If only a Candidate would say this:

The speech I would love to hear:

My fellow Americans, as we move closer towards choosing the person who will represent this nation I have to take a moment and be honest with you.  There are three of us here on the democratic platform that have many of the same ideas, hopes and desires for America in the future.  We will not always agree on how best to proceed with our plans, but the important thing is that we do not get lost in the game of one-upmanship.

The two people that stand with me today are good people and have great moral character and though I sincerely want to win the nomination, I have to admit that any one of us would be a better president than the sum of all the others.

We (America) have lost our way.  We have decided that fear is much stronger than love and that defending ourselves against our enemies is of more importance than building a strong infrastructure, creating good jobs, making education and health access affordable, and eradicating poverty in our streets.

Now I know that these are only popular topics to some of our citizens, but I am willing to believe that more Americans would benefit from this type of world then would not.  What makes us strong is not our military it is our citizens.

Now this is not to say that we should not invest in our military.  Because of the world out there it is tantamount to our survival, but we must decide how much is enough and start to make smarter decisions about spending and where that money should go.

This is not about socialism either.  At least not in the definition that most people have about socialism.  It is about making sure that every American has opportunity.  Not a handout, but a hand up.  If we focus on making America stronger from the bottom up, then the next generations will have a greater shot at success.  Does that mean that we may have to take some drastic measures to equal the playing field?  YES.  It will take years, maybe even decades to reduce the effects of poverty, homelessness, and the undereducated.  It will mean sacrifices.  But these sacrifices do not have to be at the expense of the American people.  Simply diverting the monies spent on useless, outdated government projects, eliminating the flow of money from big corporations to our legislative halls and forcing the same corporations to invest in the American people instead is the quickest way to recovery.

I say to American corporations that want influence on the laws we enact, to invest in the communities that they serve.  Instead of sending lobbyists into D.C., send them into the neighborhoods to abolish hunger and unemployment.  And we are not going to ask you to not be profitable, but just be responsible.  If a CEO makes a 250 million dollar bonus in a year for making his company profitable what would 20% of that mean for jobs or education or health care?

And then there is the immigration issue.  Now I am not for barring immigrants from coming into our country.  But again, we have to be smart.  We must first provide the environment for our own citizens to thrive before opening the flood gates.  It is not about hatred of some religion or region of the world and it cannot be about fear of being attacked.  It has to be about promise.  Promise of a country whose strengths are to take care of its citizens first and then becoming global citizens second.

By doing nothing towards these ends our government has caused a passive acknowledgement that the state of the states is okay.  That our focus is better put on areas of the world that might cause us harm.

There was a time when the focus on terrorism towards the U.S. was minimal, even non-existent.   And it was back in the days when our flag on foreign soil meant respect.  But our attitudes towards other nations and their sovereignty have made us bullies in their eyes.  And what do we preach in America?  To stand up to bullies!  It’s time to retool our reputation around the world or we will soon shrink to a mere shadow of the greatness we once knew.

It is time for our conversation to stop being about fear.  And it needs to stop being about the symptoms of problems and we need to find the roots of them.  Gun violence is not about guns, it is deeper than that.  Much deeper.  It is about the lack of hope.  When you remove hope from the people you also remove the reasons to be involved in society.  You remove the desire to better ones self.  And when the government preys upon our fears then everyone becomes a potential enemy.

I want to be part of the solution, not a part of the problem.  But I cannot do it alone from the White House.  It needs to happen all across America.  The towns, the cities, the counties, and the floors of the House and Senate.  We have to elect people with a conscience.  With a desire to create a change.

But it has to start with leadership.  And that leadership begins right here.  Right from this podium.  Because I know that the strength of America lies in the strengths of its citizens.  And for America to truly be great again does not mean building a wall, targeting immigrants, or bombing the hell out of enemy outposts across the world.  It means bringing hope of a brighter future.  Right here, right now.

Insert candidates name here!

Hello, My friend.

I am going to start off by saying that I am not going to say how complicated the English language can be.  Oh well, it has been said.  But truly, we all know it.  We know how confusing words can be and the meanings that words share.  But there is one word that I have deemed the most confusing, if only in my own mind and by my own definition.  And that word is Friend.

It was during an early morning conversation with my wife that began with me mentioning my friend who happens to be a once and future restaurant mogul.  The conversation followed the usual twists and turns that my particular mind goes through and then near the end of the conversation I made some comment that I really don’t have many friends.  This brought an immediate reaction from my wife.  Her  comment was that I am always talking about ‘my friend here’ or ‘my friend there’ and yet I say that I don’t have many friends.  She was perplexed because my use of the word friend would have one believe that I have many friends.   And…I do, but let me explain.

From the other side of the shower curtain (which is where most of our pertinent conversations take place) I made the analogy of another confusing word.  I said, “I love my wife, I love my kids, and I love my dog.”  All are true, but they all have different and distinct nuances of definition.  I explained that I viewed the word ‘Friend’ in the same light.

I told her that there was the option to use the word acquaintance but that word was too vague and had an aloofness that did not correspond to any of the ‘friends’ that I have.   ‘Friend’ is very similar to the word love in that with the different levels of intimacy the word has a different connotation.   At the very least the word friend, to me, denotes the level of how I feel about a person.  On the lowest scale (which I still hold in very high regard) a friend is someone that I like as a person.  I meet them, they are kind, considerate, maybe funny, maybe intelligent, but the manner in which they conduct themselves emits a kind, gentle spirit.  This is something with which I immediately connect.  Does this mean that I will call them a friend?  Not necessarily.  Yet if I have another social chance to connect with them and we strike up a conversation and my opinion remains the same or even progresses, then I may begin to consider them a friend.  It does not mean that we have exchanged numbers or intimate stories of our lives, but the connection, based on a mutual admiration, will go a long way to establishing that base friendship.  And if we were to continue to run into each other in social situations and find we still have things to talk about, then I would begin to call them my friend.

The second level of Friend would be what my wife deemed as an associate.  This is also a person who, primarily, I like and for work or other social reasons I am privileged to interact with them on a regular basis.  My former boss in North Carolina would be someone like that.  I like him, he is kind and a gentle spirit, and we interacted for a common good through the radio station.  We would occasionally intersect our social calendars – Super Bowl at my house- Dinner at his house- but we did not hang out on a regular basis.  We shared each other’s numbers, but rarely were there calls for the kinds of “favors” that the next level of friend might share.  ( this is not limited to people with which you share a working environment, but also people that may cross your paths during the course of your work)

The third level of friend I choose to call the Commiserator.  Of course this is not a noun and therefore the word, in my copy of this document, is underlined in red, but it is a noun.  The Commiserator is the friend that you relate certain intimacies of soul.  You often vent to this friend about other friends and situations that may arise during the course of your day.  This friend is more than just a gentle, kind spirit.  This person will generally share a lot of the same philosophies and personality traits.  If you are a bit acerbic and sarcastic, then they will likely be also.  You may often find yourself defending this friend to other friends.  Maybe not revealing you’re agreement with said friend, but sometimes just taking a position that supports their view (because only the Commiserator knows you are just like them – that is the intimacy part)  The Commiserator will often know your weaknesses, because they share the same ones.  And while they may give you shit for those weaknesses, they never judge you because of them.  This is also the person that you can likely count on for a favor from time to time and will quickly return one or offer your time and energies for this person.

The fourth and final level of friend is the companion friend.  This, obviously, is likely to be your spouse or partner.  If not now at some point later.  As with the other three, you like this person for their kind spirit and gentle soul, but you also involve them, at times, in work related social functions.  You will also share with them your feelings about others, your shortcomings in yourself, and they will see most all of the faults that make you human.  You go out of your way for this person, sometimes to your own detriment, but you don’t martyr for them.  You do unselfishly because they are the ones that have your back…Always.  Even at times when they don’t agree with you.  Personality wise they are not always like you, but they often compliment you in the areas that you are not as strong.  This friend is also (generally) the most forgiving.

Friend.  It’s a weird word and there is a lot of room for alternate interpretations.  Feel free to explore your own ideas on the subject.