I noticed that the more we go deep in President Obama agenda, the more we do encounter a stronger resistance, not only from pure Republican machine, but also from some Democrats who still not understand the message of change. We should fight and achieve our objectives in Healthcare, Education, Energy, and keep the economy going. The more we demonstrate our focus, all our opponents will finally believe in our commitment, and it will be difficult to continue their resistance movement.
Nyagatare
Well, time to start smelling some coffee.
Despite the historic election that has left so many people, to put it mildly, quite pleased, here's some of what some of our Republicans friends are up to (with a special emphasis on Wisconsin stories for those of us here in America's Dairyland):
-Wisconsin Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner was heard on Wisconsin Public Radio news essentially stating that, now that we don't have Republicans to kick around anymore, we can start blaming Democrats for everything. (See the story "Strategist says GOP needs to expand its base" at http://www.wpr.org/news/newsstories.cfm - unfortunately, I couldn't get my computer to play the audio, so my above characterization of Sensenbrenner's comments is a paraphrase)
-On Facebook.com, someone has already started an "Impeach Obama" page
-A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist published the following - on election day, in the very same edition of his paper that announced Obama's historic win, particularly significant in Wisconsin's most diverse and African-American concentrated community:
[Headline, emphasis supplied by me:] Resistance starts with life's constants
We need coping mechanisms. ... I, for instance, probably will have a triple Whopper today. I've never had one before, but it seems as good a splurge as any with which to start the resistance. After all, our president-elect told a sympathetic crowd last spring that "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times," since it would bother the world. Yeah? In your face, Euroweenies. ...Maybe I'll pick up a copy of "Red Dawn." ... One must prepare.Certainly, though, I'll cope in this blue dawn by clinging, as Obama suggested, to my religion. As for guns, I'm a bad shot, but I can emulate the defamed Sarah Palin by having a loving spouse and wonderful children....
We need coping mechanisms. ... I, for instance, probably will have a triple Whopper today. I've never had one before, but it seems as good a splurge as any with which to start the resistance. After all, our president-elect told a sympathetic crowd last spring that "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times," since it would bother the world. Yeah? In your face, Euroweenies. ...
Maybe I'll pick up a copy of "Red Dawn." ... One must prepare.
Certainly, though, I'll cope in this blue dawn by clinging, as Obama suggested, to my religion. As for guns, I'm a bad shot, but I can emulate the defamed Sarah Palin by having a loving spouse and wonderful children....
Full column at http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/33871354.html
A Democratic Revolution in America
We shed blood, sweat and tears over the last weeks leading up to this election. I volunteered in New Hampshire a total of 9 days and made over 1200 calls for the Obama campaign from my home. I made 300 or so phone calls for the campaign on behalf of other organizations supporting the changes that I felt were essential for the country. We donated money and time. I put my practice of medicine and my family life on hold for this election. I met countless others who did much more than I.
But before the presidential campaign I had the opportunity of getting to know Barack Obama. He tells us about his upbringing and family values of hard work, and eternal optimism. He reads out loud his story in Dreams from my Father. His resonant voice and choice of words and imitation of people’s accents make the story come to life. He tells us about begging lepers who would knock on his home’s front door in Indonesia. He tells us story of how he got the scar on his arm.
I read about his political career in The Audacity of Hope. He won his seat in the Illinois state senate and later the US Senate by running a campaign based on truth, facts and respect for the opposition. He shares his ideals and ideas of community, fairness, faith and citizenship. He tells us about his first private jet flight as a senator. He tells us that his first kiss with Michelle tastes of chocolate.
He becomes the voice for our frustrations and carries our voice from the depths of America. He becomes the voice for all of us who want a better America. One without racism, wars of aggression, poverty, bail-outs, torture, rendition, pride, falling bridges in Minnesota, Abu-Ghuraib, failing levees in Louisiana, potholes, oil spills, snubbing the UN, plummeting dollar, terrorist attacks, orange alerts, wire-tapping, collateral damage, Monsanto, crumbling concrete, Enron, black outs in New York, bigotry, melting icecaps, Guantanamo, killing civilians, atomic bombs, propped up dictators, politics of hate and fear, Halliburton, outsourcing, flag covered coffins, endless consumption and stolen presidential elections.
He becomes a voice for the best in America. A country of justice, apple pie, equality, liberty, due process, Thanksgiving Day, movies, churches, innocent until proven guilty, Habitat for Humanity, telephones, Apollo 11, tractors, fortune cookies, “In God we Trust”, firefighters, jazz, diversity, airplanes, green cards, America’s Second Harvest, innovation, ice-cream cones, civil rights, baseball, state troopers, synagogues, green collar jobs, model T Fords, light bulbs, polio vaccines, mosques, Hershey’s, NIH grants, national parks, Google, temples, industry, rock n’ roll, Harley-Davidsons and pow wows.
Like powerful leaders of the past, he shows how active and peaceful resistance can take the form of a campaign. He proves to us that democracy can work. His experience and leadership provides the impetus. He showed us the way democracy works. Troops of people showed up in phone banks, and swing state offices. We shed sweat in the heat of the summer, walking, running, jogging and knocking on doors to discuss our nation’s issues. We broke out in cold sweat in unfamiliar labyrinthine apartment complexes with creaking stairs that smell of rot and decay. We shed tears when Obama gives his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. He did so in front of a crowd of 100,000. We shed blood from the paper cuts. Hundreds of flyers, canvassing papers, maps and driving directions, freshly off the printers, cut our fingers: a paper cut that will not stop as you flip canvassing papers and phone call lists. But enough blood to stain the white pages of names of fellow Americans. And yes we shed a drop of blood in a bloodless revolution: a change so profound and deep and wide that the world takes notice. And once again we start a new path in the America for which we stand: one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
It is with great respect for the position and the power of the Presidency that I bring forth this message of revolt towards the Bush administration's policies regarding American civil liberties. If we do not contest the rules made by arrogant and egocentric men desperate to have authority and to exert control over the lives of their supposed subjects, then we will find ourselves exposed to the 'soft tyranny' that Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about so eloquently in "Democracy in America". I am not here to simply obey but to contest, because contestation leads to change, reform, and new beginnings. It is a fundamental attribute of human nature to resist where power and authority attempt to impede, or where the imposition of rules undermines the very nature of our civil liberties. Ignorant compliance, obedience, and conformance lead to a path of apathy and acquiescence that perpetuates the very mediocrity that allows tyranical regimes to reign and persist. Resistance, rebellion, and revolt are the driving forces of social change. Each underpins our will to reorder the social structures in which we reside, social structures that are neither monolithic or constant but shift with the winds of our voices articulating something more, something different. If we do not speak for change we will find ourselves left with only half of what we are entitled to in regard to our freedoms and civil liberties. In this public sphere, as Habermas has called it, we must have as many opportunities and as many possible spaces conceivably available to articulate our positions, even when these positions are contrary to established norms. The articulation of new or potential realities opens new spaces for debate and it is time for a novel debate to ensue. Think, speak, and act and act consistently in regard to what is spoken!
S. Matthew Wilburn, Ph.D.
Professorial Lecturer
The George Washington University
