Letter to Obama

I've been getting an increasing number of calls and emails soliciting money for the Obama reelection campaign. I've been declining and trying to tell them why, but have been getting the clear feeling they don't give a damn. Their only answer is: Barack is better than whoever will run against him. As if that was enough. So after receiving yet another email pleading for my support today, I sent the following response, which I'm sure will fall on deaf ears:

Mr. President,

When I was called asking to donate again (I gave multiple times to the first campaign), I told the phone agent that I needed you, the President, to give people like me a sign that you care about what we have to say. Instead of being so reactive to what Republicans are saying and doing, why don’t you start listening to the people whose support you’ve lost by ignoring us.

We care that you completely backtracked on your promise to close Guantanamo. We care that you have not used the power of your office to strongly endorse the science behind climate change and expose those who question it for self-serving motives. We care that you have become as much a warmonger as your predecessor was, making a mockery of the Nobel Peace Prize you received. We care that you’ve allowed Wikileaks to be vilified and its supporters harassed instead of using it as a wake-up call to restore integrity in US foreign affairs. We care that you’ve allowed Wall Street profiteers to walk away from the massive fraud they committed against the American people, even appointing some of them to your administration. We care that you’ve not committed to formally appointing Elizabeth Warren to protect the American consumer against financial highway robbery. And we definitely care that you so eagerly walked away from the Public Option, didn’t even give Single Payer a chance, and made backroom deals with Big Pharma.

Mr. President, you promised change in your first campaign. I understand you can’t do everything on your own and that the influence of money on Congress and the Supreme Court have made your job harder. Still, there is plenty you can do that you have not. I’d much rather have you be a one-term president with principles rather than yet another two-term Washington insider intent on preserving the status quo that is corroding this nation in so many ways.

Respectfully,

Bruno Sarda

Freedom, equality & relationships

It's been ages since I've written anything in this blog. Not that I haven't had anything to say. Maybe it's the lack of time. Or maybe it's the fact that I am better able to carry out these conversations in the course of my daily personal and professional lives.

Today, the spark to write came from the decision by the state of New York to grant all its citizens equal rights to marry the person they love. The decision in itself is not what made me want to write, but rather the fact that this was so hard to achieve and that so many people on one particular side of the political spectrum are so intent on imposing their ideology and beliefs on everyone else, while claiming to be the champions of freedom and individual liberties. What a crock.

Just like Ford said you could choose any car color as long as it was black, the right wing in the US says you're free to do and say what you want as long as you agree with them.

Someone once told me that the best relationship is one where the other person creates the space for you to be exactly who you are. As far as political relationships go, the GOP is pretty much the opposite of that. There is no room for a range of opinions there. GW Bush said 'if you're not with us you're against us'. That could become the GOP's mission statement. Agree with all credible scientists around the world about climate change? Believe in a woman's right to choose when to bring a child into this world? Believe that profit-driven ideology is not the best way to run things like prisons, or healthcare, or armies? Believe in the right of government to regulate business so as to protect society from destructive greed? You're against them.

I know the idea of updating the US Constitution to better reflect the needs and realities of today's society is a very controversial subject. Yet, how powerful this could be. Imagine a new Constitutional Convention, leveraging the power of connected technology to involve anyone in the country who's interested. Look at the result in Iceland where they are using the Web to crowd source their new constitution. Imagine instituting a true national debate about fundamental issues like immigration, guns, campaign finance, state's rights, rules for throwing country into foreign wars, solidarity and the role of government in providing a social foundation where everyone truly is equal in their ability to prosper and pursue happiness. This is not about pushing an agenda.This is about acknowledging that today's political agenda is being driven by a very small number of extremely powerful and rich people. Exactly the situation that the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution and the US Constitution sought to eliminate.

John Lennon's song 'Imagine' is more relevant today than ever. We have the capability and capacity to imagine and build a better world. And I believe we have the collective will. I also believe those in power mostly do not, in large part because they benefit from the status quo. Just like the French aristocrats did before the Revolution. Just like the British did in the Colonies, be it the Americas or India.

Let's all wish for a world where it is not big news when anyone in New York is able to marry the person they love. A world where equality, solidarity, opportunity, fairness and decency are not privileges to be earned or fought for, but rather fundamental rights protected by law. A world where greed and intolerance and violence are once again bad things period, not just a matter of opinion.The path to such a world is to choose relationships - political, personal, commercial - in our lives that allow for these values and dreams to grow, not die.