President Obama set an example for Congress yesterday

by Arnie Webre, Jr.

On November 29, 2010, President Obama set an example for Congress and our entire nation by ordering no raises for United States civilian government workers for the next two-years.  That is what true leadership is:  taking unpopular but necessary steps for the good of our commonwealth.

It has put all of us on notice of the hundreds of hard choices that must be made, and if this democracy and the freedom that comes with it is to survive, we must all be willing to share in the sacrifices to come.

Our elected representatives in both houses of Congress must be up to the task of following President Obama's example of making hard choices without regard to re-election.  The hundreds of changes in the pipeline that are waiting to be made are long overdue.

If this democracy is to survive, the time for a sea-change of responsible fiscal actions is now, as they have been put off by elected Republicans, Democrats and Independents for decades.

If all Americans are willing to share this pain, like President Obama and the USCS employees of the United States, we just might continue as a nation in its current form, contrary to expert international historians and economists.

I do not always agree with my President, but he is my President, and on this matter, he is dead-on correct!

Giving just a little more thought to the sacrifices that all us must make to save this democracy:  my great-Aunt Kitty Neyland of Austin, Texas, before her death, told me, "I was there for WWII, working in an assembly line for the cause, while the soldiers and sailors were fighting in Europe.  After all of our arguments and disagreements, Arnie, honey, you should see how America comes together, when we have too.  We all came together as a nation to defeat the Nazis.  It is something of tremendous beauty to experience."

Although Aunt Kitty is long gone, that tremendous beauty of us all coming together to defeat an enemy [the financial bankruptcy of America] is now something that I want to see, in order to insure the future for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  The alternative is too horrible and upsetting to allow it to happen.

God Bless America!