Email this Page

Name
Email Address
Friend's Name
Friend's Email
Enter the Above Characters:

close

Annapolis (April 21) - Ron Miller, president of Regular Folks United, issued the following statement concerning President Obama's comments at yesterday's Facebook town hall meeting in Palo Alto, California:

 

"Mr. President, before you took office, it was rare to hear a president of the United States insult hundreds of millions of the Americans he took an oath to lead. In fact, I cannot recall a president who routinely criticizes, with the most reprehensible of charges, Americans who disagree with his worldview.

 

"Your statement at yesterday's Facebook town hall meeting was an Orwellian masterpiece, and it was insulting to its core. 

 

"You derided Americans who have given their blood, toil, tears and sweat to create, innovate and produce, who took risks and failed but got back up again, and upon whose backs communities were built and jobs created so that others could also have the opportunity to realize their dreams, as people who, 'no matter how much [they've] taken from this country, have no obligation to people who are less fortunate than [themselves], and...no real obligation to future generations to make investments so they have a better future.'

 

"Mr. President, while you were walking the streets of Chicago agitating people who believed society had given them a raw deal, these Americans you believe have "taken" from this country were rising up from circumstances not dissimilar from those constituents of yours, or your own as you grew up. Most of this nation's wealth, by an overwhelming margin, was earned, and the people who earned it believed in the American Dream, which you apparently embrace only because it is politically expedient to do so. 

 

"They weren't born with silver spoons in their mouths and were given nothing that assured them of success, other than their God-bestowed talents, work ethic and liberties as Americans, which they used to their great benefit, and that of their families and communities.

 

"Along the way, they became the engine that drives the most charitable nation on the planet. Americans, especially conservatives, give more annually in charity than the entire government budget for aid to families. They are not taking, Mr. President, they are giving with glad and generous hearts. Charity is not dispensed under the threat of state action, and taxes are not an indication of who is more compassionate than anyone else, only how efficiently the government can take from others the bread which they have earned.

 

"Americans believe in family, community, charity and church instead of government as the wellspring for compassion and giving. Government is not a charity - I repeat, it is not a charity - because charity is a voluntary act of altruism and is not carried out under gunpoint. Government is an agent of the sword, and because it has lied to the people, persuading generations of citizens that it is THE solution to our problems, it has made us morally lazy, and removed from us the opportunity that true service to others gives us to build a sense of community with our neighbors. 

 

"We understand our obligations to our neighbors, Mr. President, but your confiscation of our family funds beyond what government needs to perform its core functions, and the harm your record deficits have brought to this economy have, in fact, hindered us in feeding, clothing and sheltering the needy in our communities. We press on in spite of the hardship, not because government compels us to do so, but because we, not the government, are the heart, mind, soul and strength of compassion in America, and the world.

 

"Your desperation to be re-elected, however, is so great that you don't seem to realize just how disparaging your words are to good, hard-working people who bless others every day as they've been blessed. Given your divide and conquer tour, where you're determined to rip this nation into factions for your political benefit, it is nearly impossible for me to believe that you rose to prominence on the words of a speech that declared 'there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America.'

 

"What happened to you, Mr. President? Or was it all a lie from the beginning?"