A Fairy Tale You'll Love!

                                                         

Once upon a time America was blessed by the birth of a young man who would grow up and flourish and, in maturity, become the savior of a 21st Century America teetering with old age, her countrymen angry and dispirited and suffering from a crumbling foundation.

This young man was a celebration of diversity itself, carrying within his DNA the father of African descent and delightfully paired with the DNA of staunch and reliable maternal midwestern roots.  And, though he lived abroad for awhile, he, and we, were fortunate that, like a flower that flourishes under perfect growing conditions, this young man grew up in a lively melting pot of Caucasian, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese and Polynesian that is Hawaii.  And so the young man grew up amidst the ready acceptance of ethnic richness, beautiful diversity...along with the accompanying receptiveness to the ideas of others.

The young man's creator blessed him further.  Growing up in a middle class household, he was miraculously given tuition free education in Hawaii's most prestigious private high school.  

And like every young man at age eighteen, our young hero was unsure of his own future, undecided about what road to take, but determined to become someone who would make the world better.  And so, he "dated the world a bit" attending a couple of universities, exploring the world before at last deciding on a law degree from Harvard.

Law degree in hand, now fully grown, his youth spent freely but well, the young man decided it was time to give back to the wonderful country that had blessed him with educational preferences, low cost loans and even generous grants.  

So he set off for Chicago, believing that he might work as a community organizer in a Black ghetto.  Being so blessed himself, he believed that he could serve as a fine role model for young Blacks to emulate; to learn to value an education, to learn the value of honest hard work, to cast off the false shackles of victimhood and reclaim Martin Luther King's simple and modest dream of "a place at the table".  

The young man worked tirelessly on the South side of Chicago.  He urged Blacks to fore go a life of welfare poverty, a life of crime, a life of deathly drugs, for a life of modest hard work and the pride of personal achievement.  

In those few years in the ghettos of Chicago this young man would change the lives of thousands of impoverished Blacks.  He would serve as a role model; serving his community in grace, in infinite patience and with no reward except the pleasure of seeing lives transformed.

Such was his greatness the young man was soon elected to the Illinois Senate.  While there he witnessed corruption and graft and moral weakness.  Rather than turn away from a challenge, the young man was so well spoken that he took the corruption and the graft "public".  He spoke out against the same old politics; the politics of divide and conquer, the politics of ethnic diversion.  

Soon the young man became known as a champion of the people and was sent forthwith to Washington as the Illinois junior Senator.  Upon arrival in Washington our young savior was once again up against the wicked and the corrupt and wasteful...and deemed to speak out against it.  He voted against raising the debt ceiling to accommodate George Bush's $250 billion dollar deficit.  He proclaimed his love for people, not party; in his mind there would be no red states or blue states...only American states.

Soon this young man, this breath of fresh air, became the subject of talks, of the potential for higher office.  And, as is a prerequisite for those with higher political ambitions, the young man wrote a couple of books about his youth, of his high moral foundation and how he came to build a foundation so magnificent.  His books became million sellers as Americans, thirsty for a savior, bought his books and waited in long lines for his signature and perhaps a handshake.

Soon the adoration reached a fever pitch and he was, with great modesty, thrown into the Presidential arena.  Befitting his near saintly lifestyle he adopted the motto "Hope and Change", promising that, if elected he would conduct our nation's business with transparency, that he would drive the lobbyists from Washington, that he would embrace his Republican opponents as "brother" and get Washington to work together again.  Time and time again he would issue forth with JFK's old saw "let us never negotiate out of fear...but never let us fear to negotiate".  

And so Americans spurned the politics of old, a relic from the Clinton dynasty, and embraced the concept of electing our first African American...and such a fine man he was!  Beyonce would sing "At Last" at his inaugural ball, the double musical entendre being we have elected a man of good will..and we have elected a Black, which will surely heal all the old ethnic wounds and bind us all, Black and White as one.

The now middle aged man began to freshen the Washingtonian air on the first day at work.  He called in the Democrats and Republicans and pledged to work closely with them, said that no one had a patent on "right" and that all ideas would be welcome.  After inheriting a terrible financial crisis he began incorporating the ideas of both parties in formulating a revamp of our financial institutions and preparing a sensible and manageable stimulus program that would reinvigorate business.  When the Democratic wolves of his own party dared to show their fangs he calmed them down and urged cooperation and harmony.    With laser like focus he cobbled together the best ideas of both parties and put together an economic stimulus program that, within a year, achieved full employment for all Americans who wanted a job.

His success in working with Republicans was so impressive that party leaders often began dropping over to the White House in the evening and shooting some hoops and quaffing a beer or two.  This bonding, this camaraderie would eventually lead to the Great American Health Care Initiative of 2009.  A completely voluntary program, fully blessed by both Democrats and Republicans, the new health care law incorporated tort reform, opened up health care marketing across state lines, prohibited discrimination for pre-exisitng conditions, and placed a measure of responsibility for those citizens who received government subsidies for their health care.  These measures included imposing a co-pay for Medicaid, thus insuring citizens had some stake in the game of maintaining their health, it outlawed the use of food stamps at fast food restaurants and made it a felony to trade food stamp cards for cash or drugs.  A new auditing group was established to root out waste, fraud and abuse and rewarded program auditors with bonuses when waste and fraud was discovered.  

Having achieved a miraculous economic recovery, and having successful signed effective and common sense health care legislation, this fine President then began to tackle the problem of illegal immigration. Working with both parties, the President presented immigration reform that was both a pat on the back and kick in the behind.  He announced that we cannot simply reward those who violated our immigration laws by granting amnesty.  But, recognizing that some innocents were involved, he offered to grant citizenship to any 18 to 28 year old illegal if, and only if they served either four years in our military or four years of a national recognized community service.  He then contracted with Mastercard to implement a fool proof E-Verify program and promised to levy million dollar penalties and felony incarceration for any employer found to be employing illegal aliens.  As a result of this legislation, more than ten million illegal aliens self deported, unable to find employment anywhere.  This brought tears of joys to all of those immigrant applicants who had been waiting in line for as long as ten years to be admitted.  

Within two years self deportation was such a success that the national crime rate declined by forty percent, the costs of social service program were cut in half, and America was once again safe from hit and run Mexicans and violent home invasions and the teacher to student ratio dropped from 30 to 1 to 15 to 1 as the Mexican invasion had at last been halted and precious Education resources could now be focused on American kids, rather than incurring the enormous costs in time and money of teaching English to millions of Mexican kids.

When the 2012 Presidential Election came around this fine President won 49 of the fifty states, a feat matched only by Ronald Reagan in 1984.  Citizens registered as Republicans crossed party lines to vote for a man who reinvigorated our economy, installed a cost effective and efficient health care system and brought Blacks and White and Asian and Hispanics together, once again the "melting pot" that brought about our previous greatness.  

While receiving only 60 percent of the Black vote, the President was satisfied.  After all it was he who attended those NAACP meetings and chastised the Blacks who tended to fall back on their ethnic victimhood.  He held himself up as a role model for those Blacks who were willing to educate themselves and go out and make an honest living.  At every turn this President was the first to criticize a senseless ghetto shooting and place the blame where it rightly belonged.  Millions of Blacks were finally listening to the President's message.  Welfare rolls were trimmed, Black high school dropout rates declined and Americans of every skin color were finally on a productive roll.  

Just this past year a corrupt Detroit came to the President seeking federal aid.  This President had the following to say "just like I told the corrupt government in Chicago, you made your bed, now lay in it".  

And now, half way through his second term, Barack Obama is a much beloved figure to millions of Americans who enjoy a bonding with their community and with a Washington transparency that drove out the the "moneychangers" and gave the government back to the people.  

There is talk of putting one more face on Mount Rushmore...and rightly so.

Note:  The tragedy here is that a man of finer character, of less arrogance and more modesty, a man who who was in tune with his greater angels could have made all of this "wonderfulness" come about.  No man and no President had a greater opportunity to achieve greatness, to transform America..the words were "pretty" but the deeds were black, and sadly we are bitterly divided and as close to a 2nd Civil War than we've ever been.