I cannot believe how much emotion plays in the way we live our lives today. Emotions that play out in some of the most important decisions we need to make for the continuing survival of this planet. I watched Obama and Hilary during their compassion forum on CNN Sunday night and then watched my boyfriend Charlie Rose last night. The topic of discussion was Obama's comments on The white Working class in Philadelphia. I paraphrase, but he said something about them being bitter and clinging to their religion. I purposely left out the rest because it seems the line "cling to their religion" is the one that the Blue collars are clinging to. Funny they don't mind bitter. Clinton is calling him and elitist and saying the she and john McCain are the only people in the race that care about the "real concerns of the poor." There are many problems with that statement, the first being that Clinton and her husband are rich a hundred times over and McCain is Married to a very wealthy woman. Obama on the other hand, was raised by a single mom. Hmmmm..... His $ has come his supporters; even the smallest donations have made it possible for him to campaign instead of spending his time raising money. Hilary took a chunk of her own money and put it into her campaign. Maybe Obama slipped up, maybe he forgot where he came from I mean after all the word poor has such a negative connotation. Which brings me to the the second problem with that statement which is that the white working class do not consider themselves poor, nobody wants to be called poor. Obama left himself open to the attack because he strayed away from his center.   And Hilary keeps referring to the "poor" which is essentially being an elitist herself.  So everybody is just reacting and defending rather than owning the truth and dealing with it in an honest way. The blue collars defend against Obama saying clinging to religion instead of looking at the facts. Which actually proves his point even further. I dont' know who said it, but the term was Religion is the opiate for the masses. I am blue collar and i personally suffer from the same problem that is maifesting here. I have meany times heard many many words that could have helped but only hung on to the one that was negative and in turn made a deciison about a person that had nothing to do with reality. And in turn hurt myslelf. It's verry complicated because first of all there is such a negative connotation to the word poor, and it hits people emotioanlly and as I watch Hilary talk abouthow we need to help the poor my insides scream How???? we can't solve a problem until everyboyd gets off thier high horse and tries to really change things........ We are taught when we are children that there are three things you never talk about in public. Religion, politcs and money. WHY?? The shame is what is keeping us all opressed. I'm not saying that religion is not helpful i'm just saying we should question things more. For me personally i was taught as a catholic that "if you think its a sin" that was pertaining to bad things. As and adult i ask why didnt' that work on the positive side. If you think good things they will happen. I am not putting anyone down by asking that question i'm actually empowering people. I'm askign a wuestion that can actully broaden the scope of how we think I'm adding to instead of taking away.  If everbody in this counrty were less scared and asked more questions we could get somewhere. Hilary and Obabma are just reacting at this point. They are taking away from something that could be positive . UMMMMMMMM OUR FIRST BLACK OR FEMALE PRESIDENT. They are tearing each other down and potentially paving the way for the republicans to take over the White House. They are going to try to get the blue collar vote now but once they get it, the blue collars will go back to church and they will go back to being elitist and nothing i mean nothingwill change. You can say what you mean mean what you say and don't say it mean, You can stand up for something without taking someone else down. Clinging to one thing is he exact thing that leaves us all vulnerable to be taken advantage of. If we're busy over here being bitter about one word then they can do what they want over there. There is nothing morally wrong with being poor its a social issue.  But if we keep our eyes down in shame they or our noses and eyes up in the air so we don't have to see the ugly we are not lookign straight ahead to the future.......... More on this tomorrow..... I have to go see tony bennet:)