Where My Mind Went After the Debate

this is what ran through my mind after i watched the debate...

i may not be the expert on foreign policy..
and i'm definitely not a politician...
but i've been fortunate enough to have traveled the world and i have been to more countries in 6 months than most people have in their whole lives...
and i know how people feel, how real "people" feel about Americans...

i may not know everything about Iraq and why we are even fighting...
and most people in America can't even explain why we even went to Iraq...
and this is why people abroad have mixed feelings about America...

they can see the disconnect...
they can see that president bush misrepresented the American people to the rest of the world...
they can see that george bush's definition of homeland security is a joke...
if we invested money in education and new jobs after 9/11, in my opinion we wouldn't be here...
how can we fight terror when we as Americans are terrified every week with a potential rise in the gas prices...?
how can we fight terror when we as Americans are losing jobs because companies are sending work overseas...?
how can we fight terror when our education in America is poor...?
how can we call it homeland security when we can't secure our homeland with opportunities...?
i know this debate was on foreign policy...
but...
if we focused on our domestic problems "like" regulating banks then we wouldn't be in this economic crisis..
if we focused on our domestic problems "like" creating new jobs around renewable energy five years ago we would be a lot further in relieving ourselves from foreign oil...
i'm glad that senator obama brought these domestic issues to a foreign policy debate...
because fixing "home" would alter our foreign relations...
maybe investing in "home" would allow America to add value in the world other than our military...
maybe investing in "home" would make the rest of the world have faith in our judgment...

how can anyone take us seriously when we allow a group of people hiding in caves to effect the world's "superpower"...?
and this is what i see when i travel...
this is what people told me when ive played in China, Japan, S.Korea, Indonesia, Bangkok, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Kazakhstan, turkey, Moscow, Israel, Ethiopia, Nigeria, s. Africa, Bahrain, Spain, London, Germany, France, Monaco, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Kiev, Brazil, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, Panama, Columbia...

just to name a few places we played in '07...

so i may not know about foreign policy...

but i know how they feel about us...
i know how they feel about the BIG "u.s"
and that's us...
the people...
it's the regular people that are the ones who are going to suffer...
us...
"we" have to pay back that 800-billion dollars because of lack of regulations...
we have to pay that back with our tax dollars...
and that's the cause of not protecting our home...
we should put security where security needs to be...
i'm terrified if we are to have 4 more bush-like years...
we can't afford it...
and i applaud obama for talking about "home" at a foreign policy debate...

like my mama told me...

"you cant tell nobody to clean their room if your room is dirty"

-- will.i.am

Read more reactions to the first presidential debate from HuffPost bloggers, including Nora Ephron, Bob Shrum, Madeleine Albright, Paul Reiser, Arianna Huffington, Sean Penn, Sheryl Crow, and more.

Comments

[RemodelAmerica]

Education/Schools, Companies of all kinds, Homes, Food, Gas.... Its all getting crazy, Family's cant survive anymore! Crime rates are rising, people are hungary, people are turning to robbing and stealing to get by because the government cant hear the sqeeky wheel! i mean what ever happen to Hurrican Ike that hit Bushes Home town? This happened a couple weeks ago? why are the MEDIA hiding it? Whats up media? Galveston was under water and no media coverage? people lost homes, no food or help? What's the death count? The media hasn't said/shown anything regarding this.. How can all of us work together to be heard as one voice if we dont know about these things?

Im all about this internet tool! Count me in! Im spreading the word out to all my family, friends and anyone else that can help "Remodel AMERICA"!

Together as one online voice!
Remodel America!

[timezone]

Your last line summed it up well!

[john85msy]

VOTE! PEACE!

[RadicalConservative]

Education is a good thing, Sport. Try it some time. A mind is a terrible thing to waste ... indeed!!!

[pillgirl]

i think that was HIS point.

[DogLeg]

RADCon,

Try the great American poet, e.e. cummings for an introduction to education.

[jpsd]

see the light

http://giovanniworld.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/what-caused-our-economic-crisis/

[paulita]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paula-mays/world-watching-and-has-an_b_126832.html

Dear Mr. Will iam:

Your amazing talent has permitted you to travel the world and see anothr perspective. I also got the same perspective in Europe this summer which I wrote about in the Off the bus of this blog.

It concludes the "world is watching us," and we are hanging on to our credibility by a t hread.

Thanks for your important contribution

[Jazz42]

mr. will. i.am
great post. i agree with you completely.
thank you.

[XCITIZEN]

GREAT POST - THANK YOU!

[Peerless]

Thanks Will.I.AM, your post finally got me to join and stop lurking on this site. I have been coming to this site since its beginning yet not until today have I decided to join. I am a huge fan of your music especially the albums you did with Sergio and your post today was spot on.

The thing is our foreign policy doesn't make any sense to US or the World, nobody I know and have talked to understands why we need to bail out private industry and why certain people in the government oppose oversight still. The fact of the matter is when any sane person sits down and looks at how much we spend around the world and on wars and our military (which I was a part of), you have to ask yourself what other things could we have do with our money?

[OhioJan]

Thank you for the insightful, honest post, Will.I.Am. There are alot of us (U.S. = us) who are right there with you in our concerns for our future! Great duet at the DNC last month too, by the way!!!!!!

Obama/Biden - '08/12!!!!!

[lynnn]

Thanks for the great heartfelt post.

[macohmz]

In order to fix our domestic problems the flow of wealth to the wealthy has to be redirected to the folks that really need it. Those pitiful few who now get everything will simply increase the size of their bribes and our whorehouse politicians will dutifully obey and nothing will change. I hate both parties.

[SHOPARAZZI]

very poetic.

[flipbiscut24]

End US foreign aid to ALL countries.

Keep US money in the US.

No more financial aid to any nation.

[GreatFutureForAll]

"..this is what people told me when ive played in China, Japan.........Moscow, Israel, Ethiopia, Nigeria, s. Africa, Bahrain, Spain, London........"

London.....

Britain was once our closest ally. Now, they only visit when our actions threaten to take down the entire world financial system. It took eight short years for us to go from a budget surplus to the brink of economic ruin.

The entire world is waiting for us to lead. Instead, all we've done since 2000 is stumble around like a drunken sailor that's taken over his father's hard earned inheritance, squandering all of the family wealth on needless adventures like Iraq.

McCain and Bush are still drunk from this hubris. They have the false belief that the Iraq war must be "won" instead of just helping Iraq stand on it's own feet.

Obama is sober. He never drank the moonshine. He warned us of the dangers of our hubris before the Iraq war began. He's our last hope of keeping this country from becoming a banana republic as McCain's economic plan is Bush 2.0.

Let us pray that we are sober enough to hear the faint cries from our blood relatives overseas long enough to put the shot glass down. Even Pink Floyd is begging us to hand the keys to Obama before we crash.

Hey, Will: See the drunk guy on the corner stool? Over there, he's the one wrapped in the flag. He's drinking "Limbaugh"....right from the still.