a stable marriage. McCain dumped his wife when an automobile accident left her scarred and less attractive than she had been on their wedding day.

* Obama and his wife, in just the last several years, paid off their student loans. Cindy McCain recently ran up a $750,000 (that's correct, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars) bill on her American Express account IN ONE MONTH. Her daughter, the piker (not a Palin child) ran up a $150,000 Amex bill.

* Obama had an outrageous pastor and served on a board with a sixties radical. McCain's vice, Sarah Palin, spoke to an Alaskan secessionist group which did and still does advocate the violent expulsion of the U.S. government from Alaska, Palin's husband was a member of the Alaska Independence Party; the motive of the group is to retain all the vast wealth of the state for the Alaskans themselves.

Many more of these couplets could be laid out to show the superiority of Obama over McCain, and yet the race remains tight. The wild woman from Minnesota had to be brought back to earth by McCain himself because she thought Obama was "an Arab". Some of Joe the Antique Dealer's less reserved brethren have shouted such bon mots as "traitor", "terrorist" and "kill him" when Obama's name is mentioned at McCain/Palin rallies. Why is it so hard to believe that a hapless antique dealer in New Albany, Indiana would be moved to say that he isn't voting for Obama, "mainly because he's black"? Would it be better if he weren't voting for him because he's a "terrorist", or a "traitor"? Is he not measurably more civilized then the dimwit who shouted "kill him", or the poetic dimwit who shouted "off with his head"?

The McCain campaign has set its sights on winning the presidency in the worst way. The campaign finds it necessary to distract, dissemble and divide in order to peel away voters whose interests are more naturally aligned with Democratic orthodoxy, from Obama and leave them in play for McCain. They can't do it on qualifications. They need a wedge. Obama, by his very existence, offers the biggest, meanest, most heinous wedge in the American electoral repertoire: his race; unfortunately, none dare speak the name openly. Better to be a stupid hick who confuses Obama and Osama, better to label, as Michelle Bachman did, liberals as un-American than to say you aren't going to vote for Obama because he's black. The modern-day Republican playbook has been discussed in Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Frank points out that on issue after issue Democrats offer real solutions of real benefit to the Joe's of the world and yet, at the national level especially, Republicans continue to rack up victories because, on gut-level, visceral issues such as abortion and gay marriage, voters say "they share my values"; translation: they are more like me. The reality is that the candidate who lives by the wedge issue almost never delivers the voter from the supposed plague the wedge signifies.

How many times have we heard that "my grandfather came here and he made it without any affirmative action", or words to that effect? How many times have we heard hateful words thrown out to describe people not like ourselves? How do we even decide which non-shared trait will be the one deserving our mocking, derision or hate? I'm sure Joe the Antique Dealer's prejudice does not actually reflect hatred of black people. I say that having never met the man. And yet the sentiment that he won't vote for Obama because, "mainly he's black" offend. They offend the ear, they offend people he has never met, they offend the very concept of this nation.

But wait, the very concept of this nation is founded on inequality. The Constitution allowed slavery. Black slaves were counted as "three fifths" of a white citizen when doling out congressional seats. The Civil War was our crucible from which a new nation of equality was supposed to emerge. Look around. It didn't happen. This presidential race is the most potent ammunition we have to push racism further out on the fringe of society. Obama's presidency will be many things, but one of them will be a lesson that we have wasted far too many lives through bigotry and narrow horizons. I hope Joe the Antique Dealer is open to learning.

Faith, Love and...

Indiana sits in an unusual position for this historic election. Its votes are being courted by both parties, and both parties have a viable chance of carrying the state, thus winning Indiana's 11 electoral votes.

While I did not start out as a supporter of Barack Obama, (I held out hope for Al Gore entering the race for an inordinate period of time, even after I had begun to support Obama), I feel his election and the change it promises for this nation is critical. On one level, Obama's election offers some absolution for our nation's Original Sin, slavery. As Lincoln said in his Second Innaugural Address, that we were engaged in the Civil War to unwind the divine plan which might dictate that the war "continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword".

De facto slavery has vanished from the land thanks to the sacrifices of our forefathers. Today the slave master is replaced by corporate hucksters who sell the American Dream, but deliver instead a lifetime of involuntary servitude to debt dealers, health insurance peddlars, fearmongering agents of the Military Industrial Complex Eisenhower warned against, and an unhealthy alliance of commercial interests that add up to serial rapists of the environment.

Despite the plague these parties represent to our nation, as a white American I can take smug comfort in the fact that I am better off financially than the vast majority of black Americans; these citizens made a huge mistake: being born black. The disparities between the two dominant races of our land are striking. Whites, live longer, earn more, have more education, accumulate more wealth, have better access to health coverage and suffer less per capita illness, than Blacks.

Enter, Barack Obama. This man represents the true embodiment of the American Dream. He has played the hand he was dealt and turned it into an example for us all. Regardless of how the election turns out, he has placed racism further out on the fringe of our society. My attention to race is likely a reflection my age. I barely remember legal segregation but I see the continued shadow of inequality today in the disparities mentioned above and as I drive through "black" sections of Louisville and witness who rides the bus and who owns and drives the cars. Those younger than I, came into awareness during a time when race was less an overt factor. Perhaps for them, my observations tend toward fogeyism. But the state of the economy now has knocked us all down, or likely will, a peg. Those farther down the economic ladder are disproportionately affected by the downturn.

Obama's policies offer a brighter day by focusing on a retooling of the economy with an emphasis on green industries. The steps toward a green economy are ones that will, as a matter of course, lead to local jobs spread across the land. A reasonable prescription for economic revival would be a Keynesian infusion of government ivestment into our long-neglected infrastructure. As a nation, are we more likely to find sustainable prosperity in laying track for new railroads to connect cities or tax-cut trickles? Obama is more likely to opt for sustainability. McCain is more likely to funnel money into the building of a fortress and call it economic stimulus.

These are perilous economic times, and God knows I don't have the answers to our problems. Barack Obama has offered some suggestions of how we might get out of this mess. As he has offered solutions, McCain and his on-deck have slung mud. Obama wants a moritorium on forclosures. McCain wants to conjure the cloak of otherness and place it on Obama. Obama offers a break from the policies of Bushism. McCain is simply the third act of the same ridiculous play we've been watching for what seems like the past century or two. Obama has vision and offers a plausible chance of implementing that vision. McCain, deep in his soul, may have the capacity to dream a vision, but his soul was sold back in 2000 in some heinous pact with Bush which resulted in Karl Rove, author of the 2000 attacks against McCain in South Carolina, now joining the McCain campaign to question Obama's legitimacy.

Obama offers hope: Hope for a move into a more colorblind tomorrow, Hope for a return to a world stage where the U.S. can be a force for good rather than simply a force for force, Hope for universal medical coverage that equals the rest of the developed world in its inclusiveness and affordability, Hope for a rebirth of American ingenuity built on the priciples of sustainability, Hope for a foreign policy based on truth not lies, Hope for an economy that recognizes capitalism flows from democracy rather than democracy flowing from capitalism, Hope for government of the people, by the people and for the people, rather than government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation, Hope for a restored balance on the Supreme Court, Hope for a return of constitutional principles abrogated by the Bush regime. Obama offers hope of a brighter tomorrow free of the shadow of fear which is really the only thing Bush has ever brought us.

If you can see the hope Obama offers, don't think you need to wait until Election Day, November 4, between the hours of 6 AM and 6 PM to cast your vote. The best laid plans etc. etc...

You can go to the Floyd County Clerk's office on the second floor of the City/County Building Monday through Friday 8 AM- 4 PM, two Saturdays will also offer early voting, October 25 and November 1, Saturday hours are from 9 AM -3 PM.

This election is too important to pass up. No one has an excuse to miss voting. If you miss it, you're just hopeless.