Elon citizens give their suspicions
By Emily Silva
December 11, 2008
As America prepares to hear President-elect Barack Obama present his inaugural speech January 20, 2009, citizens are beginning to wonder what he will say and what effect, if any, it will have on the country.
“This has been an extraordinary year, economy-wise,” said Stephanie Thomas, of Gibsonville, N.C. “I think it’s scary.”
Citizens discussed three major issues they anticipate Obama will discuss in his speech: the economy, foreign policy, health care and immigration issues. Of these, the economy clearly came out as the most important.
“I’d like to hear a little more detail and what his thoughts are on the economic stimulus plan,” said Kevin O’Brien, vice president of sales at SupplyOne, from Kernersville, N.C.
“Traditionally,” O’Brien said, “I’d be against [a bailout], but the fate of the U.S. economy depends on it now.”
Many Americans, no matter what financial standing, are concerned about the economical situation the U.S. is currently dealing with. They question is whether or not Obama, or anyone, can rescue us from complete bankruptcy within a very short amount of time.
“How in the world,” Thomas asked, “Does he expect to pay for all this money he’s getting ready to hand out?”
Thomas is focusing her attention on Obama’s ability to convince the American public that he can offer a way out of this seemingly inescapable financial problem. She, like other working-class Americans, is wondering if it is even possible.
“It’s not going to be easy,” said Rudy Zarzar, a political science professor at Elon University. “The guy (Obama) has the knowledge; he sometimes talks like an academic. He’s committed to fixing the economic system.”
“The U.S. has to be like the general public,” Thomas said. “When you’re out of money, you’re out of money.”
Bailing out big businesses is only going to get us into more trouble because the money the government puts forth has no backing.
“Our government is bankrupt; our world is bankrupt,” said Jeff Barbour, of Burlington, N.C. “We can’t continue to print money. There’s going to be some hard medicine people are going to have to take and politicians don’t realize that. You have to make people feel good or else they’re not going to like you.”
Barbour said Obama will present the same ideas in his inaugural speech as he did in his campaign; “a very feel-good kind of thing,” rather than telling the American public what is really going on economically.
“This is an issue that effects all Americans,” Zarzar said. “Not just the people who have lost their jobs.”
Not only is the U.S. dealing with its economic problems domestically, but the economic situation is seriously affecting U.S. foreign affairs and the way the world views The Promised Land.
“We just can’t be the bully around the neighborhood,” Zarzar said. “That’s what Bush’s policy was about.”
Zarzar, who refers to himself as a humanitarian, hopes Obama will offer peaceful possibilities to end world conflict, rather than continue on the path that has been laid out for him. The currently international disagreements might be solved if the U.S. were independent from foreign resources, such as oil.
“All countries depend on the U.S. to bail them out,” Thomas said, “And right now, we can’t take care of ourselves.”
Thomas anticipates that in the future, the Middle East will rise as to be a greater power than the U.S. “Little by little,” she said, “They’re going to take us over.”
The only way to ensure that does not happen is to break from our dependence on foreign oil and other natural resources, while strengthening our domestic economy.
“We need to conserve our own resources,” said Brenda Wilson, director of Christian education at Davis Street United Methodist Church in Burlington, N.C. “It’s a real predicament they’re in now.”
“We cannot repeat,” Zarzar said. “We cannot solve world problems alone. We need to ask for help; we need to cooperate with others. We need to see also that other nations have their own interests and have mutual respect with other countries.”
The balance between helping ourselves and playing the role of a superpower on the international stage is one that America is having difficulty reaching. Two of the other main issues citizens discussed were the U.S. health care system and immigration system.
“It’s a cruel system,” Zarzar said of health care. “We, as human beings, should care for others.”
The U.S. needs to “set up some process of becoming legalized and becoming a citizen,” said Wilson, who works closely with illegal immigrants and their children in Alamance Co., where regulations involving immigration are tightening.
“It’s producing more negative results now than it is positive,” she said.
Obama has the ability to convince Americans that immigrants should be welcomed, based on his family history, Wilson argued. Obama’s father was an immigrant.
“In his speech,” Wilson said, “He’s got to be proud of that and proud that America stood for that when his father came here.”
The U.S. is currently facing very difficult times, but Obama is promising some relief. Americans are looking to him as a leader during this time of struggle and are depending on him to get us out of this mess. Citizens are waiting to see if he will deliver as promised.
