Can someone who inspires us be genuine?
Can we spend a night with our nation and believe in history being made, not just being faked?
Can we spend a night with another human in silent glory without question, in truth?
Can we change what ails our society and support that which is our strength? Perhaps with an act so simple as one simple as making a mark on a piece of paper?
Can we overcome our cynicism and believe? .. and not in a God we can not see or in people we build up to heights they can never live up to .. but in each other as we are right now, tonight?
I look back upon the history of humanity and see lightening strikes of greatness. Lights that flare as beacons undeniable, exposing coastlines of what we knew and at the same time the vaster oceans of what we could only dream of.
Newton, Leibniz and calculus. Einstein and the fabric of our universe. Darwin and the concept the life struggles, and through that struggle creates life itself. Jesus and the idea that nothing is sacred save Love. Which of us will birth some yet unknown idea that others will reflect upon in the future the same way we now reflect upon the great moments in our shared past?
Tonight a great nation pledged their votes for change. Tonight they backed a voice that gives me, and many others, personal hope. That voice came from a person who I hold as being no greater than you, but yet a voice that I believe holds a clarity and belief we need so desperately in this age, indeed in all ages: A voice of hope and possibility.
We may walk through hardship or ease, we may choose to do Great things or add our own small contribution to the monument of humanity .. but we must all decide to create and build and grow, or ...
The moments of triumph lift us up; the question is what we do with that new elevation.
I go to my bed tonight asking myself that very question.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
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8 comments:
"The moments of triumph lift us up; the question is what we do with that new elevation."
That is precisely my concern. After watching Nancy Pelosi do an about-face and crusade against the Bush administration -- instead of getting the policy done she said she was going to be so focused on -- I am very afraid of what my tax money (and increased taxes) will be focused on.
I think members of the Bush administration do need to be put in jail; anyone who doubts their criminal acts has not read enough of their actions. The problem, however, is vengeance and revenge. We need less of that and more of this "hope" and "change" that has been mantra'd to death.
I really, deeply, sincerely hope the choice is to do something meaningful, lasting, and beneficial to the nation and not as wasteful and passing as protracted acts of revenge.
For the record, I support no party; I put my focus each time where the issues I care about are supported the most; neither candidate measured us to that for me this time around.
Oboma could start using Linux/GNU and KDE in the Oval Office. Change.....for the better :P
I would be lying if I said I was wasn't optimistic. But when I watched the faces of the people crying at the Obama victory rally, I thought: "Oh my god, are they going to be so disappointed!" Obama has promised a lot. He's spoken eloquently and nobly. He's set expectations high. But at the end of the day, he's still a politician. There is a political process. There are rights and consequences that make talk cheap and results hard. We have plenty to disdain about the man already, like voting for telecom immunity.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
-C. S. Lewis
>"overcoming cynicism"
Sorry won't do:
1)California's people have banned gay marriage again.
Discrimination in the law against black people ended fifty years ago in the US, but discrimination against gay people is very much alive in the law of many countries..
2)the people who elected Obama are (mostly) the same who re-elected Bush even after he started a war with false reason killing thousands of people in the process.
So yes, it's nice that Americans have elected Obama, but it's still a *small* step for progress.
Makes us feel even worse for re-electing harper eh? Even the americans were smart enough to reject the conservatives. :)
Then again, I wouldn't exactly put Stephane Dion and Obama on the same level..
"Can we overcome our cynicism and believe? .. and not in a God we can not see or in people we build up to heights they can never live up to .. but in each other as we are right now, tonight?"
All the tears of joy in the audience last night reminded me of a religious revival. I almost expected to see people start rolling around in the aisles. People aren't believing in each other, they're believing in a deity-made-flesh. The Divine Right of Kings is not dead.
You are asking exactly the right question, Aaron. What will we do with this newfound encouragement toward democratic participation? Will we sit back, either as leader-worshipers or grumpy sore losers, or will we seize the opportunity to hold government to a higher standard.
There are certain issues that basically everyone can agree upon, such as fighting corruption, and we aren't going to get it done by sitting back and hoping for the best.
How about policy, principle, and ideology? Don't those matter more than some uplifting rhetoric?
And it so happens I disagree with him and thinks that if he implements his ideas America will be in worse shape materialistically, spiritually, and morally, so why am I supposed to feel good about his election? Basically, this was a choice between a liberal and an ideological half-breed, and the liberal won. I hope he doesn't cause too much damage before a conservative gets into office and fixes things up.
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