Barack Obama at the Annual NCLR Conference

at 3:58:

"Maybe the system is not designed for people like us."

It was a comment about education, but it reflects a broader feeling that so many people share; that the system just isn't working for them. And they're right - it's not.

The system isn't working when a child in a crumbling school graduates without learning to read, or doesn't graduate at all.

The system's not working when a young person at the top of her class, a young person with so much to offer this country can't attend a public college or university

The system isn't working when hispanics are losing their jobs faster than almost anybody else are working jobs that pay less and come with fewer benefits than almost anybody else.

The system isn't working when twelve million people living in hiding and hundreds of thousands are crossing our borders illegally each year.

When companies hire undocumented immigrants instead of legal citizens because they want to avoid paying overtime or avoid unionization or exploiting those workers,

When communities are terrorized by ICE Immigration Raids,
When nursing mothers are torn from their babies,
When children come home from school to find their parents missing,
When people are detained without access to legal council,

When all that is happening, the system just isn't working and we need to change it.

This is a nation of immigrants. It's sad that many of us quickly forget that and make the modern immigrant experience such a harrowing one. 2 hankies

Senator Obama Goes to Africa (2006 DVD) #2

Senator Obama was visiting a branch of a Chicago bank that was doing micro-lending to entrepreneurs, and as these local Kenyans were relating their stories of enterprise, Senator Obama's voice-over said:

"What's missing, for a lot of these folks, is NOT good ideas or a powerful work ethic, but what's missing is access to capital."

Social justice is a concept very dear to me and is precisely why I'm a Fire-Breathing Liberal and why I like Obama so much. 1 hankie

State of Belief 6/21/08

Rev. Gaddy was interviewing Mitchell Gold and Mr. Gold related a story about a young gay man in Texas who was raised Evangelical and who was so appalled by his own sexuality that he would repeatedly physically harm himself because he thought he was such an abomination. He even took a razor and cut the word "fag" into his chest. He also talked about the high rates of suicide amongst gay teenagers. As he related this, he started to choke up at the injustice of a culture that would make anybody so hate themselves for simply being who they are. It made me choke up, too. 2 hankies