The Boston Globe has just endorsed Barack Obama in the Democratic Primary race. You can’t help hearing about the Obama surge in Iowa and New Hampshire, Oprahpalooza and the nervousness in the Hilary Clinton camp and not wonder how all the hype is going to play out. So much of our political process is played out in these media created mini-dramas. Pundits and reporters often focus on incidents, events, gaffs and embrace the superficial at the expense of a deeper pragmatic analysis. This is an environment that favors someone like a Barack Obama, not that he devoid of the capacity to articulate deeper issues, it’s just that he is so good at delivering speeches that make people feel good. The themes of unity and hope articulated by someone of high intelligence who speaks from the heart is such a radical shift from what we have been subject to during the Bush years. Mr. Obama's words and delivery represent a powerful elixir to what has pained us these past seven years. It’s unlikely we will ever see Mr. Obama claiming to be the “decider” or making us cringe with his mangling the English language. No, Mr. Obama knows how to communicated ideas and the themes he chooses are lofty, inspiring and filled with hope.
This is good...but not enough. It makes us feel good to see someone like Barack Obama running for president, it speaks to what is right about America. This is good....but not enough. Politics is a dirty business. If you are going to do business in Washington you are going to get dirty. You are going to have to exercise power, coercion, and compromise. You are going to have to do some things that you will not be proud of. In Washington you are always doing cost benefit analysis, sometimes selling out one group with a worthy agenda, for the greater good, for the ability to live to fight another day, for the chance to make a difference on another issue, prevail in another battle. You can’t live in that environment without it taking its toll. Many have come to Washington with the idealism and vision of a Barack Obama and soon found themselves paralyzed by the forces of stagnation, self-interest and the status quo. Does that mean that Barack Obama should not be President? No, it means he needs time to temper his idealism with an extended lesson in practical politics if he is going to have a shot at bringing to fruition his transforming agenda.
We are living in a very dangerous time. The damage George Bush and his allies have done to this country will take generations to mend. We need leaders like Barack Obama honing their skills, learning the back room ways of Washington, developing the deep contacts and extended “favor banks” that will be required to effect meaningful change in the years ahead. What I like about Hillary Clinton is that she, like Mr. Obama, is driven by a sense of idealism that is rooted in the belief that when we act collectively, we can improve the lives of others and through this our own. She has come face to face with the demons of entrenchment, with the forces that will resist change at any cost because they profit so richly from the status quo. She has wrestled with her own sense of righteousness that often impairs those with high ideals. She has been tempered by failure, loss, the awakening confrontation with her own fallibility and has discovered, at great cost, that humility almost always trumps hubris and that idealism without consensus (however one arrives it) will not change the world.
Hillary Clinton survived eight years in Washington. It almost destroyed her marriage, her family and her reputation, but she survived. She preserved her marriage and raised a well adjusted daughter in an extremely challenging environment. If she accomplished nothing else, this alone would demand our respect. Where some may have exited from the process to seek renewal in other endeavors, she sought renewal by staying committed to the ideals she spent a lifetime advocating. She has done so with class, dignity and effectiveness. She has honed her skills, learned how to get things done in the halls of the Senate. It’s not a question of paying dues, it’s a question of having demonstrated the resilience to get knocked down, pick herself up, dust herself off, and keep on fighting. Her delivery may sometimes be off, her message sometimes a bit shrill, but the idea that the choices our government makes can make a huge difference in the lives of all it’s citizens is one that deserves an advocate with the experience and resilience of a Hilary Clinton.
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Reflections, Observations and Resonant Experiences From the frontlines of the war on sanity
Welcome to my blog
This blog is work in progress. The idea is for this space to become a forum for observations and insight that might perhaps stimulate thought, encourage an exchange of ideas and occasionally entertain and amuse. I hope you enjoy and can find time to witness and contribute to the evolution of the ideas contained in this space.
Quotes:
"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."
Albert Einstein
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak: courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Sir Winston Churchill
"I Believe in all that has never yet been spoken. I want to free what waits within me so that what no one has dared to wish for, may for once spring clear without my contriving. If this is arrogance, God, forgive me, but this is what I need to say. May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way is is with children.
Then in these welling and ebbing currents, these deepening tides moving out, returning, I will sing you as no one ever has, streaming through widening channels into the open sea."
Rainer Maria Rilke
"It ought to be easy ought to be simple enough. Man meets woman and they fall in love, But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough, And you've got to learn to live with what you cant rise above, if you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love..."
Bruce Springsteen
"After the sleepless nights and restless days, after wounds have been opened and tears have been shed, after the soul is laid bare and the heart bleeds for wanting, after words falter and meaning is denied, after the promise of bliss is forsaken and the seeds of doubt bear fruit, after darkness fills the emptiness and emptiness is all that remains....
After all this, in the echo of all that came before….their can still be hope."
L. Rivera
Albert Einstein
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak: courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Sir Winston Churchill
"I Believe in all that has never yet been spoken. I want to free what waits within me so that what no one has dared to wish for, may for once spring clear without my contriving. If this is arrogance, God, forgive me, but this is what I need to say. May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way is is with children.
Then in these welling and ebbing currents, these deepening tides moving out, returning, I will sing you as no one ever has, streaming through widening channels into the open sea."
Rainer Maria Rilke
"It ought to be easy ought to be simple enough. Man meets woman and they fall in love, But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough, And you've got to learn to live with what you cant rise above, if you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love..."
Bruce Springsteen
"After the sleepless nights and restless days, after wounds have been opened and tears have been shed, after the soul is laid bare and the heart bleeds for wanting, after words falter and meaning is denied, after the promise of bliss is forsaken and the seeds of doubt bear fruit, after darkness fills the emptiness and emptiness is all that remains....
After all this, in the echo of all that came before….their can still be hope."
L. Rivera
Amalfi Sunset
Creative Write
Life In Rain
It’s raining outside. Pouring. Inside the fireplace is lit, silhouettes move across the walls responding to unseen forces, dancing to a music of their own. It smells of hickory and cinnamon. Echoes of laughter, music and children’s voices warm the room. The wind blows patterns of raindrops onto the window, bending the light so that the trees and buildings outside move in and out of focus. By the door is a size two sneaker. Only one, its companion resting in some other location, its owner also resting in some other location, lost in dreams of her own. Throughout the house shadows meet light forming images on an invisible canvas that celebrate the ordinary miracles that bless its inhabitants. It is quiet in this place now and the rain shows no sign of letting up. A knock on the door, faint at first, then once more, this time more insistent. The door opens. Wind, rain cross the threshold, no one enters… Yet somehow a presence lingers…A shadow, a thought, a feeling that fills the empty spaces. Perhaps it’s merely an illusion, a trick of the light caused by the wind and falling rain. No. It’s proximity is undeniable now. A presence that touches the soul. Inside a man stands alone; he is startled, moved by a power he cannot yet define. Inside him something stirs. He rises from the stillness of his own thoughts, blood rushing through him, driven by the rhythm of a heart that has been awakened from a slumber long in the making and slow in the undoing. Excitement, fear, anticipation, build to a crescendo, manifested in an inner symphony that no one hears. Again, a knock, louder, urgent, unrelenting…. Again the door is forced open. In the darkness a figure moves in and out of shadows. Rain obscuring the view, the observer appears uncertain, unsure of what he sees…. He stands at the portal trying to envision what might await there. He looks out upon the tempest that is passing and sees only fading images that depart before he can grasp what lies before him. His heart fills with desire, yet he remains silent, for the image recedes before its semblance can be made whole. The presence withdraws before its form can be fully defined, her essence vanishing before it can be fully embraced. The rain is relentless.
Inside the man retreats to the comfort of shadows and light, of fire and warmth, of memories of laughter and a music that only he can hear. He retreats to the world of small wonders embodied in the image of a singular size two sneaker. Still, he remains haunted by the lingering presence that awakened him from a deep and dreamless sleep…Was it a ghost? A memory of some distant past? A vision of some future yet lived?
He retreats to the comfort of shadows and light, of fire and warmth, of memories of laughter and a music that only he can hear. He retreats to the world of small wonders embodied in the image of a singular size two sneaker. It’s raining outside. Perhaps; perhaps it was just the rain.
It’s raining outside. Pouring. Inside the fireplace is lit, silhouettes move across the walls responding to unseen forces, dancing to a music of their own. It smells of hickory and cinnamon. Echoes of laughter, music and children’s voices warm the room. The wind blows patterns of raindrops onto the window, bending the light so that the trees and buildings outside move in and out of focus. By the door is a size two sneaker. Only one, its companion resting in some other location, its owner also resting in some other location, lost in dreams of her own. Throughout the house shadows meet light forming images on an invisible canvas that celebrate the ordinary miracles that bless its inhabitants. It is quiet in this place now and the rain shows no sign of letting up. A knock on the door, faint at first, then once more, this time more insistent. The door opens. Wind, rain cross the threshold, no one enters… Yet somehow a presence lingers…A shadow, a thought, a feeling that fills the empty spaces. Perhaps it’s merely an illusion, a trick of the light caused by the wind and falling rain. No. It’s proximity is undeniable now. A presence that touches the soul. Inside a man stands alone; he is startled, moved by a power he cannot yet define. Inside him something stirs. He rises from the stillness of his own thoughts, blood rushing through him, driven by the rhythm of a heart that has been awakened from a slumber long in the making and slow in the undoing. Excitement, fear, anticipation, build to a crescendo, manifested in an inner symphony that no one hears. Again, a knock, louder, urgent, unrelenting…. Again the door is forced open. In the darkness a figure moves in and out of shadows. Rain obscuring the view, the observer appears uncertain, unsure of what he sees…. He stands at the portal trying to envision what might await there. He looks out upon the tempest that is passing and sees only fading images that depart before he can grasp what lies before him. His heart fills with desire, yet he remains silent, for the image recedes before its semblance can be made whole. The presence withdraws before its form can be fully defined, her essence vanishing before it can be fully embraced. The rain is relentless.
Inside the man retreats to the comfort of shadows and light, of fire and warmth, of memories of laughter and a music that only he can hear. He retreats to the world of small wonders embodied in the image of a singular size two sneaker. Still, he remains haunted by the lingering presence that awakened him from a deep and dreamless sleep…Was it a ghost? A memory of some distant past? A vision of some future yet lived?
He retreats to the comfort of shadows and light, of fire and warmth, of memories of laughter and a music that only he can hear. He retreats to the world of small wonders embodied in the image of a singular size two sneaker. It’s raining outside. Perhaps; perhaps it was just the rain.
2 comments:
Absolutely agree that Barack seems refreshing speech wise, and is definitely more rooted in idealism. My thoughts are that the last 8 years have been so destructive, I'm not sure its valubable to have someone as close to the machine as Hillary. I think now is the best time and opportunity for an outsider to interject difference in Washington. Bill's increasing presence in the Hillary campaign only tightens the knot in my stomach to question who and why certain families own our seats of power...
Obama - '08!
Well, I sort of see two sides to this... although I strongly support Hillary and think she's the absolute best and most qualified person for the job, lets face it. I'm a Democrat at the core and NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING could be worse than what this current government has so disgracefully rolled out for us for the past 8 years. A war that nobody can understand, inaccessible health care, the incredibly weak dollar, the horrific state of the real estate market...when is it going to be enough? I think that instead of debating which extremely qualified and charismatic Democrat should take the lead, we all should just be pushing the fact that the Dems need to win no matter who it is. This all needs to turn around and there's only one route to go at this point. I honestly don't care who is at the helm, so long as it's a proud Democrat that carries through its promises to be FOR THE PEOPLE. Because the PEOPLE have been neglected long enough.
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