Feedback and Critique Requested
Okay, Folks, this is a long one...
I've been bombarded, as have many of you, with bull-shit posts on Facebook from my RW friends bashing Obama on the "you didn't build that" meme. I've crafted a response that I plan to post on my page, and I'd appreciate feedback. Here goes:
To My Friends and Family Who are Not Millionaires…
and Support Mitt Romney
Most of you know me well enough to recognize that I am a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, a proud Progressive, and – that dirtiest of all words to some of you – an unapologetic Liberal. Those who know me well also know that I do my homework to the nth degree before speaking an opinion about anything, ensuring that I have all the facts that I need, sometimes if only for the purpose of holding my own in an argument. I have read numerous posts from several of you which have been perpetuating an out-right lie told about President Obama’s words, and I can’t stand by and watch without responding. Mr. Romney, in a meme stolen directly from Fox News, has been telling Americans that President Obama said that small business owners “did not build that” on their own, implying that your business success was not owed to your own work and ingenuity.
If you get your news only from Fox, I can see how you believe this, but it is a blatant lie. President Obama’s immediate previous sentences to the clip you heard hammered all over the place were these: “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges.”
And his words immediately after that out-of-context clip were these: “Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.”
In fact, this is such a sensible opinion that Mitt Romney actually shares it. In 2002, during his speech as the Opening Ceremonies at the Winter Olympics, Romney said this:
"You Olympians, however, know you didn't get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the parents, coaches, and communities.”
I am also a small business owner, and I’ve worked very hard for the last eight years to build and maintain my business through some very difficult times. Some of the contracts I have earned have been because a larger business has been able to secure a grant or government loan to provide training to their employees. That helps the business, by ensuring that their workers are competent and capable to do the work they were hired to do (because schools no longer have the funding to teach many of the skills needed for job success); it helps the employees to build their personal ability so they become more valuable to their current employer, or to the next one (when their current jobs are shipped overseas); it helps me by providing me an opportunity to secure a contract with a business who might not otherwise have been able to buy my services (and allows me to do what I love, and was born to do – educate others).
So, if you want to support Mitt Romney, that’s obviously your choice. But, please, do it based on real facts and legitimate differences. Listen to something other than Fox and Rush, at least once in a great while. (I do watch Fox for opposition research, so don’t accuse me of seeing nothing but MSNBC; that is, like the Romney campaign’s distortion of the President’s speech, a lie.) If you insist on engaging me in a debate over my support of President Obama and the Democratic Party, particularly on this outrageous distortion, know that I will be fully equipped. Will you?
= new reply since forum marked as read
I will add it in. 
if my friends were 20 or 30-somethings. The vast majority of my "target audience" is well over 50, barely has a clue what Twitter even is, and often post pieces longer than this on FB. I wasn't planning to post as an update, but as a Note. Not at all unusual for me and my group. Your point, however, is very well taken, and I will do a greatly condensed version as an update. Thank you for the perspective! 
