Happy MLK Day

As we celebrate the life and message of Dr. Martin Luther King, we need to consider his work unfinished. With the presidential campaigns in full force, spreading their vision for the future, it has become clear that one candidate, for me, is truly offering a world view that makes sense. Dr. Ron Paul is bringing a vision that actually differs from the other candidates. He is challenging the status quo and it is working because there are constant attempts to exclude him from the debates, from political coverage, to label him "un-electable" (thanks Faux…I mean Fox News). Despite this, Dr. Paul's message is building enthusiasm and excitement across the country. There are many issues important to me that the candidate must offer solutions to for me to be interested in them (a note: we are interviewing these candidates to be our president, so we need to be as demanding as possible so we get the best. Don't settle for one based on party lines; consider each viewpoint, which means actually reading about candidates you don't agree with). First, and probably most important, is Iraq and our withdrawal from Iraq. Goodbye most of the Republicans. Dr. Paul wants us out and for so many good reasons. I believe Dr. Paul is 100% correct in his assessment of why 9/11 happened (speaking of, does Giuliani appear if you say 9/11 three times, like Beetlejuice?). Our foreign policies, our military presence in so many foreign countries, our lust for oil all contribute to us treating other countries, particularly in the Middle East, as second- or third-class world citizens. Sound familiar? Think back to this country's struggles with civil rights and all the emotions and violence it created (Civil War anyone? KKK anyone). Why do we find it so shocking that we treat foreign governments in much the same way blacks were treated, and the people of those governments lash out at us much the same way the African-Americans lashed out at the establishment for the last 150 years? Fortunately there were voices like MLK to calm the violence and provide a peaceful plan to uplift society. Ron Paul speaks of this peace, on the global scale, and we need to heed that voice! A second issue, which, while just barely lower on my list than the war, probably is the most important issue our country is facing, and that issue is the economy. For too long the Federal Reserve (a private institution) has held our money supply in its clutches. The FR has gotten us so far away from the Gold Standard that our money is severely devalued. Talking about Nevada and its recent caucus, Dr. Paul wrote in his newsletter:

Nevada, by the way, is known as the Silver State for a reason-its great mining industry produced the precious metal for the beautiful silver dollars minted at the fabled Carson City mint. These constitutional coins, include .775 ounces of silver, in accord with the Coinage Act of 1792. Today these coins, worth $1 in my father's day, have about $14 in silver. That is, the dollar is worth 1/14th of what it was, thanks to the counterfeiting Federal Reserve.

1/14th of what they were! Economic theory is hard to swallow for most, I know, but this is a pretty clear example of the dire position our economy is in. To make matters worse, this was the situation before the housing bubble burst, and before the Iraq War. You toss those two economic clusterf@cks into the mix and its no wonder the word "recession" is tossed about so freely. From an economic standpoint, we're sending billions of dollars each year to Iraq, in the form of troops, aid, weapons, etc, and yet we are in the midst of a huge housing crisis, our dollar is severely devalued, and we are being loaned money at an alarming rate by China to finance the war. Do we really think China will not use our debt to them as leverage to get what they want? Since when did the United States put themselves in the pocket of a communist country? And from all the discussion, not a single candidate, aside from Dr. Paul, is seeing the connections and planning accordingly. They want to fix the effects, rather than address the causes, and it seems most want to print more money to assuage the economic crisis. It is clear to me that Dr. Paul is the guiding light that truly offers the right kind of change, a principled change, based on sound reasoning and policy, and brought to us by a principled man. No candidate can be one-size-fits-all to the American people; we are too diverse for that to ever be the case. However, I believe Dr. Paul's message to benefit most the common man, middle- and lower-income families, and the American image abroad. Isn't it time we had a president who actually had policies intended to let Americans live as they see fit and not as some bureaucrat in Washington sees fit? If so, read his thoughts on the issues and donate to Dr. Paul's campaign today! Join the REVOLUTION!