2 posts tagged “hope”

I am still giddy about the election results, and went over to a blog of someone I know through a hs group. I don't know her well except through reading her blog and I can't say that we'll ever be friends as our views are so diametrically opposed, but still I was surprised by the depth and drama of her anguish over the election results. She actually said that if she didn't have to care for her children she would curl up in a closet and rock in a fetal position. To which I could reply, "So what kind of loco week have you been smokin'?" She goes on to say that she can't stand how "people see him as some sort of messiah". One of her equally insightful visitors commented that if she hears one more person say how proud they are to be American over this, she will rip their eyebrows out through their (sic) nose." Hmmm. Certainly a vivid mental image. But it begs the question:

Where have you all been for 8 F*%$#@G years? Were you proud of a president that lied us into an illegal, immoral war to benefit his cronies? Were you proud as we bombed innocent people who had nothing whatsoever to do with the Towers and Pentagon? Were you proud when we had a president who was so lacking in any innate intellect that he could barely communicate in English much less lead a nation? Were you proud when we ordered wire tapping and invasive measures on our own citizens? Were you proud when we tortured and maimed men who may have sort of, we suspect they did, have ties with terrorists at Gitmo? And stole YEARS from their lives as a result of that suspicion, only to release them with a ticket back to wherever they're from and not so much as an apology? Were you proud as our president forbade pictures of body bags of our brave soldiers coming home ? Were you proud of our government that cut spending for Vets even as men and women flooded the system missing parts of their bodies and psyches they'll never recover? Were you proud as our Constitution and all it stands for were trampled?

I love my country. I tear up every time I hear the national anthem. I am grateful to have been born here and to have all the luxuries and opportunities that being an American affords me. I have made good use (I pray) of the privilege that has been mine as a white, middle class woman in America. I love the Constitution and the exchange of ideas and religious freedom that is more possible here than anywhere else I have travelled or read about.

But I have not felt pride in my government or its actions for a long, long time. I can love my uncle but if he's a fall down drunk, or a bully, or an out and out moron, I don't have to feel proud of him.

No, Barak Obama is not the messiah. He is, by all measures, an intelligent, compassionate person who has shown his ability to come up with the ideas that may save us from ourselves. His ideas about green energy, job growth, foreign policy, and so many other things give many of us hope, something that has been missing for eight long years as we read the papers and thought, "Oh no, what next?"

I don't pretend that Obama will be perfect or even that he will make perfect decisions. He is a man, nothing more and only God is perfect. I am willing to give him a chance and work with him as he directs our country to a better path than it's been on in recent memory.

So if the losers, want to curl up in their closets, (the nice walk-in kind as I notice most of the complainers have been pretty well heeled) that's fine. It'll get them out of the way as we make real, positive change. Change that is long overdue.  

On Saturday, Kent Couch flew his lawn chair more than 200 miles over the Oregon Desert and landed in a field in Idaho. He used a bb gun and a dart gun to control the his lift and Kool Aid for ballast.

With all the crazy, scary, sad things going on in the world and in life, I really love that someone is doing something so wonderfully wacky and creative. It just makes me smile and somehow gives me hope. I will carry this image with me throughout my day and try to fly my own metaphorical lawn chair today and in the days to come.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/05/lawnchair.balloons.ap/index.html?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail