Obama address highlights our audacity of hope

Veracifier
February 27, 2009
We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States will emerge stronger than before.
That was the message sent by President Obama during his address to the joint session of congress on Tuesday night.
Like a doctor talking to the family of an obese patient who has just undergone quadruple bypass surgery, President Obama had to walk the tightrope of instilling a sense of urgency and a sense of optimism to the American people.
For, just like our hypothetical heart patient, America as we know must undergo a metamorphosis or all of America’s yesterdays will have “lighted fools the way to dusty death.”
Metamorphosis- change- is what we bought when we elected Obama- and the time has come- as he said- to act boldly and wisely.
Among the metaphors that Obama used to illustrate the change that lie ahead what struck me most was his mention of the town Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado, but is being rebuilt by its residents as a global example of how clean energy can power an entire community how it can bring jobs and businesses to a place where piles of bricks and rubble once lay. "The tragedy was terrible," said one of the men who helped them rebuild." But the folks here know that it also provided an incredible opportunity."
From the rubble of our economic crisis, what how do we rebuild? By stimulating lending- Obama says- giving more money to banks- but telling us it is really to benefit main street- because we must grow- Obama says. Growth is good. Bigger is better. Right. America must continue biggering and biggering. So Joe the bus driver and Jane the teacher can buy more things. Cuz we need things. What is the real cost of our addiction to more things? Consider our foreign policy….
From the rubble of our health care crisis, how do we rebuild? By enacting reform that will give more public dollars to health care and insurance companies and moving towards the day when all citizens are required to purchase healthcare?
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