Published: September 04, 2008 09:59 am         

Barack Obama makes good points about caring what happens to others

I first heard of Barack Obama after his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention. Two lines of the speech especially caught my attention:

“If there’s a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandmother.”

I began to do some research and found out that this was more than political rhetoric. Straight out of Harvard Law School, Obama worked as a community organizer on Chicago’s south side rather than join the upscale crowd on Wall Street. As an Illinois state senator and later a U.S. senator, he sponsored legislation that helped the lives of ordinary Americans.

Recently I called my Nappanee optometrist for a routine appointment. I was told that the schedule was full because of recent layoffs. People who had lost their jobs were making eye appointments before their insurance ran out. I thought about the impact of the policies of the past eight years — policies that have failed the test of what the Republican Party used to stand for, policies that have benefited the rich and hurt the hardworking middle class.

There are people in Elkhart County who have lost their jobs because of failed government policies, and that matters to me, even if it’s not my brother who has lost a job. There are people in Elkhart County who have lost their health insurance, and that matters to me, even if it’s not my sister’s family.

I don’t expect that government can or will do everything. Individuals, churches and community organizations need to reach out to their neighbors. But I do want a government whose policies don’t set us up for failure. I want a government that mitigates corporate greed rather than encourages it, government that makes it possible for every American to have enough. In this predominantly Republican county, I will be voting for Democrat Barack Obama, a candidate with a heart for the ordinary people of America. I hope many others join me.

— Rose Stutzman

Goshen