The Promise of Hope versus the agents of Fear!
It's been almost a year since we elected a new President to take over from the disastrous past eight years and try to right the ship of state that was so quickly sinking. President Obama stepped into office and stepped up to the challenges we face, not by attacking others and calling names, but by searching for solutions. He recognized the $1 trillion dollar deficit budget that he had inherited from President Bush and the past congress and the $13 trillion in commitments to the banking and insurance industry that had been made by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. He recognized the whole we were in as a country and as a people. He recognized the danger we were in of spiraling down into a financial meltdown and he accepted the outrageous policies of the final few months of the Bush Administration because he knew that to challenge those policies would even further weaken the confidence in the financial sector, a sector that had come to dominate the U.S. economy. But he also realized that the road back for the U.S. cannot depend on renewed speculation and the trading of "financial products." We needed real jobs for real people making real things. So he proposed and got passed a "stimulus" package to put people back to work, repairing and building the infrastructure of America, an infrastructure that we had ignored. It takes time to get a government project off the ground - there are still contracts to negotiate, bids to take, and permits to negotiate. Cumberland County has been fortunate to have received funding for a number of these infrastructure projects - for Lantana Rd, for maintenance of 127, for maintenance at the State Park, for repair and replacement of sewer lines, for upgrading of the wastewater treatment facility, and for two project designed to ensure an adequate water supply for the future. The same people who complained about the government spending were silent during the past eight years when the deficit tripled so that the rich could have a tax cut.
President Obama also promised America when he was running for office that he would fix the problems of the US health care system that ranks 37th in the world in terms of the delivery of health care but is by far the most expensive. While a final bill has yet to be hammered out, there have been relentless attacks, organized and paid for by the insurance companies. Senior citizens on Medicare and retired military who receive government health care rant about "government health care," as though they were not already on it and glad of it. Extremists engage in name-called and lying to try to sway the public into opposing reform, though health care is the most common cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S. and Tennessee, and the cost of health care has been dragging down American businesses.
Locally, we have been treated this year to a series of indefensible actions by local Republican office holders. State Representative Swafford replaced the Republican Election Commissioners with persons hand-picked to follow his directions who then illegally fired the Election Administrators despite the urgings of a wide range of citizens and the County Commission. These conspirators, including Representative Swafford, are now attempting to defend themselves in court, despite admitting that they acted illegally.
County Mayor Brock Hill shocked many Cumberland Countians by secretly negotiating for a waste dump on Smith Mountain and then acting as the agent of the proposing company rather than the representative of the people of Cumberland County is pushing a resolution allowing the dump through the County Commission. That action, along with a number of others finally pushed the Commission to remove him as their Chairman at the September meeting, a strong vote of no confidence.
We are facing difficult time as a nation, as a state, and as a community. Unemployment is at rates not seen since Ronald Reagan was President, but unlike then, this recession is not expected to end quickly. The bankers and Wall Street claim to be making money again, but not the rest of the economy. These are serious times and will require serious solutions. Unfortunately, the future we face is also changing so the solutions of the past may not serve us well now. It will take creative problem solving, not name calling. It will take leadership from government at all levels, to help its citizens to find new ways to live and prosper in the changing world we are living in. We need to support small business development like never before, because we cannot predict which new idea will win out in the marketplace.
It is far easier to complain than to solve problems. It is far easier to call names that to name alternatives. Yet challenging times are also times of opportunity. They can also be times of danger as demagogues can play on people's fears. It is our job as Democrats to remind our friends, families, and neighbors that we are ALL in this together. We must work together for the common good. Our Party has never been happy with solutions that only serve the few at the expense of the many. Democracy calls for sacrifice at times, so that the majority can benefit.
There remains much to do.
Dennis Gregg, Chair