The entire nation whether Democrat or Republican was filled with enthusiasm that night when a young President elect appeared in Grant Park to address thousands. America was proud of our nation which would at last elect an African American to serve as President of the United States. Obama spoke that night of ending government gridlock in Washington D.C. and bringing a new day of cooperation between Republicans, Democrats and Independents in the Congress, we were all proud and attracted to a new vision. Yes We Can was on the lips of millions in America. It was a night of joy.
Months later we have experienced division, closed minds and an aimless vision of where this nation should proceed from the administration's poor leadership. Along the way we have lost perhaps as many as 17-22 million jobs. Trillion dollar deficits loom in the distance and economic predictions forecast years ahead before jobs return. Cities like Detroit are no longer a nexus of manufacturing and good jobs. Most Americans feel we are in worse condition now than we were a year ago.
Today March 3 was a sad day as the President told us that there will be no further discussion on healthcare reform. He is headed for a reconciliation cram down your throat healthcare reform package which is not desired by a majority of Americans in spite of his words to the contrary. Freedoms earlier foreseen in a new vision are now hard to imagine. A majority of the nation's citizens are concerned about losing freedoms and constitutional traditions.
Ronald Reagan said in 1980 that the Novelist Thomas Wolfe once wrote of our country, there is a mighty music to the proud glittering names of places in America. He called out our cities; Youngstown, Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Houston, Hartford, Jersey City, New York city, etc. But Reagan also observed that many of these cities no longer proclaim the confident roar of American progress, growth and optimism - there is now only silence, unemployment and discouraged Americans. Savings have disappeared, pensions decimated and homes lost as hope for a recovery has literally evaporated.
Many of our leaders today tell us we must meekly accept our nation's economic decline. We must learn to live with little and tell our children that their lives will be less prosperous and full than ours have been. We are reminded by Washington D.C. that the America of the future will be a country where, because of our past mistakes, it will be impossible to hope and make dreams come true.
I absolutely refuse to accept this conclusion. We have had a high standard of living in past years because people have worked hard. Americans have not created the situation we are in at the moment. This aimlessness and depression is a result of leaders overspending, abusing businesses, under representing and forgetting the needs of most of the American people. The failure of today's leaders focuses primarily on placing themselves ahead of the needs of the American people.
In 2010 and 2012 there will be millions of us who will not accept this nation's decline and the failure of this administration to restore and create jobs. We will not stand idly by and watch the destruction of our small businesses and entrepreneurial vision by bureaucrats,
With God's grace we Americans, including Republicans, Democrats and Independents will work 24/7 to restore the timeless vision of a great and prosperous people in a land we call America.
Dr. Alan G. Phillips
Bloomington, IL
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