(After my editorial is a video of President Obama's great speech given last night in Charlotte, North Carolina at The Democratic National Convention)

My fellow Americans and countrymen I write these words to put in perspective the current troubles of our time. These troubles have seemed at times unfair, unkind, unpleasant, and uninspiring. These troubles seem to linger and tarry and whenever it looks like the sun is going to come out behind the clouds another storm of adversity seems to be brewing in the not to distant horizon. We have seen job loss, credit become hard to come by, loss of investment and income, war, conflict, and strife. We have seen days where the sun seemed not to shine at all. We have seen across the oceans revolutions, tyrants fall, genocide, and tyrants linger. We have witnessed here in our own country political divisions that seem to run so deep they remind one of the history leading up to the civil war. Close friends have become sworn enemies, family members seemingly at war with each other, The Democratic Party and Republican Party have drawn a line in the sand and have clinged to their ideological shields and political weapons. The nation is in a war for the future of this country and the future of the world.

Is this future going to be one of cooperation and peace or conflict and war? Is this future going to be inclusive or exclusive? Is this future going to be about we or about me? Is this future going to allow for dissent or demand political purity? Is this future going to become brighter or go dimmer? Is this future prepared for the challenges of the future or is it unprepared? I say the future is what we the people of these United States make it. We will decide the fate of our nation and no one else will decide it for us. This nation does not have a king or a dictator to make decisions for us. This nation does not have unelected representatives who force there agenda on the people. This nation does not have wide sections that are uneducated and uniformed of the state of our Union. We have three powerful defenses of democracy first the power of our vote, second the power of our voice and the ability to petition or protest our government or the private sector, third and most important we have the Constitution that guarantees those rights. We thus control the fate of our government, the fate of our nation, and the fate of the future.

There are those powers of powerful, wealthy, and well connected interest which have attempted for greater then a century to gain a stranglehold on power in this country. They are opposed to democracy, the people having a real voice, and any policy that weakens their influence over the population. They would sell this Nation's birthright for a mess of pottage. With them their main goal is to make huge profits and grow their ever expanding influence until they drown out the voices of the masses. Where are these people you may ask and who are they? They are various individuals in various sectors in big business, on Wall Street, in large banks, yes even within the halls and power of our government. These men and women have an agenda contrary to the people's agenda so rely on lobbying power, back-room deals, paying off power brokers to do their bidding, super pacs to fund campaigns that have agendas against the common interest of the majority. They use the power of hoped for ignorance of the people, deception, lies, and play on people's worst emotions and fears. They have became more powerful today then ever before and only seek more power. They pretend they are on your side when the truth of the matter is you mean nothing to them you are simply a means to an end, expendable, and soon to be unneeded and unwanted. They will deny it when asked and make those giving this warning seem paranoid but you all know the truth.

This truth is that our democracy has been slowly being divided up and the people are to be awarded just a sliver to try to mask the fact they have lost their real power. The power of the people has been greatly curtailed and any attempts to increase this power are met with fierce opposition from those in these powerful interest. They create a capitalism that only works well for the powerful and well connected. A justice system that grinds the poor, minorities, and the mentally ill yet lets the nations most dangerous threats to our entire economy and nation go free. A voting system that discourages those with least of a voice and in most need of one. A ever expanding police state to keep the population in check from ever challenging these forces or ever daring doing something outside of which they see as permissible. A military even that does the bidding of these interest to divide up the world and attempts to force the world to yield to Western power though it is not those fighting the wars that are the problem they die heroically, rather it is those who call for the needless wars like Iraq where the evil lies. A diplomatic system that expands the reach of these interest to far reaches of the world not for the other nations benefit but to seek to control them. A government that makes room for these interest and does their bidding allowing them to capture the power away from the people.

How do we the people fight against such entrenched interest? How can we compete against billions of dollars? How can we change things? The answer is simple we refuse to stand for it any longer. We demand change and reform and that these powerful interest have their power curtailed. We demand reforms in our government that are good for the people not hostile to them. We write against these interest, protest against them, and refuse to be controlled by them. We begin to realize the long forgotten truth the true power lies in the people's hands and that together we are more powerful then all governments, industry, and institutions combined. That these forces were meant to work for us not against us. To realize that we control our own destiny and we should not allow someone else to control it for us. To realize that together we are far stronger then the sums of our power individually. We demand reform in our government, Wall Street, the banks, and corporate board rooms. We refuse to do business with them if they refuse to change, protest against them until they change, and create our own campaigns to let the people know the truth of them. We can make this happen, we can see changes in our lifetime, we can create the government, private sector, nation, and world we wish to be. We can return to the promises of this nation and the promises of our past leaders of this great nation but not looking backwards but moving forward. We can do this, we can make it happen, we if we will try will make this happen. Let us start by re-electing our President Barack Obama and fighting for his campaign. For of the two running that are the only ones that have a chance he moves us closer in a positive direction. These powerful special interest will do everything to ensure Romney wins as he was chosen by them as is obvious with all the big donors and Super Pacs that are behind him. We must make sure that does not happen and we fight against these special interest to ensure Barack Obama wins. Let us begin today! A.C.M.