Two Things, Mr. President. Maybe Three

“Go Shopping”. Two words uttered by George Bush right after the Nine Eleven attack may have been the biggest lapse in judgment made by a sitting president in the history of the United States.

In a matter of weeks shopping, i.e. spending money, became the creed of an entire nation. People overwhelmed by fear, anxiety and revenge took the calling to heart, never once stopping to access what they were doing. Many borrowed, cheated or stole … and spent.

As a student of the 80’s in Philadelphia, I was instructed to value achievement, innovation, entrepreneurship and personal investments in time, money and resources to improve lives – that of others as well as mine. Volunteerism was American and a badge of honor, while individualism was reserved for the best of all Philadelphians – Benjamin Franklin himself.

How things have changed.

Today we are thwarted by our own greed and irresponsibility, bankrupted by our own excesses. New terms have emerged that I’ve never heard before – Free money, cheap money, borrowed on equity, and best yet, other people’s money. The notorious Bernard Madoff, who dissipated 50 billion dollars in investments, is a fitting symbol of conspicuous cheats in expensive suits, operating from behind oak desks and robbing people cold-heartedly and systematically. It’s been made possible only because another bunch of people in expensive suits have lobbied congressmen and senators sitting behind another set of oak desks to legalize it in the name of free-enterprise and market forces. The stock market itself has become the ultimate Ponzi scheme, sucking people’s hard-earned money with the illusion of extremely “good yield”, mostly on paper. Hundreds of stock prices artificially soared beyond the value of the real assets held by companies and corporations that did not produce anything, build anything or innovate anything. It was pure speculation, a false façade, a big lie, and thieving of immense proportions.

Today most people’s IRA and 401k accounts are worth less than the principal amount of money that they have contributed into them over a lifetime of hard work.

Ali Baba and his band of thieves in Saville Row suits have tricked Americans into believing that money is given to those who ask, and that home ownership is an entitlement. No need to qualify or justify. Just ask. The market (market is not a person, by the way) will pay for it while you borrow against its increasing value. They were lying and they knew it!

Mathematics PhD graduates were plucked right out of Ivy League Universities not to do scientific research, but instead to structure loan “instruments” for people who confuse the TV guide with literature or 50 Cent (no “s” at the end, please) as a real poet. Some people are known to have qualified for loans for simply knowing how to…..err, breathe!?

Names of thousands of unaware people have been compiled to ink pages of bank loans, while hundreds made commission at their expense: Loan brokers, bank managers, hedge (junk) fund managers, all the way up to the CEO of Lehman Brothers, Richard S. Fuld, Jr. For the most part of the last 5 years, the economy was riding on paper pushed by an army of salesmen working for commission. No real wealth was created, no products manufactured, no innovation in science or technology – simple shoving of paper with cheap money, free money, and the most dreaded, other people’s money. It was all legal, we’re told. Government was asleep at the wheel, busy with some nasty stuff in a desert country 12,000 miles away. We have been robbed blind, legally, in the name of free enterprise, market forces, and entrepreneurship. No rules, no regulations, no oversight, no accountability. Benjamin Franklin would have puked (at Mr. Fuld)

No one should claim innocence – not the President, nor Congress, the banks or the investment firms. They were busy measuring up reports sent by the very same people who were stealing and then fabricating documents to make it look like money was flowing everywhere, everyday to everyone. Benjamin Franklin would have quit America!

The biggest Ponzi scheme has been the US investment firms where billions, no, hundreds of billions of people’s money was entrusted in good faith, and then lost by thievery.

So the first thing I expect of our new President is to protect and safeguard my, and every other hard working person’s, money. I don’t care what it takes to do it – I’m ok with socialism, or any other ism for that matter. I want protection against chairman this, CEO that, analyst this and financial planner that, broker or anyone who claims to know more about what to do with my money than myself. I detest people who want to sell me things that I do not need, by telling me that I do.

Therefore, my first request of President Obama is to get thieves off our backs.

My second request is to end this nasty, ugly, mean little thing called: WAR. Not all war, after all who am I to know which wars are good. But I sure know which wars are bad: Wars of occupations, wars in the name of democracy, and wars where mighty armies pound on fathers, husbands and sons fighting with slings and shovels. Please, end all wars of imperial greed for resources and other people’s belongings, dignity and pride. Wars that pain elders and burn mothers and babies who take refuge in shelters. Wars that inflict hate and revenge, destroy and annihilate cultures, civilizations and heritage. Wars against poor people, brown people, people with different religions than ours. What is the meaning of wars that kill mothers and fathers who were put on the face of this earth by my own God to love their children as I love mine?

You see, it is false to declare that these wars are necessary for the preservation of our freedom and values. I do not trust a politician that makes effort to define freedom, or even bothers to explain it. Ultimately all wars serve a purpose, but it is not the purpose of ordinary Americans, who always end up paying the highest price with the loss of lives, sanity and humanity.

I don’t want families destroyed, lives shattered for wars designed in sterile board rooms, by men who send other people’s sons off to war to kill another people’s sons, as if it was their mission from God. A good dose of humility and restraint would be nice, as Mr. Obama suggested during his inaugural speech: “The time has come to set aside childish things.” Benjamin Franklin couldn’t have said it better!

Then I have a third request, something that is in the heart and mind of every Armenian: The realization by all governments of the world, including the US, that there is correctness in admitting to the crimes of mankind and recognize the Turkish Genocide of Armenians.

I am realistic, and I don’t mind admitting that this President might not do it either. The pressure from a few deniers of the Genocide is immense, but I hope that President Obama will choose the wiser path – that of the moral responsibility of a world leader to tell the Turks that it is to their best interest to accept the facts, and admit to the crimes if they must join the world community of civilized nations.

Myself, I have decided to keep on pouncing at these issues and make my judgment on Obama’s greatness in time. I want you to know that my purpose is to pursue -that other wise founding father from Virginia- Thomas Jefferson’s call for life, liberty and happiness……..and peace would be nice too!