Published: May 02, 2009 01:05 am      

DAY: Responding to the critics

I had many responses from a recent column. I’m 72 years old, and that is young compared to many of my readers.

I reached out with a call to others to help our president do what might be best for our country. When I say that I want him to succeed in his quest, it was to get this country back on its feet so that you and I can survive on our own.

Many times, we will need a helping hand to stand up straight. Then we walk on our own two feet. It isn’t about all the other things that he or others will do during those four years in office. Right now, it is about getting us back as workers and families to a little like what it was before the ceiling dropped due to unfortunate happenings by lending companies and our factories. We know how we got there, but sometimes we don’t know the way back.

So yes, I do want him to succeed at getting this country back to the way it was when you could go to bed at night feeling good because you were fed, and you had a few dollars to spare. What is wrong with that type of thinking? I am not alone thinking that we need to succeed, nor am I alone in wanting to succeed. Folks, regardless of which party you and I belong to, we need to put our differences aside and move on to what is best for our country as a whole. It does not matter if we voted for him or against him, he was elected to that post and we should honor him as our president.

During the next four years, I know there will be many things that he and Congress will differ on. But that will be the usual thing in Washington. Today we need that hand-in-hand movement, walking and working together in order to unblock our paths back to when it gives you and me the opportunity to succeed in our own right.

We are Americans, and our country did not get to be the place where many want to live without working toward it. We did it as self-sacrifice by all, so that people can be free and live with thoughts of continuing to make it better for those who will follow us.

Sure, there is going to be a big hill to climb before we can see the sun shining behind it. Sure, the ones coming up will inherit a national debt large enough that it will take most of their lives to get it down. Sure, there are going to be a lot of fat cats still running businesses to the ground. But we need to make some progress now in order that our youngsters and their children have a safe haven to live in. We are all Americans, and the water is getting too hot, so we need to cool it down.

If the things our president does work, he will be known as great. But if they fail, he will be known as having failed in his quest to pull us out of a hole so large and so deep, because he did not have enough hands on that pull rope. Do we as a nation of people who have seen many deep holes just sit back and let that big hole fill up with water and drown all that are in it, or do we help him out? At this time it should not be party against party, it shoulder be shoulder to shoulder.

It is time that we go forward hand in hand to bring stability back in our lives, and maybe we will have to bear down and soften the pain that might come from it. We Americans stand together as one and we will prevail as one.

Ray “Uncle Ray” Day is a

weekly contributor to the

Kokomo Tribune. Contact him at uncleray@earthlink.net

or (765) 457-3819.