A PRAYER
First a prayer for a nation. Hopefully, and for that I am thankful, I pray to see the maturing of a nation that truly is still the leader of the free world coming to grips with the demons of racial hatred and social difference.
Maybe, just maybe, this sunrise will make us closer to a colorless society where we look at the achievements of a person and not their color.
May we once again lead the world in innovation and most important of all maintain the freedom for all of us to choose our own path and destination.
Through education, the most important tool of all we can achieve these goals; the role of education is to make learning a highway instead of a toll road for those who take that path.
IT DIDN'T HAPPEN
Racial hatred is alive and well. In the precinct I volunteered and voted in, I physically helped a 90+ year old woman get to the cubicle where she announced out loud in violation of the polling rules she would vote for President only hoping to defeat the XXXXXX, and ignored the 15 separate state, counties, municipal and referendum changes on the ballot. Thats her right to only vote for whom she wished. Announcing it in a poll place is not. Using the "N" word isn't right.
Unfortunately her rhetoric, really something from the game book of a KKK pep rally was negative and very discriminatory. A few words that should not be used. Yet it was her right to vote and she was letting her audience know it.
And you could see the looks on several folks who restrained themselves from literally throwing her out the door. Technically they could ask to have her removed, banter of any kind at a polling stop is forbidden. They were tired of the old ways. Tired of hate, fear, negative thinking, and these people were scared and yet hopeful. After she flipped her card to the collection desk, I was asked by the polling leader to wheel her out. A Sheriff escorted me and I reached the front door and I had the choice, the steps and wheelchair ramp… boy was I tempted. One good push.
This is what gives our country its strength. We are not alike, we are all different and we accept that. One precious vote though filled with negative thoughts still added to the millions created the largest turnout in the history of the free world.
THE AMERICAN DREAM
The American Dream is real; anyone can become anything they want if they work for it. We just proved it. The glass ceiling along with the roof supports came crashing down both with the election of an Black American President and opportunity of a woman as the Vice President on the other side.
The world has seen change as promised by the elected already by this one plateau just being achieved. We did it, as one commentator said, not France, not England, not Germany. We did it in America.
The results electorally wise were one sided, the people spoke. Loudly I might add. States flipped and the red and blue, young and old, rich and the poor, groups and demographics got thrown out and replaced by one vote people power. Some folks waited on line up to ten hours, in the rain to speak their one vote. How long that patience will last and how far the partisan politics will go to destroy that surge is the unknown. If indications are correct they will stop at nothing.
Maybe this self-made man is something special we haven't seen in a long time. He has that "star status". Maybe they didn't speak enough of it, and the challenges he was presented with and overcame and it is something special. Think about it, the kid that came from the bottom up instead of being born at the top. Not silver spoons but plastic forks. And fought every inch of the way and made good choices.
He is by far the best communicator we have seen in a long time and he is well educated. Some make small of this, but when one looks back, it took a long eight years of no communication, poor judgement skills and a college fraternity party attitude in the White House to literally destroy a nations forward movement. It took a poor communicator to initiate a war, but it takes a good communicator to stop one.
Maybe those who know Chicago politics understood, that sometimes you have to associate with people you don't agree with. Chicago Politics and Illinois for that matter are like the interstate toll roads. You arrive at a tollbooth; you will contribute and donate time and funds to that cause. That’s legal in Illinois, only to the extent that a Blagojevich took things to. President Obama was ridiculed and accused by his opponents, his casual associations not so much by his choosing, those folks at that time in his career just had ownership of the toll booths on his path.
His biggest battle will be with the truth. He will have to combat all the lies, posturing and deft positioning of the opposition with truth. I think he will do it with grace and dignity something the other side does not understand. Just who is this other side, actually sides...first we look at what we have lived with.
OVERCOME, ADAPT, IMPROVISE
We have suffered. The previous administration has left us eight years of two wars, the deaths of almost 6400 troops, 100 thousand civilians, a tone of international arrogance, abuse, deceit, broken laws, manipulation, and you might add torture, eavesdropping, hidden agendas, greed, and not to mention, the destruction of our financial system. "This is some legacy".
The Bush Library Museum in Texas should simply be a large hole in the ground, surrounded by cross's, empty except for a few children's books, as devoid a presence as that administration was on caring about this country and its future.
But the crime is in the political system that rewards greed and bolsters party affiliation over the common cause of the citizens. It's time for the people to mandate a change in our system. it really doesn't work. Simply put, it is the legally corrupt way we do business in our form of government. The things we will be tested with are as old as man himself for man tends to not learn from history and sometimes, often repeats those mistakes.
THE SOLUTION
It has to be the people. The people are the solution, and they have seen enough of failed government. The real crisis is the government and that's why stimulus packages and bailouts won't work till the people believe. The people just don't believe anymore. And I fear their patience is short. Partisan bickering has torn this country apart.
The government is not interested in encroaching on you. The government is big enough. More encroaching means more work for those who have it easy. The problem is in its inefficiency; it's lack of good people, those interested in serving the country, not serving themselves.
THE OIL CHANGE THEORY
Our system is like the oil in your car, each day the oil gets a little dirtier. Not as noticeable as you might think, just a little dirtier. One day is it goes on long enough the engine will seize, already it seems we are down a quart. You will please note, In another story I quoted Gandhiji (the Indian reverence of his name). I find so many answers in the words of Mohandas Gandhi. He seemed to address all the questions that are posed by minds that see and question and converts them into simple truth, obviously something Washington hasn't a clue about.
He understood the oil theory but spoke of the ocean in a positive term. said, "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty". If that’s true, possibly all of the Congressional elected officials are not corrupt. But that oil slick sure looks like bunker fuel number three these days and the name Exxon Valdez is on the stern.
So I would ask the question where do the righteous hide and why are they not in office? It has to do with courage, clean hands and the real problem, the media. We do not attract the best people for the job anymore as they, if successful in their own world, do not wish to have their bowels ripped open by a sensationalist driven cable media who print as many lies, hack phones, create stories, embellish lies and give more time to the untruths then they do the truth. I do not blame them.