pedward's Blog

As a person who has lived most of his life in a small town I was both
offended by Obama's remarks about people in small towns and surprised
to discover how little he knew about life in small town America. He
made it sound like we had all lost our jobs and were living in caves
and just barely surviving. He also made it sound like we were
apparently incapable of adjusting to life in 2008. He has no idea about
our lives. Which is pretty sad for someone who wants to be president of
the United States.  Apparently there are no small towns in Illinois.   
I might be wrong but I was under the impression that Illinois was a
farm state with  a lot of area outside of Chicago.  Gotta be a few
small towns there.  Didn't he ever leave Chicago when he ran for
Senator or did they just do it like the old days.   Mayor Daley just
made him Senator.    I didn't realize that the south side of Chicago
was the center of the universe.  It must be nicer and more affluent
than I was led to believe if Obama thinks that my life is miserable. 
In fact, life in the vast majority of small towns in America is a very
good one, thank you very much. Especially communities close to the
major cities. Many people choose to live in the small towns where
serious crime is low or doesn't exist, the people are friendly and the
pace is slower. Our schools are smaller so our children have more
opportunity to participate in activities. I mean you can be on the
football team on Friday, in the school play on Saturday and go fishing
on Sunday.  Ya I'd rather live in New York City.  Knowing everyone on
your block, and the next block too for that  matter is probably 
overrated.  I could probably go on and on but I think I made my point.
  Having said all of this  the most offensive part of Obama's  comments
was not that we were "bitter" about our lives.   He just displayed his
ignorance about a good part of America with  that comment.  No, what
offended me was when he said that we had an antipathy towards  towards
people that were different than us.    He doesn't know me or anyone
here in my small town well enough to say that.  The people in my town
care about their neighbors and strangers as much as anyone on this
planet, so that's a sad comment coming from someone who wants to be
President. 

It is a national disgrace how poorly large numbers of black Americans continue to do in this country but they have no to blame more than themselves and their pathetic national and local leadership. We've had 40 years since the death of Dr King and all we have had is 40 years of black leaders teaching generation after generation of young black children how to  fail.  How to feel sorry for themselves and blame someone else for all their problems.  We need a new generation of black leaders in this  country to replace the Jacksons and Sharptons and Rangles and Farakans and Wrights and all of the rest of old ripoff artist who have gotten rich on the backs of black America.  I thought  Obama might be that person but he clearly is not.  In 20 years he never found the personal courage and integrity to do the right thing and stand up against Wright's racism so he is clearly not the person to lead black
America and all of America into the future where all America comes together the way we should.