This response arrives a bit late but I have notes in my head and on a page – notes on which I elaborate here – and I remember that day crisply. Disclaimer: Many of the metaphors are ridiculous.
When did the Iraq War end? (5 points)
Being sick with a painful throat, beer was not my first choice when Gorlock, my next-door neighbor, offered me a cold one with an invitation to sit outside and listen to President Obama’s speech on the radio. I sat in a plastic lawn chair outside of Gorlock’s apartment and sipped some warm tea on a warm, sticky Houston eve as President Obama’s voice seeped into my reality through the crackles of static.
“Tonight, I’d like to talk to you about the end of our combat mission in Iraq, the ongoing security challenges we face and the need to rebuild our nation here at home.”
Interesting that though this speech may have been but a blip politically and contemporarily, it does signify the end of a war. When children memorize and repeatedly drill facts into their heads to recall answers for US history tests, they will remember this date as ‘The End of the Iraq War’. They will recall this date that occurred just last week as the end of a war that lasted 7.5 years. They will briefly, during the ‘1865 – Present: Foreign Policy’ portion of US history, refer to the majority of a decade when discussing the Iraq War. Interesting. [Go ahead and re-read this paragraph a bit slower and contemplate on your own the severity. Not negative or positive severity. Just, severity. Feel free to skip this bracket-ed section after you complete the paragraph a second time, lest you be stuck in a recursive loop. LOLz!1]
I only witnessed the second half of the speech – which is funny because the first half contained all of his thoughts on the War’s end…which was the main purpose of the speech in the first place. LOLz!1
Consequently, I respond not to the combat mission in Iraq nor the ongoing security challenges.
Perception is Reality
I respond to President Obama’s attitude and vision. The speech was hopeful and positive. I recently read Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick – a book detailing the actual day-to-day lives in North Korea of six North Koreans, including the amount of state-sponsored, complete misinformation. Compared to North Korea, I am happy I can watch my President speak and not always fear lies are being told. Historically, the amount of government transparency we enjoy today don’t happen too often.
An Old-Style Fuddy Duddy
President Obama derives his attitude as conveyed in his speech, from his desires. From his vision.
Problem: President Obama is not considering the fact that the mechanisms we need to create those visions may not come from him. How likely is it that the people who can solve our problems, among the hundreds of millions of Americans, would be in elected office? It’s purely a numbers thing. Compared to the entire US population, there is only one President. Not to disparage President Obama’s problem-solving abilities but there aren’t even enough advisers in the country who could fix the economy, let alone one President. It’s much more likely, again, due to the numbers, that solutions to problems for the whole country will be found outside of the minds of those in Washington, D.C.
I’d bet you Ukranian dollars to Uzbekhi donuts that the same rings true with members of Congress. Unfortunately, because we elected all of our leaders, that means we’re not considering this either.
“We must:
- Jumpstart industries that create jobs
- End our dependence on foreign oil
- Unleash the innovation that allows new products to roll off our assembly lines
- Nurture the ideas that spring from our entrepreneurs.”
-Jumpstart industries that create jobs…I’m confused as to which ones he’s referring to. Those that do create jobs likely don’t need a jumpstart as they’re creating jobs. And those that are not creating jobs might need to be thought of differently. Jobs created by a person or business are related to demand for that person’s or business’ goods or services. If ‘jumpstart’ refers to forced bailouts, subsidies, tax breaks or what-have-thou, I would question why we would funnel money to sectors where there is not true demand, as though forcing us to dig an irrigation canal to an Uzbekhi desert where water is necessary for plants to grow but no one is wanting to grow plants there in the first place. Maybe later. Maybe never. But definitely not now.
Regardless, maybe more jumpstarts is not a good idea given our financial pulse.
-End our dependence on foreign oil…We have heard this before from several Presidents. I am sure President Obama himself uses plenty of foreign oil (maybe even during his speech!). But why wouldn’t we want him to? Oil is a pretty darn efficient way to power hospitals, heat families, cook food, travel around the world and enable us to earn our livings more easily and diversely than we could have without it.
If the foreigners are better than us at finding, obtaining, refining and selling oil – which I sincerely doubt, as I was once a foreigner meself – then that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We’ll get better than them at something(s) else and then we’ll trade (and hold hands).
-Unleash the innovation that allows new products to roll off our assembly lines…This point more than any other convinced me President Obama is an old fuddy duddy. Meaning, he’s trying to steer us to the future by using steering wheels from the past. Why single out assembly lines (i.e. manufacturing) over all other industries?
Before assembly lines were cool, it was interchangeable parts. Interchangeable parts folks had no idea about assembly lines and probably thought they were at a stage of development where it was as good as it got. Before interchangeable parts were cool, it was the invention of fire. Cavepeople probably thought things were pretty good with fire. They were pretty smug, those cavepeople. They have no idea what the future held for them and how much easier living would be for their descendants.
The point is there’s no need to single out manufacturing – unless you want votes or to use a metaphor – because as we evolve into even more of a service- and information-based economy, it ain’t gonna be just manufacturing. It’ll probably be something completely unprecedented (i.e. Internet^).
-Nurture the ideas that spring from our entrepreneurs…I’m not sure how to translate this into sustainable policy unless it’s lower small business taxes and less municipal restrictions on earning a living.
It’s unfortunate that none of the bullets in President Obama’s four points focuses on all Americans. Instead we are sliced and diced into several interest groups and voting blocs that can be played against each other for a spot in line at the feeding trough.
Nothing new.
Don’t aim too high…juuust in the Middle
“…the bedrock of [our] prosperity must be a growing middle class.”
And here is where visions diverge. The goal is not for a growing middle class. The goal is for everyone in America, all of us to be able to do whatever we want to do in our lifetimes. Whether the number of people who are in the middle is growing or not is interesting for statistical purposes but at the heart of each statistic is a group of individual lives. If that statistic changes, it may not be because those individual lives are actually getting better. For example, if the middle-class grows but the value of the dollar decreases so that the middle class can purchase less and less, all else being equal, is that desirable?
It’s a bit of misdirection in the same vein as:
- We need affordable, universal health insurance!
Really? Not affordable, universal health care? - We need to end our dependence on foreign oil!
Really? Not to have a robust and diverse, fluid-like economy that gets more efficient at responding to everyone’s desires as time passes, enabling us to avoid forced unemployment, recessions and depressions?
Aim higher Mr. President and us. The bow-and-arrow isn’t as heavy as it looks.
My Favorite Line
“We must use all elements of our power – including diplomacy, our economic strength and the power of America’s example – to secure our interests and stand by our allies.”
The power of America’s example. Pretty bold words. Not force, not anger, not revenge…the power of America’s example. I hope we set a good example because if we don’t, we’re screwing ourselves over.
