Okay, we’ve heard Senator Obama’s speech that will probably find a place in history. He did a marvelous job of portraying the frustrations of many people in our nation today. But a question arose in my mind at some point in the speech. It is simply this, “So, can we drop the racial thing and work for the common good of our nation?” I certainly hope so but how can we do that?

This is quite a tall order but I think it’s time for every person to forget that he is either black, Hispanic, white or otherwise and consider himself to be an American and start working for the common good of our nation. You see, fussing over our differences is slowly destroying our nation from within.

President Lincoln understood the poison of division when he said that no nation can exist being half slave and half free. He probably would have a coronary if he lived today and saw what seems like an endless number of special interests crying like spoiled children

If we are to work toward the common good there must be one or more causes that are crucial to all of us; white, black, Hispanic, Jewish, Christian or whatever. Well, please allow me to present what I consider to be the most pressing issue that will bring our nation to ruins if we don‘t deal successfully with our dependence on foreign oil. Our place in the world would change overnight if we could tell OPEC that we don’t need their oil. It would be a day of frenzied celebration in the USA if we could tell them, “For all we care, you can dump it into the sea.”

Our next President will need the ornery persistence of former President Harry Truman to deal with our dependence of foreign oil. He will become the enemy of some but history books of the free World will place him on par with former Presidents Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan.