Why Obama?

A few years ago my wife and I were all set on moving to Italy. Why, you might ask? We were living in a country which was at war(foreign concept for a Canadian). The streets of the city near me were turning into battlefields. The local news depicted scenes of violence every day and it was increasing. Nice people were carrying guns for their protection. Even my daughter whom I thought I had socialized better than that, owned one. Prices were going up. The country was viewed by my friends in other parts of the world as a 'big bully' and illegal immigration had gotten to a point where it can not be controlled , let alone be stopped. The education system of which we are a part of is is producing a crop of illiterates and a system where ' No Child Gets Ahead". The country returned to being in serious debt and that debt was being bought up by 'our' enemies, a situation that I would be very worried about if I were you. The great American Empire was looking like it was getting ready to crumble.
Now we can't move to Italy at this time. The government has allowed our dollar to be almost worthless in foreign countries. Definitely we can not buy a property there. We hardly can afford to travel there. Friends of ours are moving back. So to me I am looking for something different. Something that is not the norm in Washington's twisted form of government. Something that can promise me change, no matter how small at first. Someone who can help my dreams come true: The dreams I had when I moved to this country some 27 years ago. That someone to me is Barack Obama. His message is one of hope, of change, of not going with the status quo. Not a Bush look alike, not a Clinton but a man who can attempt to make a real difference in Washington. If he can turn around this country and get it on track towards hope perhaps we will not have to move, perhaps we can just be travelers, turistas en Italia. This is why it is important to me to support Obama for President.

The Vote in Texas- 'Voting twice and now I'm a delegate'

Last week I got to participate in democracy in the Greek style. Many centuries ago the ancient Greeks in Athens came up with this simple political philosophy, let the people participate in the government. In Texas we got to vote twice if you voted in the Democratic primary. TWICE, isn't that cheating. Obviously it is not. My good friend, Judge Clark who wrote the book "the Fall of the Duke of Duvall" about the ballot box stuffing scandal there would probably disagree but that's what we did. I voted once in the early voting and on the March 4election day I got to vote again, after the polls had closed.
So here I am standing outside this old historic one-room schoolhouse in Welfare, Texas waiting with some loyal Democrats to caucus for the candidate of our choice. When I moved to Kendall county 12 years ago there were probably only a handful of Democrats. Gee, Democrats don't even run for local office here. To my surprise 40 people showed up at my precinct caucus to vote a SECOND time(the ancient Athenians would have been happy). This was just at my precinct. I didn't know that there were even 40 Democrats in my entire county. I noticed several of my neighbors there. We had been in the closet for awhile, I guess and had just been outed. We signed in and waited for our written vote to be tallied- 24 Obama supporters and 16 Clinton supporters. This allowed us to pick delegates for the next convention on March 29. I was selected as a delegate, one of four for Obama. Not bad for an old Canadian boy who had been naturalized some 21 years ago. Another good immigrant story. Perhaps that's why I feel so akin to Mr. Obama.