America

America doesn’t always live up to its promise. But its promise is still something worth striving for…worth dreaming of…worth fighting and dying for if need be. I am a cynical patriot but I am indeed a patriot and no one can gainsay that fact.

Blind, unthinking loyalty to anything or anyone is a fool’s path; knee-jerk disavowal of everything this country thinks it is...everything this country wants to be…is also a fool’s path. As with most things in this world, the truth lies somewhere in between strident, inflexible extremes…this is certainly true here in America…our generous, arrogant, naïve, myopic, our hard-hearted and inflexible, open-minded and open-hearted America… our complex , often marvelously and infuriatingly so, America.

Here in the 21^st Century, America is looking for its way…we’re fighting wars on distant soils and building walls on our borders…we’re reeling still from the knowledge that our shores are not immune from terror and chaos and sudden brutal deaths by the score; we are a nation united by history, hubris, and hope…we are a nation fractured along ever-fluid lines of politics, race, religion, pride, and culture.

We are America…for better and for worse…in times of peace and in times of war…in times of joy and pride and in times of sorrow and shame…in times when the rest of the world (rightly or wrongly) celebrates us and in times when the rest of the world (rightly or wrongly) reviles us.

We are America…the sons and daughters of many distant lands…the sons and daughters of adventurers and outcasts…the sons and daughters of slaves and freedmen…the sons and daughters of visionaries and madmen, of pirates and craftsmen, of warriors and peacemakers, of saints and scoundrels, of builders and destroyers, of emancipators and bigots, of heroes and villains…the sons and daughters of uncommon wizards and countless everyday folk…

We are America…we don’t always live up to our promise…maybe we never will completely…but it’s our birthday and attention must be paid just the same.

A Moment in Time

There are moments that history cannot…that history will not…deny; moments that are seared into our collective consciousness as citizens of America, as citizens of the world, as citizens of a universe wherein all things are possible.

The election of Senator Barack Obama as the 44^th President of the United States is such a moment.

It doesn’t matter if we supported him or if we didn’t, the power of the moment is, to my mind anyway, undeniable.

We know the story of his roots in Kansas and Kenya and Hawaii…the story of him being half black and half white, half African and half American…the story has resonance and the election…a moment that historians to come will point to as a significant point in the history of this country…has amazing resonance as well.

I have no idea how the Obama administration will rise or fall but however things unfold the power and significance of the moment will remain undiminished (it is, I will admit, a moment I had not really dared to dream would occur in my lifetime.)

There are moments…and this moment is heartening (and now it’s up to the next President and his administration to take that moment and move forward with it.)

6 or 7 (a Talking with Bob interlude)

My friend Bob sighed. Bob always sighed whenever he read the newspaper so I didn’t bother to pay much attention to it. “Man, I wish some of these guys would get out of the Presidential race, there’s almost too many of them to keep track of.”

I shrugged. “C’mon, Bob,” I said, “what’s the big deal? There’s only like 6 or 7 of them, right? What’s so hard?”

Bob put his paper and turned to face. The incredulous look on his face let me know that I had just said something stupid that he was going to need to correct. “6 or 7?”

I shrugged again. “Yeah,” I insisted, “there ain’t that many of them. The Democrats have Bill Clinton’s wife, that black dude, and the guy with the hair and the teeth. The Republicans have Mayor Rudi, that cranky old guy, the Mormon fella, and, sooner or later, my pal Fred.” I paused and looked at Bob. “Seems easy enough to me, Bob.”

“Michael,” Bob as patiently as he could, “those aren’t the only candidates. Haven’t you seen all the other people onstage during the debates?”

I frowned. “Well I don’t really listen to the debates that closely but from what I can tell those other folks never get to say much. I thought they were just there to make the stage look fuller. Are you sure they’re real candidates?”

Bob started to say something but, for once, he seemed to not have a comeback. “Well,” he said finally, “given the way the media treats them, you sort of a have a point. It’s a moronic point…but not completely incorrect.”

I felt quite pleased with myself. “Well, odds were that I would get something right sooner or later, Bob.”

Bob sighed again…that one was for me but I didn’t mind….and went back to reading the paper while I stared out the window idly humming the theme from Law and Order.

Decision '08 (a Talking with Bob interlude)

My friend Bob burst into my house with a mission. He was, I noted with some chagrin, in his crusader mode. “Who are you gonna vote for?” Bob asked without any preamble.

I wracked my brain. American Idol was over and I didn’t think that So You Think You Can Dance had opened their phone voting yet. I frowned and gave him my best puzzled look. “Vote for?”

“For President! President of the United States of America! Maybe you’ve heard of it???” Bob said with exasperation. “Who are you gonna vote for?”

I sighed to myself. Political conversations with my friend Bob were never a pretty thing. “Hadn’t really thought about it that much,” I replied truthfully. “Especially considering that this is June of ’07 and I don’t really have to make a final decision until November of ’08.” I knew that this was the wrong answer before I’d finished speaking but I was already committed so I went with it.

“No! No! No!” Bob raged indignantly, the veins in his forehead throbbing impressively. “This is the most important decision in the history of this country and you can’t sit on the fence until next year! The good people of New Hampshire are on the verge of moving their primary to Halloween of this year so that they can have the first say in who gets to move on! You have to choose and you have to choose now!”

I suppressed a smile. “Calm down, Bob,” I said solicitously.

Bob grabbed me by my lapels and drew me so close that I could tell that he’d had Hawaiian pizza for lunch. “A name, Michael,” he said, his eyes glowing wildly, “give me a name!”

I suppressed a laugh and shrugged. “Okay. Fred Thompson.”

Bob’s eyes went wide and then he frowned. “Because you agree with him on the issues?” he asked warily.

“Nah,” I said, extricating myself from my friend Bob’s grasp, “because he has the coolest theme song. They’re going to play the Law and Order theme everywhere he goes and that’s going to be so cool.”

Bob’s mouth fell open. “You…you…you…” he sputtered unable to grasp my seemingly flippant attitude to the most important decision in the history of this country. “I can’t talk to you anymore,” he said his voice low and icy.

“Gah!” Bob exclaimed, throwing up his arms as he spun on his heels and marched towards the front door.

“Nice talking with you, Bob,” I said not bothering to suppress a smile as I began to hum the theme from Law and Order.

a brief political aside

Ah, politics…and especially political ads…you gotta love ‘em (or at least you gotta try to find the humor in them because otherwise you might start to seriously wonder if this is really the way we want to choose our “leaders”.)

I thought the war of words and slick televised character assassinations going on between our Governor Arnold and his most vehement adversaries, the unions for public workers (teachers, firefighters, police officers, etc.) had gotten nasty but 10 days in Virginia showed me that both sides in that little fracas are just lobbing puffballs at each other compared to the hell-raisin’ broadsides being hurled over the airwaves in the Old Dominion State.

The typical ad (no matter the office being contested: governor, lt. governor, delegate, dog catcher, whatever) went something like this: “My opponent is THE SPAWN OF SATAN! And if you elect that rascal, life as you know it will come to a cataclysmic end! They’ll be dogs and cats living together! Anarchy in the streets! Save your very souls and vote for me! I’m the reincarnation of any great leader you ever liked and I approved this totally factual ad. ” (Okay, I may be paraphrasing a little but that seemed to be the gist of it…)

And then 30 seconds or so later would come this: “I am not the spawn of Satan but I’m not surprised that my opponent is telling you that because he is EVIL INCARNATE! I love God and puppies and lowering your taxes and if you elect me I will use my mighty powers to make traffic disappear, stop hurricanes, and make life in our great state paradise on Earth! So remember: I’m the good guy, he’s EVIL INCARNATE…the choice is clear. I’m not the spawn of Satan and I approved this ad.” (Again, these may not be the exact words but that was the general flavor of the thing.)

Ah, politics…you gotta...

Blogs of Note: PSoTD and The Donegal Express

A somewhat significant number of politically-oriented blogs are so askew when it comes to the signal-to-noise ratio…eschewing the notion of anything even remotely resembling fair and balanced (so to speak :-) discourse in favor of vitriolic, occasionally profane, attacks on opposing viewpoints and/or self-righteous chest-thumping about the unassailable virtues of their own sides in the right/left, “blue state/red state” divide…that they add little to the exploration...and healthy exchange…of meaningful ideas.

I have an abiding fondness, undeniable warts (especially nowadays) and all, for politics and political discourse (something that stretches from my youth wherein I followed the twists and turns of local…that being Los Angeles at the time…state, and national issues with more genuine interest than my peers…and sadly, more genuine interest than most of the adults in my life at the time as well) and well-written, thoughtful and thought-provoking “punditry” (from whatever point in the wide political spectrum…the notion that there’s only two viable political points of view is, of course, absurd; a thinking person’s politics is as complex as many other parts of their lives and beings are) will find favor in my eyes.

Two of my favorite blogs to visit, to savor, to be challenged by (and occasionally to be provoked by :-), PSoTD (Political Site of the Day) and The Donegal Express, are welcome outposts in the cacophonous storm of political blog crossfire. Neither is exclusively political (there is more to life than that, of course) but both are engaging, extremely well-written, and filled with thoughtful, often witty, commentary and interesting links to other interesting and illuminating sites and posts in the ever-burgeoning blog world. For those who approach politics...and life...with an open mind and the ability to listen to opposing viewpoints with same...as well as those who can agree to disagree without pointless acrimony...I heartily recommend both of these fine sites.