…From this time and place, to friend and for alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.” (JFK’s inaugural address)
I have always been captivated by the words that politicians can speak. At a very young age, I adored John Kennedy. His ability to spin rhetoric awed me – as far back as the second grade. I loved the political writings of Thomas Jefferson, the poetry of Abraham Lincoln, and later, the revolution of Bobby Kennedy. I loved politics, loved the excitement, the game, the promise.
Loved. Past tense.
I think that it is no secret that in 2004, I was a dedicated John Edwards supporter. I was burned badly by that election, by the idiocy of the Kerry campaign, by a loss that struck deeply, by the disintegration of everything I believed in. George W. Bush had stolen the election the first time, only to win honestly the second time. Disheartened, in disbelief, and disgusted, I walked away from politics.
Fuck it. Who the hell cares? Politics is pointless, the system is corrupt, my savior is Christ, and that’s what matters.
Well. 2007 rolled around. I watched a few friends get involved again and quite frankly, I pitied them. Particularly my friends supporting John Edwards. I knew his campaign would go nowhere, he would not win. That is not to say he got nothing accomplished, but I knew he would hit another wall of defeat. I refused to commit to a candidate. I knew, and still know, that whoever wins the Democratic primary will get my vote.
For many years, I have wondered aloud, “Where is our Bobby?” (Listen to that speech, I beg you.) For many years, I have believed that we had no leadership that could match that of my hero, Robert Kennedy. We were a political party, a nation, caught up in the tiny details. We fight over abortion and the death penalty and ignore the children that starve on our streets.
Fuck that.
Our Bobby has arrived. Barack Obama has my full support. I will do whatever I can to get him elected President. Because I don’t think Hilary Clinton will win – and I DO NOT believe she should. Yell at me for hating her because she’s a woman. Go ahead. I dare you. I’m a woman too, and that has nothing to do with it. In fact, I believe that voting for her only because she’s a woman sets the women’s movement back. (see also: Dole, Elizabeth and Senator, North Carolina.)
Barack Obama for President. Because he has ideas. Because he has hope. Because we need a Bobby. Because we need to believe.
Because America can be great again. Not through imperialistic domination, but through cooperation. Not through fear, but through love. Not through intimidation, but through invitation.
Because we can bring about a country that is the fulfilment of the dreams of Thomas Jefferson, of Abraham Lincoln, of Franklin Roosevelt, of John Kennedy, of Bobby. We can bring about a nation that is the delivery of the promises we stand on, of the promises we have forgotten, of the promises we long to remember. We can bring about a nation in which we will again consider ourselves proud to be an American.
If you never listen to anything I say; if you disagree with everything I stand for… Do me one favor. Listen to this song. Feel that swelling in your chest? That stirring in your belly? That’s pride. That’s hope. That’s why I will support Senator Obama.
“The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”
- Barack Obama (2004 Convention Speech)
I once loved politics. Now, I love people. And I believe, whole-heartedly, that Senator Obama can bring about change. Will he fix everything? No. Will he end all evils and right all wrongs? No. Will he create tiny ripples of hope? Yes.
Barack Obama 2008.
Bring it on.
Keep your coins…
April 22, 2007 · Filed under Politics, social commentary
A commenter (Hi, A Mouse!) said:
I agree the VT deaths are sad. But I can’t help thinking that the heavy coverage of the incident is evidence that in general we fail to recognize or remember the ceaseless tragedies in much of the world. For example, during the two hours of the shootings at VT, something like 1200 children under age five in the third or developing worlds died from illnesses that are easily preventable or treatable in the first world. See UNICEF’s statistics for more. Are we numb to these deaths because this type of tragedy is constant? I suppose, more prosaically, that most individuals are affected more by tragedies whose circumstances are substantially similar to their own.
This got me thinking. It REALLY got me thinking. At first, my feathers were a little ruffled. (That tends to be stage one for me.) And then, I just started reflecting.
The Virginia Tech deaths are more than sad. They are a national tragedy. And the entire collegiate community has reacted because, you’re right. There’s a lot of pop psychology involved. We identify with people who look like us, talk like us, and act like us. I certainly do. It rips my heart out and it makes me cry. I think about the Holocaust survivor-turned-professor who threw himself in front of a door to save his students, and I fight tears. That’s painful. That’s unjust.
But I find myself unable to turn a blind eye to the injustice that is a crushing weight, and not
only the United States but in the rest of the World. I have wept. When faced with the issues of overpopulation, world poverty, the crushing agony of the AIDS crisis, the issue of blood diamonds, children soldiers, hunger, genocide, and oppression, I have wept.
These things have driven me to my knees. I have cried out to God, begging Him for answers. How can there be such palatial abundance in some places and such desperate poverty in others? How can children in the sprawling suburbs of a prosperous America co-exist in a nation where other children, often just across the tracks, go hungry? Poverty, social injustice, and inequality is not a Third World problem.
It’s a people problem.
Many people who read this blog know that Robert Kennedy is my hero. ”A revolution is coming — a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fourtunate enough — But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.” He spoke those words in 1966. What a hell of a time to be talking about revolution. The world was going to hell in a handbag.
It’s a people problem.
It’s time for another revolution. I reject the notion that we’re all oblivious. I reject the notion that nothing can change. That there is room for people to sit back and shake their heads about the under involvement of the people. Pick an issue and go with it.
What is it, this lie that’s been perpetrated against common citizens? That you must somehow be extraordinarily bright, and wise, and powerful to get things done? Who has allowed this lie? I believe that it’s the same people who have created the sweet little lie that the American people are too dumb to figure out what’s happening in American politics.
It’s a people problem.
People have been convinced that they’re too stupid, too out of it, and too sick of it to effect any sort of change. They complain about politicians, change the channel, and keep bitching about what’s happening in the world. It’s criminal. It’s a criminal conspiracy, perpetrated by the media, and politicians, and apathetic jerks.
It’s a people problem.
But the revolution is coming. Bobby said so. My favorite quote’s been posted here before, but it’s something that’s governed my life for a very long time. “It is from numberless diverse acts
of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” He said that in Cape Town, South Africa. He was telling white South Africans, students, to resist apartheid. That it was radical. That was insane.
Virginia Tech was a tragedy. Children dying in Africa is a tragedy. There have been a hundred thousand tiny tragedies in my own life. My father committed suicide when I was 2. My mother died of AIDS. I’ve lost people that I loved desperately. There is empathy. There is agony. It lurks on every street corner and in every person’s story.
It’s a people problem.
So, I get down on my knees. I pray. I decide what to care about. Some days, I care about Africa. Some days, I don’t. And that has to be okay, because I’m just a person.
We’re all just people.
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