Barack Obama NOW!

Jello Biafra, an outspoken voice in punk rock community, wrote an open letter to Barack Obama. Here’s a snippet from his introduction:

Here, by semi-popular demand, are the suggestions I sent to Obama’s Change.gov site for citizen input. It veers from writing to Obama himself to writing for the people who may actually read this. A lot of these ideas may be familiar from my albums and spoken word shows. For the most part I stayed away from the big no-brainers covered by others, and from ideas he would never agree to in a million years.

His letter acknowledges an opportunity for real change.

You have gone out of your way to build a bridge to those of us fed up with war, pollution, inequality, corporate lawlessness and business as usual. You have energized a whole new generation who is far ahead of their elders in knowing what urgently needs to be done. I have never seen such an outpouring of heartfelt emotion, hope and support for an American politician in my life, and I remember Kennedy well. You are the first president in my lifetime to have a bona fide grassroots movement behind you and ready to rock. I hope those crowds’ hope and urgency has penetrated deeply enough that you won’t let that bridge be washed away.
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I remember another person who had the audacity to exploit and toss aside people’s hope, and his name is Bill Clinton. Democrats fail time and again when they shirk responsibility and settle for being dealmakers instead of leaders. As important as it is to find common ground and build consensus for change, our situation is so dire we cannot afford any more dealmakers. The people voted for a leader. Anything less risks breaking the hearts of an entire galvanized generation who may then decide it is not worth it to get involved and participate any more.

Jello provides some excellent suggestions for the President-elect with specific actions that can done upon taking office.

Jello’s open letter to Obama can read in it’s entirely at:
http://www.alternativetentacles.com/page.php?page=jello_openletter

I hope Team Obama takes note.

December 13th, 2008 | Category: editorials, grassroots activism | Subscribe to comments | You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed