STATUS QUO NEEDS CHANGE

Politics is not my passion, and I don't classify myself as a Republican or Democrat. But I'm becoming more convinced our government needs a radical change. The gridlock between the Legislative and Executive Branches is a big part of the problem, but the lions share of not getting things done rests with Congress. It's time to boot out a bunch of entrenched politicians that have been in office since Christ was a sergeant. We need young, vibrant, intelligent people not beholden to "big money and special interest groups," and Barack Obama may be worth consideration for the Executive Branch.

The following is part of what Obama had to say at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta this past Sunday. Not about plans for fixing some of the problems but about things we as Americans, should reflect upon.

http://www.digg.com/2008_us_elections/
Barack_Obama_Speaks_at_Dr_King_s_Church

"We have an empathy deficit when we’re still sending our children down corridors of shame – schools in the forgotten corners of America where the color of your skin still affects the content of your education.
We have a deficit when CEOs are making more in ten minutes than ordinary workers are making in an entire year; when families lose their homes so unscrupulous lenders can make a profit; when mothers can’t afford a doctor when their children are stricken with illness.
We have a deficit in this country when we have Scooter Libby justice for some and Jena justice for others; when our children see hanging nooses from a schoolyard tree, today, in the present, in the twenty-first century.
So we have a deficit to close. We have walls – barriers to justice and equality – that must come down.
All of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays – on the job, in the schools, in our health care system and in our criminal justice system.
And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King’s vision of a beloved community.
If we are honest with ourselves we have to admit that there have been times when We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants only as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity.
Because if Dr. King could love his jailor; if he could call on the faithful who once sat where you do to forgive those who set dogs and fire hoses upon them, then surely we can look past what divides us in our time, and bind up our wounds, and erase the empathy deficit that exists in our hearts."