A day to be alive
Regarding Barack Obama and the Democratic National Convention
Before I go any further, I have to put up the link to Obama's Democratic Nomination Acceptance Speech. If you haven't seen it yet, or if you have felt like it wasn't important to see for any reason, think again and click that link. I know many other people have stated it far more eloquently than I could ever write here, so instead of singing the praises of this man, I'll simply define my support of him.
The phrase "The Audacity of Hope" has become so ingrained in my ideas and feelings about this campaign, and about his run for presidency that I often forget the phrase's origin. I, in fact, had to do a quick google search to remind myself of where I know that phrase from. It seems fitting that it is, indeed, the title of Obama's autobiography. The double-edged sword of hope has not only defined Obama's campaign for Presidency so far, but has also been chief fodder for the opposition, calling him "too cocky" or "too confident" in his run for Chief of State. While Jon Stewart in his brilliant commentary has noted that overconfidence is a prerequisite to believing that one is capable of being the Commander in Chief of the United States of America, I think of it more simply. Hope should not be bound by the pessimism of a nation in a steady decline of economy and morale, or the stubborn and stagnant nature of our bipartisan system. It must be, needs be, audacious in its capacity to look beyond the simple restrictions of party and principle.
Hope is audacious optimism in the face of bleak reality. To say otherwise is to ignore the simple and depressing truth that we as human beings ignore positive change, instead choosing to maintain the habits and systems that have stood for decades beyond their usefulness. We selfishly scoff at the idea of sweeping reforms to our every day life, defensively clinging to the actions and activities that have carried us through our formative years. While I believe that a person is capable of changing their opinion based on logical evidence, we as a people are set in our ways, defensive about recycling, hybrid cars, and taxation because we somehow feel that agreeing that the system needs change indicates that we have been doing something wrong or nefarious for years. We are, in many ways, burdened by our complicity in the Oil Age. To hope for something beyond this suddenly seems not only audacious, but profane.
What Obama proposes is not profanation, but instead reform. He asks only for us to shrug off the selfishness that we are experiencing in today's global economy and political world. My question is, is this so different from what we have allowed our government to do for the last eight years? My father once asked me rhetorically whether it was the responsibility of the United States of America to promote democracy and freedom of individual expression in other countries. I agree with him wholeheartedly. However, I also believe that we must first be selfish in our application of democracy. This morning I bought a bottle of tea from a local vendor on my way to work. Its original price was $2.99. With tax it came ot $3.25. 26 cents tax on a three dollar drink. If you do the math on that it comes out to approximately 8.7% tax on something as simple as a drink. A little more than a year ago I automatically calculated the 7% sales tax on something and pulled out my change for it. That we live in a world where sales tax on food and drink rises that much within an 18 month period makes me firmly believe that we need to reevaluate our own national health. While this is selfish in the face of what many, including my father, believe is our national prerogative to promote freedom and opportunity in countries less fortunate than ours, I believe that we must fortify our national health and well being before we further commit to assisting others. Allowing ourselves to sicken as a nation so that others may thrive is to ignore the millions at home who do not benefit from the civil liberties we implore other nations to consider, that our own men and women sacrifice their lives and livelihoods for. I find myself saying (with irony, noting the sourse), that this country is sick. We need a doctor.
Our national selflessness in action is coming head-to-head with our innate human selfishness. The collision of the two leads us to spend billions of dollars in fighting wars for the freedom of other nations from oppression (a fight I wholly agree is both just and necessary) while increasing dependency on foreign oil and shipping jobs overseas because it serves big business and their selfish interests. Obama isn't unpatriotic in acknowledging that this has to change. He's brave for saying all the things that I've thought over the past several years in a public forum where his career could be utterly destroyed by even the implication of change.
I've changed my LJ title, taken it from a post sheafrotherdon made here, because it's the first time in my life that hope has been a word I would associate with politics. When I was in high school I watched Farscape, a show in which the concept of hope was something imparted to the many members of a rag tag and desolate proverbial band of brothers by a man who found himself divorced from Earth and all of the precepts seen therein. There he introduced hope to those who had never known the concept before in their many and varied lives. He shifted their perspectives and changed the courses of all of their lives with the simple and honest belief that a soldier could be more than the weapons she had been taught to handle, an anarchist could be more than her violent opposition to the current regime, a dominar could be more than his selfish desire to reassert his position of power. That these far reaching and odd races and backgrounds could find a common drive and indeed a common sense of family in the hope for something greater is something consigned to science fiction. Or it was, until now.
Now a man has shrugged off the political pessimism and stagnation that have affected our generation since before I was born. He reaches beyond the idea of racial and gender demographics in the hope that we will be reminded of our unity as members of one nation, one people, one humanity beyond borders both real and imagined. In a world where Reuters has cited the statistics for the citizens of this country trusting our elected president as depressingly miniscule, I see in this man the potential for more. I trust him to listen to the outcries of a nation defined by our unemployment, our illiteracy, our wounded veterans, and our uninsured. I believe he can make us see beyond the differences in color, religion, and creed without the catalyst of national tragedy. I find my optimism in his optimism. He looks to our future beyond the rocky and difficult times that lie immediately ahead.
This is a man that makes me want to run for public office. I can't think of a higher compliment than that.
Before I go any further, I have to put up the link to Obama's Democratic Nomination Acceptance Speech. If you haven't seen it yet, or if you have felt like it wasn't important to see for any reason, think again and click that link. I know many other people have stated it far more eloquently than I could ever write here, so instead of singing the praises of this man, I'll simply define my support of him.
The phrase "The Audacity of Hope" has become so ingrained in my ideas and feelings about this campaign, and about his run for presidency that I often forget the phrase's origin. I, in fact, had to do a quick google search to remind myself of where I know that phrase from. It seems fitting that it is, indeed, the title of Obama's autobiography. The double-edged sword of hope has not only defined Obama's campaign for Presidency so far, but has also been chief fodder for the opposition, calling him "too cocky" or "too confident" in his run for Chief of State. While Jon Stewart in his brilliant commentary has noted that overconfidence is a prerequisite to believing that one is capable of being the Commander in Chief of the United States of America, I think of it more simply. Hope should not be bound by the pessimism of a nation in a steady decline of economy and morale, or the stubborn and stagnant nature of our bipartisan system. It must be, needs be, audacious in its capacity to look beyond the simple restrictions of party and principle.
Hope is audacious optimism in the face of bleak reality. To say otherwise is to ignore the simple and depressing truth that we as human beings ignore positive change, instead choosing to maintain the habits and systems that have stood for decades beyond their usefulness. We selfishly scoff at the idea of sweeping reforms to our every day life, defensively clinging to the actions and activities that have carried us through our formative years. While I believe that a person is capable of changing their opinion based on logical evidence, we as a people are set in our ways, defensive about recycling, hybrid cars, and taxation because we somehow feel that agreeing that the system needs change indicates that we have been doing something wrong or nefarious for years. We are, in many ways, burdened by our complicity in the Oil Age. To hope for something beyond this suddenly seems not only audacious, but profane.
What Obama proposes is not profanation, but instead reform. He asks only for us to shrug off the selfishness that we are experiencing in today's global economy and political world. My question is, is this so different from what we have allowed our government to do for the last eight years? My father once asked me rhetorically whether it was the responsibility of the United States of America to promote democracy and freedom of individual expression in other countries. I agree with him wholeheartedly. However, I also believe that we must first be selfish in our application of democracy. This morning I bought a bottle of tea from a local vendor on my way to work. Its original price was $2.99. With tax it came ot $3.25. 26 cents tax on a three dollar drink. If you do the math on that it comes out to approximately 8.7% tax on something as simple as a drink. A little more than a year ago I automatically calculated the 7% sales tax on something and pulled out my change for it. That we live in a world where sales tax on food and drink rises that much within an 18 month period makes me firmly believe that we need to reevaluate our own national health. While this is selfish in the face of what many, including my father, believe is our national prerogative to promote freedom and opportunity in countries less fortunate than ours, I believe that we must fortify our national health and well being before we further commit to assisting others. Allowing ourselves to sicken as a nation so that others may thrive is to ignore the millions at home who do not benefit from the civil liberties we implore other nations to consider, that our own men and women sacrifice their lives and livelihoods for. I find myself saying (with irony, noting the sourse), that this country is sick. We need a doctor.
Our national selflessness in action is coming head-to-head with our innate human selfishness. The collision of the two leads us to spend billions of dollars in fighting wars for the freedom of other nations from oppression (a fight I wholly agree is both just and necessary) while increasing dependency on foreign oil and shipping jobs overseas because it serves big business and their selfish interests. Obama isn't unpatriotic in acknowledging that this has to change. He's brave for saying all the things that I've thought over the past several years in a public forum where his career could be utterly destroyed by even the implication of change.
I've changed my LJ title, taken it from a post sheafrotherdon made here, because it's the first time in my life that hope has been a word I would associate with politics. When I was in high school I watched Farscape, a show in which the concept of hope was something imparted to the many members of a rag tag and desolate proverbial band of brothers by a man who found himself divorced from Earth and all of the precepts seen therein. There he introduced hope to those who had never known the concept before in their many and varied lives. He shifted their perspectives and changed the courses of all of their lives with the simple and honest belief that a soldier could be more than the weapons she had been taught to handle, an anarchist could be more than her violent opposition to the current regime, a dominar could be more than his selfish desire to reassert his position of power. That these far reaching and odd races and backgrounds could find a common drive and indeed a common sense of family in the hope for something greater is something consigned to science fiction. Or it was, until now.
Now a man has shrugged off the political pessimism and stagnation that have affected our generation since before I was born. He reaches beyond the idea of racial and gender demographics in the hope that we will be reminded of our unity as members of one nation, one people, one humanity beyond borders both real and imagined. In a world where Reuters has cited the statistics for the citizens of this country trusting our elected president as depressingly miniscule, I see in this man the potential for more. I trust him to listen to the outcries of a nation defined by our unemployment, our illiteracy, our wounded veterans, and our uninsured. I believe he can make us see beyond the differences in color, religion, and creed without the catalyst of national tragedy. I find my optimism in his optimism. He looks to our future beyond the rocky and difficult times that lie immediately ahead.
This is a man that makes me want to run for public office. I can't think of a higher compliment than that.