Barack Obama

One of the things the next president has to do is to stop fanning people’s fears. If we spend all our time feeding the American people fear and conflict and division then they become fearful and conflicted and divided. If we feed them hope and we feed them reason and tolerance then they will become tolerant and reasonable and hopeful.

If you’re like me, you spent a fair bit of the last seven years being unhappy about the state of our government and complaining about the terrible acts being done in our name, but you spent pretty much no time at all actually doing anything about it.

So, this year I’ve resolved to try to transform some portion of that negative energy into positive action, and the man who’s convinced me to do it is Barack Obama.

Thus! For your consideration, I offer:

• Obama’s 2002 speech against the Iraq war, when most of the country was calling for invasion.
• Obama’s victory speech after winning the Iowa caucuses last week.
• This thought from one of the debates.

I don’t agree with every single one of Senator Obama’s campaign positions, but I agree with many of them. And most importantly, I believe that Obama has the capacity to lead this country into a new era of unity, optimism and rationalism.

Living in Munich now (more on that later!), one of the things I can do is to raise money for the campaign. So, I’ve set a goal of raising $5000 for Obama by January 21st. And I need your help.

If you agree that Obama is the leader we need (and you’re an American citizen or permanent resident), then I would urge you to contribute to the Obama primary campaign while there’s still time to affect the outcome.

If you are a Republican or an independent, and don’t plan to vote in the Democratic primaries, or if you have already contributed to another candidate, you can still send Obama $50 (or $500 ) if you believe he’s the best of the Democratic options. There’s nothing wrong with having a horse in each race, after all!

The link above will credit my personal fundraising campaign, but all of the money goes directly to Obama for America.  Just visit the link and click the ‘Donate’ button next to the thermometer.