Eric Fingerhut has a vision - that Ohio should once again be a place where the best and brightest of its children will stay and build their futures. He has consistently been a supporter of labor and the rights of working people like us. He wants to bring fairness to international trade so that our workers aren’t being clobbered. To help education, he wants to develop a system of fair funding for our schools so that schools in Belmont would have as much funding as those in Centerville. He thinks that our healthcare system, while great, should also help those with bad or no insurance by making what we already have better. He also thinks we should just make sure that prescription drugs are affordable without the current mess we’ve got by allowing the government to negotiate drug prices for us – like we already do for the VA.
All this barely touches on the vision and hope Senator Fingerhut brings to this race for the US Senate. If you can, get out and see this man! If not, swing by his website: http://www.fingerhutforsenate.com (Remember, you can access it at the library!)
"For years, Ohioans have been forced to settle for policies and programs deemed 'good enough.' My campaign is about the future. It is about making it clear that the days of Ohioans settling for less than the best are over. Good enough is no longer enough!” - Eric D. Fingerhut, Candidate for the United States Senate
The distinction between someone (or thing) and its actions is important. This is my country. I think it's the best the world has to offer, despite its flaws. I served in the military, ready - if not exactly eager - to die to defend it. But its symbol, its flag, had been seized by others, by those that claimed that true patriots would always support Bush, no matter how wrong you thought he was. I didn't - and don't - want to be associated with them.
Still, my son had made this flag, full of his idea of America. An America where working hard means you succeed, not that your job gets shipped overseas. Where freedom applies to everyone, especially if you don't agree with them. An America where all the campaign promises and idealistic promises were reality, or only a vote or two away. He'd made this flag, filled with these ideals that I'd seen politicians turn into marketing slogans. So we put it up, no matter how uncomfortable it made me, no matter how much I’d lost hope.
Then I heard John Edwards speak. I heard this man not talk about what was wrong, but what was right. Who didn't just criticize, but offered a new vision, his "politics of hope".
If this were a fairytale, there would have been an instant conversion that day. My criticism, my negativity would have vanished in a puff of fairy godmother smoke. It didn't happen that way. Hoping is hard. It's so easy to be negative, to point out what's wrong. When you're negative, you're never disappointed. Even if you're wrong, you're pleasantly surprised. Hoping, being positive, opens up the possibility of failure or defeat. It sets you up for other people to criticize you.
But now I look at my son's finger-painted flag, and try to believe, to hope. I try to be positive and offer an idea of what we can become, what our country can be. My son still believes in a right and good America, a just land where everyone does their part, where we take care of each other. Where we are no longer an armored fortress, where we are a beacon of light for the rest of the world. I try to believe, as my son does, because that's the America he deserves.
And I'll do whatever I can to give it to him.
