Dear fellow SEC members and fellow Democrats, I am Marshall Adame, the President of the North Carolina Democratic Party Hispanic American Caucus.
I want to thank so many of you for your dedication, devotion and determination leading up to the November 2016 election where North Carolina elected a Democratic Governor, Roy Cooper, a Democratic Attorney General, Josh Stein, a Democratic Supreme Court Justice, Mike Morgan and re-elected our Democratic State Auditor, Beth Wood as well as our Democratic Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. The NC GOP was determined to prevent that outcome, but failed due to your work and dedication to democracy, our party, our principles and values.
I cut this out of a Stars and Stripes in Japan over 30 years ago....
"The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence paid a very real and heavy price for paving the way for our liberty and freedom in our own independent country.
To those of you who believe that might makes right and that our forefather were all highly placed social climbers of their day who sat around pondering the virtues of an American Independent nation, or wealthy players making backroom deals, please take note here.
What does the current minimum wage actually do for the Large Corporations who have made the minimum wage part of their basic wage scale? A lot actually. Firstly, it allows the U.S. Taxpayer to subsidize the giant Corporations who fully realize that just about every full time minimum wage earner in America (Average age 35) will qualify for some kind of “Public Assistance” due to their minimum wage status. In essence, the Large Corporations paying minimum wage fully know that they are being subsidized and therefore adding to their bottom line, courtesy of the U.S. Taxpayer.
Veteran’s days are a very special day for the Adame family. My Father Johnnie Adame was a Korean War veteran, My Father-in-law, The Reverend Thomas Ortiz is also a Korean War veteran and a Purple Heart recipient.
I am a Vietnam Veteran and served almost four years in Iraq as a civilian.
My son Billy is a Iraq Combat veteran who was critically wounded in a Battle with Iraqi insurgents in 2006. My youngest son Benjamin, also a combat veteran, served 15 months in Iraq and 12 Afghanistan and my eldest son Paul is a veteran of 5 years in the Air Force. The Adame’s are well acquainted and represented in military service to our Country.
I was watching a news/commentary program on TV this morning while making my breakfast in the Middle East where I am on business. I have the benefit here of watching Arab commentary as well as US commentary (I am able to stream MSNBC and CNN on my computer). It now appears that President Obama has decided that a U.S. Strike on Syria is a real likelihood. Not all the countries friendly to the U.S. in the Middle East are supporting that decision.
Pigeon-holing is something we Americans love to do. It’s almost cultural for us and in our political realm it is pervasive to say the least. We seem to have this very strong need to categorize everyone into a group which we then give a name to. In political terms we are fond of using “Liberal and Conservative” as pigeonholes to separate many varied schools of thought into two categories. I guess it makes it simple.
“If, particularly in the past ten years, you have become angry at our U.S. Government’s seemingly inability to manage money and assets, particularly in programs where countries who hate us are benefiting from U.S. mismanagement of assets, reading the rest of this article is going to really upset you“.
I have heard it said that “War is too important a matter to be left to the Generals”.
I am very troubled, even hurt, by what I see in America today. Intellectually I understand the falling and the raising of political fortunes as well as the gulf which separates so many Americans ideologically, socially, financially and politically. There are vast differences of opinion among us regarding how we can, or should go forward as a world power, a prosperous nation and a place where we can all be free to pursue happiness without unnecessary interference, or encumbrance by our government, or anyone else for that matter.
Our diverse views, each strongly held,have been with us ever since the founding of our nation and yet over the past ten years something has changed. The “We The People” part has changed. It has been weakened. Political forces, I believe, have finally succeeded in convincing much of America that, as a people, we exist in two separate and opposing camps which can never reconcile their differences. Something new has reached us ... something bad ... something not cognizant of how we became so great through the very diversity it opposes ... and it's tearing us apart.
I promised myself that I would stay away from the political fray for awhile. My unsuccessful primary run for the U.S. 3rd Congressional seat from NC in 2007 really took its toll on me and, to tell the truth, kind of hurt a little. It is never a good feeling to let anyone down and although I don’t think anyone would accuse me of letting them down, one cannot escape the feelings of personal responsibility when a plan, or a promise go afoul.
Anyway, while driving near Washington DC several days ago I heard part of the speech Sarah Palin made at the February 6th Tea Party Convention. When speaking about President Obama’s campaign words of hope and change, Sarah Palin said, “How’s that hope-y, change-y thing working out for you?”
Using our September 11, 2001 national tragedy as his spring board, and justification for every thing his did after that, President Bush led America into the dismal swamp of patently un-American behavior and immoral governance, much of which we shall never recover from.
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