Page 2 The Skanner December 28, 2016
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Opinion
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
As Obama Departs, We Owe Him Our Thanks
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
T
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
Melanie Sevcenko
Reporter
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2016
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Rev. Jesse
Jackson
NNPA
Columnist
Running for re-election in
2012, Obama recognized that
income inequality had be-
come “the defining issue of
our time.” With his progres-
sive tax reforms both in his
health care plan and in the
partial repeal of the top-end
Bush tax cuts, and with ex-
“
strophic climate change. The
agreement with China and
subsequent Paris Accord ce-
mented a global consensus
on the need for bolder action
on global warming. On his
watch, America began to re-
duce its reliance on coal and
its greenhouse gas emissions.
Obama won a majority of
the votes in both his election
and re-election, something
neither his predecessor nor
successor achieved. He gov-
erned with grace and dignity,
despite grotesque and too of-
ten racist provocations. His
family provided a model for
President Obama’s most historic
contribution was to understand
the clear and present danger of
catastrophic climate change
panded tax credits for low-in-
come workers and families
with children, Obama made
a significant beginning in ad-
dressing that inequality.
Abroad, Obama struggled
against great opposition to
reduce America’s exposure
in the wars without end in
the Middle East. His nucle-
ar agreement with Iran, not
only dismantled its nuclear
weapons capable facilities, it
also provided the most com-
prehensive and aggressive
verification mechanisms in
the history of arms control. In
opening relations with Cuba,
he helped reduce America’s
isolation in our own hemi-
sphere and made the historic
turn from a policy of embar-
go that had
failed for five
decades.
His
most
historic con-
tribution was
to understand
the clear and
present dan-
ger of cata-
all Americans, with Michelle
winning hearts across the
country. He and his adminis-
tration were remarkably free
of scandal. His administra-
tion demonstrated once more
that competence could be val-
ued in Washington.
He did all of this while fac-
ing unprecedented, unrelent-
ing partisan obstruction, with
the Republican leader of the
Senate opposing him at every
turn, intent on making him a
one-term president. In part
because of that opposition,
much remained undone. The
stimulus would have been
larger and the recovery stron-
ger except for Republican op-
position. The national mini-
mum wage would have been
raised. A national infrastruc-
ture project to rebuild Ameri-
ca would have been launched.
Progress on making America
the leader of the green revo-
lution, the next global indus-
trial revolution, would have
been greater. Guantanamo,
the shameful prison in Cuba,
would have been closed. The
Voting Rights Act would have
been revived, and much more.
For most Americans, the
recovery was slow; for many
it was invisible. Donald
Trump won election promis-
ing working people a better
deal. He appealed to our wea-
riness with war, suggesting a
less interventionist policy. He
played upon divisions, rous-
ing fears about immigrants
and Muslims. He pledged to
“Make America Great Again,”
in part by undoing every-
thing Obama.
So it is worth marking what
Trump will inherit, as we
head into what is already a
rocky and tempestuous pres-
idency. Unemployment under
5 percent. Eighty-one months
of jobs growth and counting.
Average wages rising at 2.4
percent over the last year.
Growth at 3.5 percent over
the last full quarter. Inflation
at 2 percent. 20 million more
Americans with health in-
surance. America, one of the
global leaders in the green
industrial revolution. A
president respected at home
and abroad, known for his
thoughtfulness and his great
eloquence. Let us hope that
Trump can build on that leg-
acy, and not lead us into a far
deeper hole.
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
©2016 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in
whole or in part without permission prohibited.
he final days of the
Obama presidency are
upon us. His popularity
is rising with the econ-
omy, and with the increas-
ingly stark contrasts to his
successor. It is worth being
clear about the legacy that he
leaves behind.
Obama came to office fac-
ing the worst economic crisis
since the Great Depression.
The global financial system
teetered on collapse; the auto
industry faced bankruptcy;
the economy was shedding
400,000 jobs a day. He also
inherited the catastrophe
George Bush had created with
the debacle in Iraq and gov-
ernment misrule dramatized
by the shame of Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans, La.
Now, eight years later, the
economy nears full employ-
ment, with more than 15 mil-
lion jobs created and private
sector job growth at a record
81 consecutive months and
counting. Wages are begin-
ning to rise, after long years
of stagnation or worse. The
auto industry has enjoyed
some of its most prosperous
years.
This isn’t an accident.
Obama helped rescue the
economy by passing the larg-
est stimulus in history, the
most ambitious financial re-
form since the 1930s, and dar-
ing and direct intervention to
save the auto industry. Eco-
nomic growth helped lower
the annual budget deficit to
less than half the level he in-
herited.
Obama also passed the larg-
est health care reforms in six
decades, providing health in-
surance for 20 million Ameri-
cans. His reforms saved those
with pre-existing conditions,
provided the young with pro-
tection under their parents’
programs and, although most
Americans don’t realize it,
slowed the rise of health care
costs dramatically.
Mothers for Police Accountability
Harriett Walden, a social justice icon in Seattle, celebrates her birthday and the relaunch of Mothers for
Police Accountability, an organization she helped start, during a Jan. 23 gathering at the Collaboratory on
Rainier Avenue. Friends, family and fellow activists showed up to honor the long time fighter for justice
and to help support an organization that has been at the fore front of seeking police accountability.
Seattle Hip Hop Summit
Renaissance The Poet joined a panel of poets and hip hop artists discussing the topic “Black
Lives Matter in Hip Hop” Jan. 15 at Town Hall. The event which was presented in partnership with
the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), Town Hall Seattle and 50 Next: Seattle Hip-Hop
Worldwide covered topics like gentrification, the effects of the Black Lives Movement on hip hop
and ways to preserve the integrity of the music.
