Nicole's Commentary on Barack Obama January 2008

As we look to 2008, Philadelphia on the verge of a great tipping point. It is just a few people (300 or so..) and a new attitude of hope that can turn around the social ills of this community. The city has already decided that Michael Nutter will change the city and the country made news by voting Barack Obama the democratic winner in Iowa. I take a lot of lessons from how Mr. Obama used a grass roots movement of young entrepreneurs (I mean, voters) to fund a campaign without advertising sponsors (I mean, lobbyists) and used the power of the internet to change the business (I mean, political) game of pay to play. Let’s look at his speech in Iowa and see if we can apply it to Philadelphia….

“You have done what America can do in this New Year, 2008. In lines that stretched around schools and churches; in small suburban communities and well established neighborhoods; you came together as Big Businesses, Medium Sized Businesses and Small Businesses to stand up and say that we are one business community; we are one people; and our time for change has come.

You said that the time has come to move beyond the bitterness and pettiness and anger that's consumed Philadelphia; to end the business strategy that's been all about division and instead make it about addition - to build a coalition for change that stretches through local business association’s to the Mayor’s Office --- and that's how we'll finally meet the challenges (economically and socially) that we face as a community. We're choosing unity over division, and sending a powerful message that change is coming to Philadelphia. Hope is the bedrock of this community; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the business community as it is; who have the courage to remake the business community as it should be. “

As www.urbanphilly.com, www.supportblackbusinesses.com, www.diversephilly.com , and www.hdms.net work together to ensure your success – Let’s show a united community at Haru on January 18^th, 2008!