Only in America

Thursday, November 06, 2008

By Bill Sniffin

Last Tuesday saw the triumph of first presidential candidate sponsored by Generation We over the last ever candidate from the Greatest Generation. It was in the form of Barack Obama winning the presidency over John McCain.

Okay, Sen. Obama really is a younger member of the Baby Boomer Generation but the voters who got him elected were the young folks who call themselves Millennials or Generation We.

Check out the video of these young folks at www.gen-we.com. It may curl your gray hair. Well, it curled mine, at least a little.

Such idealism. And perhaps such naiveté, it could be said.

Gosh, I can sort of remember what it felt like to be an idealist. It was a long time ago. But those were good feelings and great memories.

So what can we expect from this new president?
With courage and timing, the president-elect and Congress have inadvertently been handed the meal ticket they have been looking for to rebuild the country. They could do this by capitalizing on the rapidly declining gasoline prices at the pump.

It is still hard to believe that people paid $1.95 per gallon this week in Casper for unleaded regular gasoline.

Americans four months ago would have done a back flip if someone could have promised them they could peg gas prices even as low as $2.95 per gallon.
So, my suggestion is that if they had the courage, Sen. Obama and the Democrat Congress could impose a heinous $1 per gallon gas tax and then somehow put controls on gas prices to keep them in the under $3 range. If they did this, it could help give them the money they need to rebuild the country in the image they are proposing.

Everyone assumed that their idealistic plans and programs would have to be postponed because there was no money left after the bank bailouts and the huge federal programs that have recently occurred. Projects like universal health insurance, expanded education opportunities and worker-retraining programs would have to wait until the money was there.

But the plunge in gasoline prices gives them an opportunity that I personally would dread. Proponents would say that another benefit of high gas prices would be to promote conservation and facilitate the demise of the gas-guzzler.
But to have the miracle of sudden low gas prices come along at this most opportune time – well, the timing is impeccable for the new president and his Congress.

But do they have the courage? Now that is a different story.

Am I advocating such a tax? No, it will not be good for Wyoming. But for the sake of the kind of country they want to build, well, the opportunity has come knocking on their doors.

Historians will mark this election in much bigger ways than gasoline prices, though. Sen. Obama’s election is a true example of The American Dream. - that anyone can grow up and be anything he or she aspires to be in our great country. No president in our history has come as far as Sen. Obama. It makes me proud of our country.

Perhaps Sen. Obama said it best: “For as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.”

Am I worried about our country with him at the helm? Heck yes, but he IS our new president. No doubt it will be a very interesting ride.

Here is what State Rep. Debbie Hammons (D-Worland) had to say: “The miracle of the experiment of democracy is that government peacefully is transferred with the simple act of citizens voting. Campaigning has become ugly but democracy has not.” Well said.

Earlier in this column, I talked about Generation We. According to the Gen-We website, the following is how this big group of folks describes themselves:

“Millennials are the largest generation in American history. Born between 1978 and 2000, they are 95 million strong, compared to 78 million Baby Boomers.

“They are independent—politically, socially, and philosophically—and they are spearheading a period of sweeping change in America and around the world.”
As a group, these folks tend to believe they are inheriting a world much worse than the world inherited by their parents. But despite this, they tend to be an optimistic lot.

It’s all in the video. Pretty impressive.

Check out Bill Sniffin’s columns and blogs at HYPERLINK "http://www.billsniffin.com" www.billsniffin.com. He is a longtime Wyoming journalist from Lander who has two books that are available at fine bookstores.

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Reader Comments
Dude I read that first paragraph 3 times and still I don't have any fucking idea what you're yammering about what?
Hello My Fellow Patriots: This is an open letter to everyone who has long sought to impeach George W. Bush & Richard Cheney. Over the years, millions of us throughout America have shared your well-founded courage and outrage at the horror of how this administration has very nearly ruined our country, bankrupted our wealth and values while trashing our moral standing abroad and Constitution, federal statutes, obligations under international laws and treaties at home in their foolish, ruthless zeal to enact a corrupt, elitist agenda without regard to all the mayhem, misery and unnecessary deaths the world over that Bush & Co. has so very willfully caused. As if this unchecked, anti-Constitutioinal behavior was not bad enough, many of us have been most shocked and disgusted by the complete moral depravity and likely legal complicity of elected Democrats in Congress who have blocked Reps. Conyer's committee hearings and Kucinich's articles of impeachment from progressing with the critical work they should have years ago been allowed to advance. There is no good excuse, not even the presidential viability of their fellow Democrats, that justifies permitting a climate of insane, unaccountable and unjust policies to reign supreme while so deeply wounding our sacred and fragile republican-style democracy. With the election of Sen. Barack Obama as president, Speaker Pelosi still has no good arguments left for not taking her heel off the neck of impeachment proceedings, other than, as Republican attorney Bruce Fines, and others have suggested, to further cover up her own complicity in the alleged crimes of the Bush-Cheney White House. (Constitutionally, according to her oath, she never did have any legal reason for blocking this process) We all understand that according to Speaker Pelosi and other members of Congress's oaths of office, not one member, Republican, Democrat or Independent, could rationally defend allowing the current administration’s crimes to our nation to persist, years on end, other than ignorance of our laws or a selfish disregard for our Founding Fathers Constitutional principles. Because We the People should hold no more hope than before Sen. Obama's victory to expect anything will be done regarding the issue of impeachment, I am curious to know: How many of you would support a day of peaceful and symbolic impeachment on Jan. 20th? How so, you ask? Perhaps in the manner of a rolling blackout from coast-to-coast, starting at 9 am EST then 9 am MST and 9 am PST, etc., for one hour, all of us, in each respective time zone, do NOTHING on Jan. 20th but sit or lie down, sasen or Yoga-style if you wish, and do not drive our cars, consume anything, purchase anything and turn off all the power and electricity within the immediate control of our environments? Would a collective effort like this, with the 70+ days we have to organize it, send an appropriate message to corporate America that never again will We the People tolerate or stand for such dangerous and unfit persons for elected office as they have sponsored in Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their many national clones, without that choice costing them something of their bottom lines? Perhaps it was Benjamin Franklin, but if not the sentiment still applies: “A patriot defends his country when it’s attacked, praises it when it’s right and rights it when it’s wrong.” For many of us, it feels as if a very big wrong is not being righted. We should not let those in Congress who do not share our sense of patriotism discourage us from righting what is wrong. Well, that's it. Thanks for reading. Please post your comments, critical or otherwise. I am most curious to know. -- A fellow American Nat'l Impeachment Day!!!
Hello My Fellow Patriots: This is an open letter to everyone who has long sought to impeach George W. Bush & Richard Cheney. Over the years, millions of us throughout America have shared your well-founded courage and outrage at the horror of how this administration has very nearly ruined our country, bankrupted our wealth and values while trashing our moral standing abroad and Constitution, federal statutes, obligations under international laws and treaties at home in their foolish, ruthless zeal to enact a corrupt, elitist agenda without regard to all the mayhem, misery and unnecessary deaths the world over that Bush & Co. has so very willfully caused. As if this unchecked, anti-Constitutioinal behavior was not bad enough, many of us have been most shocked and disgusted by the complete moral depravity and likely legal complicity of elected Democrats in Congress who have blocked Reps. Conyer's committee hearings and Kucinich's articles of impeachment from progressing with the critical work they should have years ago been allowed to advance. There is no good excuse, not even the presidential viability of their fellow Democrats, that justifies permitting a climate of insane, unaccountable and unjust policies to reign supreme while so deeply wounding our sacred and fragile republican-style democracy. With the election of Sen. Barack Obama as president, Speaker Pelosi still has no good arguments left for not taking her heel off the neck of impeachment proceedings, other than, as Republican attorney Bruce Fines, and others have suggested, to further cover up her own complicity in the alleged crimes of the Bush-Cheney White House. (Constitutionally, according to her oath, she never did have any legal reason for blocking this process) We all understand that according to Speaker Pelosi and other members of Congress's oaths of office, not one member, Republican, Democrat or Independent, could rationally defend allowing the current administration’s crimes to our nation to persist, years on end, other than ignorance of our laws or a selfish disregard for our Founding Fathers Constitutional principles. Because We the People should hold no more hope than before Sen. Obama's victory to expect anything will be done regarding the issue of impeachment, I am curious to know: How many of you would support a day of peaceful and symbolic impeachment on Jan. 20th? How so, you ask? Perhaps in the manner of a rolling blackout from coast-to-coast, starting at 9 am EST then 9 am MST and 9 am PST, etc., for one hour, all of us, in each respective time zone, do NOTHING on Jan. 20th but sit or lie down, sasen or Yoga-style if you wish, and do not drive our cars, consume anything, purchase anything and turn off all the power and electricity within the immediate control of our environments? Would a collective effort like this, with the 70+ days we have to organize it, send an appropriate message to corporate America that never again will We the People tolerate or stand for such dangerous and unfit persons for elected office as they have sponsored in Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their many national clones, without that choice costing them something of their bottom lines? Perhaps it was Benjamin Franklin, but if not the sentiment still applies: “A patriot defends his country when it’s attacked, praises it when it’s right and rights it when it’s wrong.” For many of us, it feels as if a very big wrong is not being righted. We should not let those in Congress who do not share our sense of patriotism discourage us from righting what is wrong. Well, that's it. Thanks for reading. Please post your comments, critical or otherwise. I am most curious to know. -- A fellow American Nat'l Impeachment Day!!!
Hello My Fellow Patriots: This is an open letter to everyone who has long sought to impeach George W. Bush & Richard Cheney. Over the years, millions of us throughout America have shared your well-founded courage and outrage at the horror of how this administration has very nearly ruined our country, bankrupted our wealth and values while trashing our moral standing abroad and Constitution, federal statutes, obligations under international laws and treaties at home in their foolish, ruthless zeal to enact a corrupt, elitist agenda without regard to all the mayhem, misery and unnecessary deaths the world over that Bush & Co. has so very willfully caused. As if this unchecked, anti-Constitutioinal behavior was not bad enough, many of us have been most shocked and disgusted by the complete moral depravity and likely legal complicity of elected Democrats in Congress who have blocked Reps. Conyer's committee hearings and Kucinich's articles of impeachment from progressing with the critical work they should have years ago been allowed to advance. There is no good excuse, not even the presidential viability of their fellow Democrats, that justifies permitting a climate of insane, unaccountable and unjust policies to reign supreme while so deeply wounding our sacred and fragile republican-style democracy. With the election of Sen. Barack Obama as president, Speaker Pelosi still has no good arguments left for not taking her heel off the neck of impeachment proceedings, other than, as Republican attorney Bruce Fines, and others have suggested, to further cover up her own complicity in the alleged crimes of the Bush-Cheney White House. (Constitutionally, according to her oath, she never did have any legal reason for blocking this process) We all understand that according to Speaker Pelosi and other members of Congress's oaths of office, not one member, Republican, Democrat or Independent, could rationally defend allowing the current administration’s crimes to our nation to persist, years on end, other than ignorance of our laws or a selfish disregard for our Founding Fathers Constitutional principles. Because We the People should hold no more hope than before Sen. Obama's victory to expect anything will be done regarding the issue of impeachment, I am curious to know: How many of you would support a day of peaceful and symbolic impeachment on Jan. 20th? How so, you ask? Perhaps in the manner of a rolling blackout from coast-to-coast, starting at 9 am EST then 9 am MST and 9 am PST, etc., for one hour, all of us, in each respective time zone, do NOTHING on Jan. 20th but sit or lie down, sasen or Yoga-style if you wish, and do not drive our cars, consume anything, purchase anything and turn off all the power and electricity within the immediate control of our environments? Would a collective effort like this, with the 70+ days we have to organize it, send an appropriate message to corporate America that never again will We the People tolerate or stand for such dangerous and unfit persons for elected office as they have sponsored in Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their many national clones, without that choice costing them something of their bottom lines? Perhaps it was Benjamin Franklin, but if not the sentiment still applies: “A patriot defends his country when it’s attacked, praises it when it’s right and rights it when it’s wrong.” For many of us, it feels as if a very big wrong is not being righted. We should not let those in Congress who do not share our sense of patriotism discourage us from righting what is wrong. Well, that's it. Thanks for reading. Please post your comments, critical or otherwise. I am most curious to know. -- A fellow American Nat'l Impeachment Day!!!

Opinion

Only in America

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Reader Comments