Dear Mom

This is kinda long, so before you read it, if you haven't read dave's last post, do it now because it rocks. We'll wait until you're back.

There's a reason I don't open my e-mail at night after I've relaxed. Tonight, I got a forwarded Obama smear e-mail with a note from my Mom at the top that read, "You like this guy?... Why?"

I love my mother, but I never talk politics with her. And she's sent me e-mails like this before (although I'm not usually called out in them). Usually I don't respond, but this time I answered her question. You tell me how I did, and I'll let you know what sort of response I get back:

First things first. The chain e-mail that was attached is mostly lies, a whole lot of horribly racist innuendo, some convenient misrepresentations, with maybe a fact or two sprinkled in. It's a common and cheap campaign tactic that political campaigns or their surrogates use to spread information, both true and false, because let's face it, people love to forward e-mails.

Anyways, just scanning the list, this one jumps out at me as a good example of how bogus these "not exactlies" are:

18.) I Was A Professor Of Law - NOT EXACTLY, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.

A "lecturer" at the University of Chicago is a professor who is not on the tenure-track. Obama taught law students at the University of Chicago. He was entitled to be called a professor. The New York Times actually just wrote a piece where they discussed his time teaching law, which you can read by clicking here.

Points 6, 7, and 8 are transparent attempts (and lies) to paint him as a scary Arab, because obviously all Arabs hate America. It's racist, and is particularly insulting to the millions of Arab-Americans who proudly call this country home. And I have to ask, does it matter if Obama is of Arab descent? Wasn't I taught in school and in the Scouts that anyone could grow up to be president in the United States?

And point 38 bugs me to no end because it's just wrong, but that's another whole e-mail/grad school paper.

I could go on, but I'll simply point out that practically all of these assertions don't include reputable sources where you can go and double-check for yourself whether the claims are true or not. That should raise some skepticism. You you should go to this section of Obama's campaign web site where they deal with most of this (a lot of this trash has been recycled for over a year now), as well as current misrepresentations. [...] The campaign page has links to mainstream news articles which provide evidence for the claim. You can also check out snopes.com for a more independent look at some of the myths (with more links to supporting evidence) (snopes is also just fun to poke around on - they research a lot of crazy stuff!).

But you asked me why I like Obama. The truth of the matter is, I don't know if I like him. I've never met him. All I see are carefully crafted public appearances that are supposed to make me like him. I do like what I see, and I have it on good authority from people that I trust that he's a good guy. But I'm not voting for him because I like him. I've voting for him because I support his vision for the country and the policies he's proposed to enact this vision. I certainly don't agree with all of his policies - but his views are far closer to my own than the alternatives.

I support Obama because:
1. He wants to end the war in Iraq - a war in which we never should have been involved in the first place.
2. He has a plan to make sure that everyone in this country has access to basic health care. Sure, this country has the best medical facilities in the world, but what does that matter if 47 million people (10 million of them being children) who can't afford health insurance can't get even their basic health needs met?
3. He supports a woman's right to control her own fertility.
4. He's committed to reducing carbon emissions to control human-caused climate change, developing alternative and renewable energy resources, and to a "greener," more sustainable future.
5. He'd invest public monies in rebuilding the countries infrastructure, which would not only mean that we could do the necessary work to fix the over 14,000 bridges that need renovation or replacement so to avoid another collapse like in Minneapolis last year, but also provide decent-wage jobs to people working on these projects.
6. He's committed to re-enhancing public education with accountability measures that actually make sense and funding so that schools have the resources to make sure every child succeeds.
7. He's showed a willingness to actually listen to all-comers on the important issues that face us, be they foreign or domestic.
8. He believes that government can actually be a force to improve the lives of our nation's citizens, like it has in the past.

There's a lot more I could go on about, but instead, I'll point you to his stands on the issues at his web site for you to check out. I hope you'll take the time to look at them and draw your own conclusions. I obviously know that when he's elected all of our problems won't be magically solved. But if that's what he wants our country to look like in eight years, I'm on board.

Finally, the biggest reason I support him is because I'm tired. I'm tired of seeing people die in a war that was based from the very beginning on lies. I'm tired of watching our government do nothing while a whole city drowns. I'm tired of our dependence on oil. I'm tired of watching the wealthiest people in this country line-up for even more tax breaks while everyone else struggles with a stagnant economy and soaring health care and energy prices. I'm tired of hearing about kids spending more time preparing for a standardized test than actually learning. I'm tired of an administration that pretends science doesn't exist when it doesn't support the "right" political policies. And I'm tired of having the rest of the world either frightened of us or angry at us.

It didn't used to be that way. Barack Obama has convinced me that it doesn't have to be that way, and that he'll take us in another direction. All John McCain has shown me is that I'll be even more tired if he's elected.

One last thing - if you get any more of these chain e-mails, please send this response back to the sender and all the other recipients. You can even put my name and e-mail address on it if people want to respond (don't worry, working in politics gives you thick skin). With such an important decision, people deserve to have the tools and information they need to be truly informed about the candidates. I have no doubt that a lot of people won't agree with his stands on the issues - and that's fine. Policies and issues need to be debated and compromises reached. But I think you'll agree that people shouldn't base their vote on some random e-mail, lacking any sort of references, filled with slander and lies written by some racist bigot.

Love,
[wobs]

And that's what I did with my evening.