"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." -- John F. Kennedy.
Let's no longer fear. We are at a time in history that calls to the deepest and bravest instincts in us as Americans, indeed, as human beings. It is looking more and more likely that people are coming around, awakening to a realization that only one man in this race really knows what to do. "This is our time" is more than a slogan. It is a cry, both from and to, that same depth within us; "Yes we can" will become "Yes we did!" Future generations will know that we judged the truth and saw through the falsehood, and overcame our fear, our bias, our long, lingering suspicion of anyone whose name doesn't sound quite right, or whose charisma and powerful intelligence seems exotic to the point of appearing beyond our capacity to embrace such alien philosophies as "This has never been about me. It's about you!"
Barack Obama asks that we help him to help us and our neighbors, in the States, and around the world. Things are going to hell, yet it might be this crisis that propels him into the White House. I don't want to be afraid. I want to return to leadership that can deliver a message as eloquent as the one I quoted above. Leadership unafraid to give us the bad news, honor our intelligence by letting us judge the truth of whether or not our government is afraid of us, or us of it. We can have that again. I believe we will have that, and much more.
"I love this country too much to let them take over with lies, misdirection, and swiftboating. These are serious times, and they call for serious debate." -- Barack H. Obama.
A couple of weeks ago, I requested today off from work, not realizing then that today is Barack Obama's birthday.
Over on Daily Kos ( username: wewhodream) I wrote about that, talking about how in a hundred years, today will be a federal holiday. Then I went to redroom.com where Obama has a blog, and I wished the next President Happy Birthday.
There are those who seem incapable or unwilling, to see the broader picture. The knee-jerk reaction that "If my candidate didn't make it, I'm not voting for the other one!" What does this serve? Seems a childish and selfish thing to me.
Bill Ricardson could have taken the path of least resistance by sticking with Senator Clinton, but he saw something in Barack Obama. Richardson gathered his courage and made his decision to support Obama, risking his friendship and political clout with the Clintons. He did it for the good of the country...he saw the broader picture.
There are people here who will pray for a stranger, simply because the stranger asked. This is the broader picture, that innate sense of the greater good. That willingness to step outside ourselves and extend a hand or a prayer; the guts to declare, "Nothing personal, and I hope we still can be friends, but I see something in this guy..." this is an integrity of spirit. On the surface, The American Spirit, but at a deeper level, it is the human spirit.
Please don't move away from Barack Obama as a reaction to bitter disappointment. Look at him, and see. Use your intuition, your intelligence, all your faculties. Here is not just another politician (He is a politician, but so much more.) Here we have a chance to regain not only our world-standing as a nation, but to extend the vision of millions of Americans waiting for the opportunity to embrace a new way of conducting world business, world cooperation, world leadership...world peace.
We can see it. We can hear it calling to us. People in other countries can see it more clearly than we can, perhaps because they are more objective. But that opportunity is here, right in front of us. See the broader picture.
This is off-topic, but I am seeking prayer. There are many spiritual people on this site, and I seek your energy. Christian, Buddhist, New Age, New Thought...that matters not to me. It's the love I need to feel.
My wife and I are close to having our new home go into foreclosure. If you knew me you would know how hard it is for me to come with my hat in my hand. But I believe very much in, "Where two or more are gathered."
I ask, we ask, for your prayers. Thank you all.
"We who hear a 'distant' call, walking bridges 'between' souls, hearing that Divine Song...weep no longer for damage done in dreams."
--We Who Dream.
Ours is an opportunity...we on this site, and all around the world, apparent strangers and yet...our common cause seems to awaken in and among us a certain awareness that we are a community. This global neighborhood, where I, in the United States, can connect with a person in Australia, touch that one, could conceivably grow until peace reigns.
The old guard resists such change, afraid of losing its control, but change there must be. The old ways are, well, old. There is more involved here than we can readily see. It can be sensed, but there are no verbal equivalents to describe it. The old ways must make way for the new. Has it not always been so? The railroad, the interstate highway system, and all large scale change (revolution if you like) brings upheaval.
The things I write about might seem simplistic: Picking up trash on my street, holding a door open for the person behind me, but these acts are a signal to others, an unspoken acknowledgement that we are living in a society. But more, we make the society. It is we who make it run. Simple acts inspire greater acts, and greater. I've seen one person smile at another, and the other was healed in some way...that other might have been inspired to change a personally disastrous course, and maybe they passed on that communal inspiration. Maybe they touched someone else.
Ours is a chance to bring to the world a hope for stability. In stability, peace grows. It is not naive to believe world peace is possible. It is naive to think Barack Obama can do it all by himself; it is not wishful thinking to envision peace on earth; it is wishful thinking to assume it will spring up without our understanding that we make it happen...the Christian, the Buddhist, the atheist, the scientist and the creationist; Republican or Democrat, or Independent. This is our dream, isn't it?
This is indeed our time. There will be a President Obama, and we will have made it happen. And the world outside our shores will have helped us make it happen. If hope is fed enough, it becomes faith.
What bridges are we building today...
I love to write. I love to see this blank square, just as I love to see a blank sheet of paper. It represents possibility, potential. America seems sort of blank now, doesn't it? Old ways, such as racism, and closed-mindedness, seem to be dying out...exposed first, then slowly becoming extinct, and this is part of what I am saying about our starting the process toward world peace. Young people are becoming involved in this charging and at times soaring, movement. Many of them have never really experienced the ancient depth and ugly power of racism, and such is the sting of their being so exposed, that the shock causes them to want to work for change. A young woman sees such vulgarity in the eyes of another woman, years older, declaring, "I could never vote for a black man." A young man hears the same discordant cry from a group of old men on a hot city sidewalk...these two Obama volunteers, fresh-faced and starry-eyed, but in their youth is a new vision that isn't really new. In their hearts there is a hope, a conviction that the world can be changed. They each sense that while they will never deter these hardened opinions flying from tired lined faces, there still is the chance for something greater than themselves, as it originates from something greater than themselves.
This is the power of hope, that it becomes conviction, conviction becomes drive, drive enables change. Vague words for the cynical, hot air for the skeptic, but a little cynicism is needed; without skepticism, we still would avoid sailing to other countries because of the fear of falling off the edge of an earth still believed to be flat. But in youth lies the potential for transforming a world beginning to creak, its old ways no longer sufficient. As more and more young men and women realize that they do have power, that there still are brilliant people older than they, who are ready willing and able to point the way toward a more stable world, what we now call a movement will become the norm.
As racism is exposed, old ways become extint. There are still young people whose parents teach them how to act with others, particularly their elders. The stability of family still exists. All is not lost. The blank square waits for a new word as the world waits for new leadership. A leadership that joins (and unites) the world rather than dictate to it; leadership that brings vision rather than the blindness of "If you're not for us, you're against us!"
The young are waking up and realizing they can effect change. The young at heart stand and march with them. Change terrifies the originators of the status quo. But we must begin. To clean up a mess, we must make a bigger mess. But when the dust settles...
A united vision is better than a scattered blindness.
Today at work I saw a car from the back, and the sticker on its bumper declared: "OLD WHITE WOMEN FOR OBAMA." I see some Obama stickers at work, but not many. I walked around to the front of the car, and I waved at the older couple as they began to back out of their parking place. I mouthed, "Obama!" Then gave them thumbs up. They returned the gesture, smiling broadly.
There was of course that small moment of doubt on their faces as I hailed them: "Is this guy ok?" And if you knew me, you would know it was not easy for me to do that. But it's Obama. I had to be a little audacious, right? It is that connection, that common understanding that we are engaged in something greater than all of us, including Barack Obama. And the closer we get, the more convinced I am that my original intuition about him, back in '04, when I heard his deep voice resonate..."There is the United States of America...!" That it was right. Not that I was right, I don't care about that, but just that my sense was there, and was right on. Friends and neighbors, brothers and sisters, we are about to make history! This is our heritage, our right to pursue our happiness, our time to shine. I said before, and I will most likely keep repeating it, that I feel deeply that this man will not only be president, but will be part of the early steps toward a vital and spiritual, (not necessarily religious, but spiritual) thousand years of peace. By God, that's what I saw in 2004, and it's what I still see. It is just there, like the sun after a good rain.
May peace overlay the earth, and heal the world.
In going through the posts this morning, I see another reference to Barack Obama as: "BO".
I don't think image is everything, but I do feel it is important. When we were kids, we would refer to someone who didn't smell good as having "B.O." Which stands for, "Body Odor."
I submit that we refrain from referring to our candidate as "BO", and instead use BHO.
This bears repeating. It isn't just that Barack Obama and his wife seem to be nice people...they are, but it's more than that. We will have a family in the White House. A solid family. Not a political dynasty, but a unit of four people: President Obama, the first lady, their two daughters. It will be similar to JFK's White House, only I believe it will be even better. It will ripple, this new vital energy (you think we are inspired now? Just wait); nothing will magically heal itself, but this energy will open up opportunity for those inspired souls to stand with our new Presidential Family, and come together as a community.
Air Force One will land in other countries...the door will open, and the president will appear. Great crowds will cheer. For the world, more objective than we, thus able to see more clearly, watches as we steadily come to our senses and recognize the greatness we are about to bring into that old white house. A family's house...our house.
People who don't support Barack Obama seem to always label those of us who do support him as "Kool-Aid drinking worshippers without any sense of reality." It may appear as if we believe Obama were some sort of savior, a knight or a mystical champion come to save we poor wretches from ourselves.
That's not it. Is it? I think we just are tired. We just want our country back. But not just Democrats, right? Everybody. We want to have leaders who lead. We want to speak with our enemies the way Kennedy spoke with Khrushchev...and if they had not spoken, the world, assuming there still was a world, (Cuban Missile Crisis), would be a wholly different place.
I think about those who really believe Obama is a Muslim, and his wife is ashamed of America. Stupidity fascinates me. It also scares me a little. But I'm reasonably sure the intelligent people still outnumber the stupid people. A popular radio personality here in the Denver area, who is a math whiz, came up with his own numbers regarding the percentage of stupid people in America. His calculations say that thirty percent of Americans are stupid. I don't know if that's true or not, and he says it with his tongue in his cheek, but I think we all can see what happens when stupid people come into power, and stay in power for a long time. I haven't read any articles that come right out and call President Bush stupid, but I do recall a commentator describing him as "Intellectually Uncurious." Which to me seems to be pretty much the same thing.
We seek a leader whose vision we can not only see, but share in, and help develop. Stupid or brilliant, or somewhere in between, we are basically the same. Maybe Obama supporters can see a little deeper, below the surface. But we all want to be safe, to be able to afford gas, and send kids off to college without bankrupting ourselves. We supporters of this (great) man can see something in him that maybe is not necessarily apparent. But we trust it. We trust him.
If having a vision of peace is pie in the sky, cut me a big hunk. If greatness seems too good to be true, let me look deeper. If our time is now to see our dreams fulfilled, to answer the questions that have plagued us for so long, to stand beside this great man, to bring him into office, to see beneath the oratory to that certain "something", then let it be.
He's still gonna be president.
When all the garbage is heaped, the mobs quieted, their ranting claims of "Muslim" this, and "lapel pin" that...elitist, pride, not the greatest bowler in the world...after all that, he's still gonna be president. There are those who would want us to fall into despair. They have had the power for a long time, and now someone seems genuinely ready willing and able to upset their apple cart.
If we are disheartened, it makes them stronger. But we outnumber them. I work in a grocery store run by one of the big chains. All over the place there are clear signs the company cares not for the customer: old shopping carts with wheels that hardly turn, broken handles, sharp edges...if enough people got together, wrote emails, there would be shiny new carts for them, and a lot more. But we seem to have lost the art of exercizing power. We seem to be so beat down that we actually believe that we as individuals with a common humanity, have little to no power, little to no voice...but isn't that what Barack Obama did early in his careeer (when he could have been making big bucks as a lawyer)? Didn't he organize people, show them they do have power?
What if we created the kind of community we want to live in? Isn't that what "Yes We Can!" means?
He's still gonna be president, and we will know that we helped him.
I see this image:
Sometime in the next century: A large brick building, evergreens and a big green lawn. Kids entering, some standing near a tall flag pole...stars & stripes wave above. Above the front doors, in big gold letters:
BARACK H. OBAMA HIGH SCHOOL
He wakes just before dawn. His first morning as President of the United States. Beside him the first lady still sleeps. He can see in the halflight the covers move rhythmically as she breathes. His love for her is a sort of joyful ache, and he feels once more an urgency to do her proud. "This is our time." His lips move, but no sound. He touches her hair, and smiles. A long road behind, and another ahead. But with Michelle at his side, their children, and a cabinet of brilliant men and women to guide him, he knows it can be. He knows they can do the things they said they would do...even with compromises...they will begin. The President starts to get up just as he hears a knock at the door...
I believe dreams and the work one does to bring them to fruition are the same. I believe prayer and action are one. If a person prays for work, and goes out to look for a job, the act of looking for a job is part of the prayer. I do not believe in divisions. If we insist upon divisions between prayer/dreams and action, we are telling ourselves that we believe less in the power of prayer/dreams, and more in physical action. This causes our prayers to be less effective, and our dreams often die without the engine of faith and clear sight to drive them to their manifestation.
We dream of a great man becoming president, so we go out and work for that goal. A dream is not an ephemeral thing, wispy like a veil. Dreaming made the earth and its attendant stars, and yes, I am walking a fine line here.
We dream of greatness and it comes. We once read by candlelight, then gaslight, until someone had dreams of a better light...a better way. Action is the "Amen" of prayer.
Maybe that is what we mean when we declare, "Yes we can!"
Who are we to dare hope? Whose broad stripes, indeed! Who told us we couldn't find a leader to point to a different road? Who says? Here, "losing" is still winning, for the prize remains ours...and this means all of us...those voting otherwise don't realize it yet...
There might always be those who despair so deeply that they cannot see; they demand to know who are we. Might always be a knot of tired souls, so desolate that all semblance of hope has long since vanished into the shadows of broken promises. Still we stand.
And who are we to insist on excellence when mediocrity seemed about to swallow us whole? And it appears excellence heard us. Now our voices will not be stilled. Who are we to speak bravely in the face of dissent? Who told us "No you can't go there!"
We still can see it, that's why our voices willl not stop. A whole world awaits our coming to our senses and electing greatness at last, and we who dare dream and hope of better things, how do we answer that world?
Whose bright stars!
Only look at the surface, don't look up new words in the dictionary: "Nuance", "perceptive", "layers"...make decisions based on nothing more than images that someone else presents. See everything as a bias, never try to understand another point of view.
Yes, I've been reading the Comments Sections again (from different newspaper articles). Have these people sat with the Obamas at their dinner table, watched them interact with their daughters, listened as their dad tucks them in at night? Were they there as Barack Obama helped scatter his mother's ashes? Then upon what do they base their attacks that he is arrogant, elitist...have they no sense of our shared humanity?
In The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes (paraphrasing) "My heart is filled with love for this country." Do we know intimately the emotion with which he wrote those words? No, but some of us are intuitive enough to have felt that energy, his energy, as it welled up inside him. We felt it because we have empathy. Is that elitist? No, because all share in this intuition, but many deny it. Denial of it will not change its reality. It is universal.
Last night I read the cover story in Time Magazine (April 21) about Obama's mother. First I read it by myself, then I read it to my wife before we went to sleep. It is a fairly straight forward article, not much more than basic reporting. But still one could sense the love, the intelligence, the passion and the depth of the woman, perhaps the one person, who had the greatest influence upon this possible (even probable) president of the United States.
Is Barack Obama arrogant? Along with greatness naturally comes some arrogance. But I don't believe it is true arrogance, because Obama loves people. He listens when people speak, and not just with skills he learned, but with his heart. True arrogance is standing apart, with a conviction of superiority, going through the motions of whatever will get a person to their goal..."I'll practice my active listening now...maybe they will vote for me." So if it isn't true arrogance, what is it? It is a heightened sense of duty/intelligence that grows out of the core of one's own soul. It may be seen as arrogance because "This guy is smarter than me, and it scares me!"
That was a simplified description because otherwise this blog would be a couple of pages long.
When I say Barack Obama is a great man, I mean it. It's just there. This is not an ordinary politician (yes, he is a politician, but...), nor an ordinary time in which we live (and help shape). I believe there are no accidents. It is not an accident that this man had this mother. There is a reason he was shaped by her, moulded in many ways by the strength of her character alone. This brilliant man as great people do, inspires both positive and negative reactions. This big apple cart called THE WORLD is being upset.
"What is best in me I owe to her." --Dreams From My Father.
Let us look deeply, let us reason together, for a united vision is better than a scattered blindness.
I see many blogs talking about Barack Obama being tentative at the debate on ABC. I didn't see the debate, but I did see a still shot of Obama's face...he was angry. When I am angry, I tend to clam up, because I know that if I do not clam up, I'll likely say something I will regret. My sense tells me this is what he was doing. Silence is often taken for reticence.
I believe he has a deep sense of his purpose, or destiny, and he is smart enough to not mess it up by losing his temper. This control while under duress can show itself also in a sort of stumbling speech, but in Obama's case, I would not take it as weakness at all.
I speak from experience. I have a bad temper, and I've learned the hard way to keep my trap shut when I'm mad.
Greatness will be attacked: "Arrogant." "Aloof." "Elitist."
We who follow greatness and support it, will be attacked as well: "Drinking the Kool-Aid."
This has happened every time someone appeared suddenly on the scene, political or otherwise, and seemed to so stand out from the rest as to create consternation among those whose status quo stands to be upset. On both sides, the passion is strong.
We are about to turn a corner that in a hundred years will be seen as a beginning step toward a more stable world. No "celestial choirs", as the fearful like to claim, but the upheaval that always comes with true change. Many times, we must make a mess to clean a mess.
Barack Obama is a great man, and I am confident history will bear that statement out. But he is a man, a person, a human. He makes mistakes, and might even make a mistake in trying to rectify the original mistake. Greatness is not about never taking a mis-step, but in how one gets up from it.
Greatness isn't some sort of magic. It is an unnamed quality giving rise to a fierce intelligence, usually encouraged by a strong figure in one's early years; it is a gift for giving of oneself, thus leading others to give. Greatness attracts greatness, brings with it a force, like a thunderhead coming over a hill...the ability to know we can do a thing, and to inspire others to declare, "Yes We Can!"
