America in Crisis

In the Proust Questionnaire in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, Bette Midler reveals her greatest fear, “That the greatest days of my country are past.”

It is a fear I secretly share and I believe there are many of us that probably have a similar bogeyman in our nightmares.  Suddenly it strikes me that this hidden fear is a bit like our country in one giant midlife crisis. 

We’ve been through our giddy youth, our coming of age, disillusionment and the working years. Now it occurs to us the best years may be in the past and our golden dreams of youth will never come to pass. As teenagers we are innately aware of our greatest potential as human beings and as a country and any obstacles we could see before us seem inconsequential as compared to our swelled hopes and plans. 

Life always has it own plans though doesn’t it? A President gets elected you never thought possible. Your country is attacked. Your protests to war are ignored and there’s nothing you can do about it. The middle class is chipped away at. Jobs are outsourced and houses are lost. You find yourself with leaders you can’t admire or even respect. The obstacles, if not pinning us under the immense, terrible wheel and destroying us quickly, slowly wear away at us and one day we find ourselves in a compromised position, even when we planned for anything but.

A few options open before us. There is the old standby - denial, where we can push our feelings down and go about the rest of our years unquestioning and unexamined. Our only peace will come in the few minutes when we can escape from our own mind.

Then there is the option of going on with the path we’ve begun in resignation and despair knowing we will never amount to much and worse, that we have ransomed our own ideals for a few trifles. We will rot and grow old and die without riding the high crest of potential.

We also have the option of remembering what inspired us in the first place and made our hearts beat faster. We can remember what we intended and mend our path and push towards those ideals of youth with one big difference. Now, we know the score and we know our enemies. We can live our highest purpose on our own terms not as we imagined them at sixteen, but as we clearly see them now with the wisdom and scars of our past.

Nothing sounds more bittersweet and pleading than the preamble of our Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Like a promise and a dare.

Maybe it’s not a time to go on as we have for the last eight years, we know where that path leads. Maybe it’s time for reflection and reassessment both as a country and as individuals. Maybe it’s time once again to fight for our ideals and find a way to respect both ourselves and our country.

Maybe the best years are yet to come. Just maybe...  

Propaganda Nation

There is a lot of buzz today regarding the new McCain ad comparing Barack Obama to Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton. The McCain ad claims on one hand Obama has very little experience, just celebrity, and then on the other claims he is responsible for high gas prices. Are we supposed to believe that the gas giants making record profits (again), or the current administration that blocked attempts through out its duration at alternative, sustainable energy exploration are not responsible, but the popular one term Senator from Illinois is? He must be a very powerful celebrity indeed if he is single handedly responsible for the high prices at the pump. Wow!

Then the McCain campaign turns around and accuses Obama of negative, baseless ads. I’ve listened over the last two days to the McCain campaign defending the ad and they keep pointing out that gasp*!  the foreigners like Barack Obama (the two hundred thousand that turned out in Germany), as if that is the bad, scary thing and that NO ONE in there right mind could deny Obama’s celebrity, just like Brittany and Paris.

Obama’s not popular because he offers a new direction over a failed one. He is not popular because he asks us to believe in ourselves as a nation and to get involved. He’s not popular because he reminds us that we are partially responsible for what the last eight years have brought but reminds us we can be part of the solution also if we work together. And he’s definitely not popular because he gives us hope, hope in ourselves, hope in our country and hope in the future. No, he is popular because he has…wait for it…fans.

Now that Bush’s election people have stepped in on McCain’s behalf there is definitely a stench in the air. The negative, untruthful ads have a familiar ring even if they are stooping to new lows, but can this tactic succeed today?

Propaganda has been around as long as there has been media in the form of stone tablets and maybe longer. Maybe those making up propaganda are in the oldest business in the world after media. As soon as there was a concerted effort to get the facts out, to let we the people in on the game, there has been a bigger effort to distribute lies and misinformation, but why does propaganda work?  There have always been those that have a stake in keeping the masses misinformed and ignorant and I for one don’t want those people running the country. Propaganda prays on our fear, but what exactly is that fear? Maybe it’s fear of being wrong. Would we rather live with lies and the status quo than let ourselves be fooled? Would it be worse to live with eight more years of the same than be fooled into believing something different is possible?

And who are these people that believe that Obama is responsible for high gas prices and is elitist anyway? Obama, works out at a gym! And eats healthy food – oh my God! I don’t know anyone like that. Until recently, both he and Michelle Obama were paying on their college loans and struggling. Certainly sounds like people I know.

It was reported recently that McCain’s wife Cindy had a three hundred thousand dollar American Express bill in one month. I don’t know if this is a typical bill or an extraordinary one and personally I believe Cindy to be an admirable person, but I don’t  know anyone, not anyone, that spends three hundred thousand dollars on just one bill in a month. Not one. That could qualify as elitist. 

Or is it anyone that is educated that is elitist? We can be like China during the “Cultural” Revolution and kill everyone with an education or re-educate them in prison camps. We can close our borders like China or any number of countries to weed out that horrible foreign influence. Or we can be educated media consumers.

There are real issues facing this nation and finger pointing and smearing won’t solve one of them. Maybe if we, all of us, call and let the media know this is not where we want this campaign to go or this nation to stay – we will slow down the propaganda machine.

Or maybe the better the Obama campaign does the more nasty the whole thing will get. The next ninety days will tell us both what present and what future we will choose.

Who's On First?

Opps, I didn't mean to say that...

From the beginning of this campaign, which suddenly feels like a very long time ago, McCain has been leading Obama in polls on the subjects of Terrorism and Foreign Policy and for the life of me I can't understand it.

I realize McCain has age on Obama, but is that necessarily a good thing? A 72 year old President during his first year who can't keep his facts straight...hmm, I wonder.

He also has the, "I've been a prisoner of war thing" going for him. He understands and lives in the world of wars and soldiers and prison camps. Luckily, that is not the same thing as foreign policy. Our friends and neighbors and enemies speak different languages, come from different traditions and religions and are from some other place geographically and politically in the world. This, in my opinion, requires great listening skills and the ability to find a common ground, no matter how small and build from there.

I could be wrong, but I don't believe McCain comes from the great tradition of consensus building. He has more of that paternalistic, "I know what's good for you and if you know what's good for you, you'll listen to me".

Lately, there is something else. The gaffes have been adding up and making me extremely nervous.

In Amman, Jordan the following took place at a news conference with Joe Lieberman whispering in McCain's ear with the correct information.

McCain, "Well, it's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That's well known".

Senator Lieberman leans forward and whispers into his ear.

McCain, "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al Qaeda."

In an exchange with Gen. Petraeus, McCain identifies al Qaeda as a Shiite group. Another time, he spok on Good Morning American about the problems on the Iraq-Pakistan border, which does not exist.

Then there are the multiple references to Czechoslovakia, which hasn't existed since 1994. Then the confusion between Somalia and Sudan, the reference to President Putin of Germany, troops drawn down to pre-surge levels in Iraq, etc., etc., etc.

It would be one thing if this was your friend or neighbor, but this is the guy interviewing for the big job and I mean THE BIG JOB. He doesn't know what he's talking about and doesn't seem to care enough to find out.

I say we hire the guy who knows who's on first (or at least is smart enough to find out) and is not stuck in the Cold War Era.

America, Home of the Whiner?

Former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas resigned on Friday, July 21, 2008 as the top advisor and co-chair of John McCain's election efforts. Phil Gramm, the man behind the curtain of McCain's economic policy, had this to say, "We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline," said Gramm. "You've heard of mental depression this is a mental recession."

With gas prices eating into the cautionary spending of what's left of the middle class, and the housing bust, and unemployment, and rising food, and rising costs of everything, it was a gross misstep for Phil Gramm to make public comments such as this. "Misery sells newspapers," he also said. "Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day."

Gramm later tried to clarify his comments by saying, "the whiners are the leaders. Hell, the American people are victims, but it didn't quite come out that way in the story."

These comments make Gramm a terrible politician and a bit of an idiot but does that make him wrong? Have our leaders become whiners I wonder? It seems to me they are certainly more concerned with pointing fingers at each other and with making money than with solving the problems that face us.

And what about average Americans? I look around sometimes and secretly think to myself, what if we had to start over here from scratch? Would people land at Plymouth for a week, turn around and get right back on the ship and go back to England and crazy King George? Or worse would we grossly underestimate the realities of the situation and go off half-cocked and unprepared into the wilderness?

I know our problems are not imaginary, but what about our ability to solve them? I do believe, if we all put our talent and drive toward fixing what ails us, we could accomplish what many say cannot be done.

Maybe all this is a symptom of something deeper. I have noticed something disturbing in the work place over my career, people putting their energy into keeping their job and not in doing their job...and they seem to be the ones getting ahead.

There are many jobs, of course, where this cannot be done, but in management positions, there is a propensity for avoiding tough decisions, speaking the truth, and taking chances. The greatest job security for the rest of us is learning to keep our mouths shut when jumping up and down and screaming, "The Emperor has no clothes, the Emperor has no clothes," seems the only rational response.

Leadership, critical thinking, and vision appear sadly missing, not just among our politicians, but among people in general. I certainly do not know how to solve the countries problems, but it seems to me it starts with asking the right questions and then shutting up and listening...no whining required.

Fear Factor

On Monday, July 14, 2008 the above The New Yorker magazine cover, "The Politics of Fear", hit the newsstands. The cover immediately became a headline itself. The editors claim it is a satirical cover but the Obama campaign disagreed saying: "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create", said spokesman Bill Burton. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

Republican John McCain from Arizona called the cover "totally inappropriate and frankly I understand if Senator Obama and his supporters would find it offensive."

I like to think of myself as having an average sense of humor, above average actually, but I didn't find this funny. I had a conversation with a friend of ours recently who claimed earlier that Fox News was a reliable news source. I teased him about the "terrorist fist jab" and "Obama's baby mama" and Obama taking office on an oath over the Koran - all the things this cover was taking a swipe at. "Now that's really news", I joked, "Did they need a PHD in Journalism to come up with that?"

Honestly though, that an educated, small business man that lives in Sacramento, California (the Capital) believes that Fox News is a legitimate news organization doesn't make me laugh. That 13% of Americans believe Barack Obama is now a Muslim or grew up as a Muslim is not funny. That Harold Ford, Jr. said on The Today Showthat "Obama is not a Muslim, he is a God-fearing man, a Christian", as if Muslims are not God-fearing does not amuse me. That we have a racial problem in this country does not cause me to laugh at the people that are prejudice. Quite the opposite.

I just can't laugh at the fact that fear controls people's lives and Washington operatives use their fear for their own political agenda. It doesn't really make me feel smug and superior as the cover suggests. Maybe looking back from a distance will make it funnier and maybe it's just too soon.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself", stated Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first Inaugual Address, March 4, 1933. There are real risks and dangers in the world but none seem so big to me right now as people's own fears and misperceptions.

Getting To Know You...

I've been getting to know Barack Obama better in the last few weeks...but like any new relationship reality is setting in. He just isn't who I thought he was and I'm beginning to feel concern.

It isn't that I don't believe he is still the best candidate...he is hands down. And it's not that I'm some nave teen who doesn't understand he now has a general election to win - I do.

The country believes McCain is the safer candidate on foreign policy and terrorism. OK, so Barack needs to come out and say something strong on Iran after their Nuke test last week, I get that.

There are even some new discoveries that I approve of. The Supreme Courts decision on banning guns for instance. The Constitution of the United States would have to be changed for any other decision to be possible. Gun regulation and prevention is the way to go.

His compromise on the intelligence surveillance bill though, has me hot around the collar. "Cowed by the Bush administration's pre-election scare tactics, the Senate passed freedom-stealing FISA legislation undermining your Fourth Amendment rights.

This is not a compromise as some in Congress would have us believe. The only thing they compromised is your freedom." Writes Anthony D. Romero of the ACLU. The ACLU plans to sue over the legislation.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the bill that passed 69-28 is the protection of any telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits revolving around phone taps put on regular citizens without any judicial over-site after the 9/11 attack. These companies gained immunity for their illegal actions. "This president broke the law." Stated Senator Russ Feingold (D-WIS.)

Although Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama came out in favor of an amendment that would have removed this immunity from the bill (they were defeated 66-32), he voted for it regardless.

The ACLU is fond of saying we can be safe and free - but if the government of this country and private business can join together and break the law without fear of legal retribution, well what chance do us little guys have of being able to protect ourselves? When this happens it's the government I fear, not some faceless terrorists.

Barack Obama is also trying to steal the religious zeal from the Republican Right by showing himself as a man of faith. Fine - but I believe coming out in favor of faith-based programs is a mistake. This infringes on the separation of Church and State, one of the cornerstones of this country. The Constitution must be upheld regardless of what direction the wind is blowing in. The direction changes rather quickly around here and the Constitution is more important than any one election, politician, political party, etc.

Does any of this mean I am going to vote for John McCain - of course not. Maybe this move to the middle is exactly what Barack Obama needs to win come November. There is a lot at stake in this election, but what it may mean is that his grassroots supporters are less willing to give of their time and money. The zeal and momentum might be lost. I don't think it's a coincidence that Obama raised less money in May than in any other month.

His campaign should pay attention. Media is expensive and one of the main reasons Obama came so far, so fast is because of the enthusiasm of the very people he is now alienating. Let's hope he can afford it - but I would be very nervous if I were on his staff right now. The Honeymoon may be coming to an end, but is the romance dead?

Refine v. Revise

Barack Obama had two press conferences last week to clarify his stance on Iraq after he said the inflammatory statement that he could "refine" his policy after assessing the situation there.

From Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary: refine - To reduce to a pure state. To free from impurities; to purify. To become pure or purer; to affect nicety or subtlety in thought or language.

But what's in the English language after all...

The McCain camp quickly condemned his competitor for changing his earlier stance.

"There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience," stated spokesman Alex Conant of the Republican National Committee. "Obama's Iraq problem undermines the central premise of his candidacy and shows him to be a typical politician."

McCain supported the ban on Coastal Oil Drilling in 2000 in the Primaries now he comes out for it - this is what I consider a flip-flop. There is no question in my mind that Barack Obama is against the war and always has been.

Is becoming more educated on subjects and adjusting your perspective really a liability for any campaign or is the McCain camp just trying to pin the flip-flop tag on Barack Obama from the playbook of Bush v. Kerry? The pot calling the kettle black I should think.

For clarification, here is what Barack Obama said in September of 2007 during a Democratic debate:

"I think it's hard to project four years from now, and I think it would be irresponsible," Obama said. "We don't know what contingency will be out there. What I can promise is that if there are still troops in Iraq when I take office, which it appears there may be unless we can get some of our Republican colleagues to change their mind and cut off funding without a timetable, if there's no timetable, then I will drastically reduce our presence there to the mission of protecting our embassy, protecting our civilians and making sure that we're carrying out counterterrorism activities there.

'I believe that we should have all our troops out by 2013, but I don't want to make promises not knowing what the situation's going to be three or four years out."

Sounds the same...doesn't it? When someone finds out what all the fuss is maybe they could let me know.

The Call Heard Round the World

Tuesday, Bill Clinton called Barack Obama. No one can really know the content of the call except those on the phone and anyone listening...still the speculation was all over the news.

Westly Clark's comments were there, as were Obama's patriotism speech, but it was this call that captured my imagination.

How the two men will heal their past wounds real or imagined and what Bill Clinton's role will be in the upcoming election is hard to tell. Certainly Bill Clinton has a role to play.

I think ultimately how large the role Clinton plays and how successful he is at it, is entirely up to him. Can he get past his bitterness? That is what I want to know. Can he re-invent himself one more time, Madonna like, to remain relevant and weave his Clinton magic?

When Clinton was at his best he was something to see. I don't want to remember him on the trail for Hillary, which has evoked such remarks as "bizarre", "ill-tempered and ill-founded", and "not keeping with the image of a former president."

On the campaign trail no one in modern history could create momentum like Bill, except perhaps Barack and to this mix a Hillary, sans the "I'm the toughest man in the room" armor and add possibly a Colin Powell...now that's a yellow brick road I would like to skip down.

Bush's Parting Gift to Big Oil

In 1990 George H. W. Bush signed a presidential executive order banning coastal oil exploration. The Congressional moratorium was first enacted in 1982 and has been renewed every year since. In 1998, President Bill Clinton extended the offshore leasing prohibition until 2012. Until recently John McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and other key Republicans including the President himself were outspoken proponents of the ban on drilling now they are singing a new tune.

"I know the Democratic leaders have opposed some of these policies in the past," stated the President, "Now that their opposition has helped drive gas prices to record levels, I ask them to reconsider their positions. If Congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action, they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act."

John McCain followed suit by stating in Huston that he now favors offshore drilling.

This morning I paid $84.84 for a tank of gas. The National average for the price of gas is currently $4.10 and will probably get worse before it gets better.

Big Oil currently has 41 million acres leased offshore (the number gets higher depending on your source) not currently being utilized and neither they nor the Saudis are working up to capacity. Prices sour and instead of easing the supply side of the old supply and demand equation they get the Republicans to scream to open up the parts of our coastline and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge which they are currently not allowed to touch.

Big Oil has been aggressively trying to open up ANWAR and the coasts for sometime. This crisis at the pump is a perfect opportunity to get the issue on the table one more time before the changing of the guard. Fool the public into thinking these off-limit areas would ease their suffering and Big Oil could get the prize they've sought for so long.

John W. Schoen of The Answer Desk at MSNBC explains that if work started drilling today in ANWAR production would peak in 2027. Hardly an immediate help.

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) said in a statement, "This week's flip-flop on offshore oil drilling by President Bush and Senator John McCain is nothing more than a cynical campaign ploy that will do nothing to lower energy prices, and represents another big giveaway to oil companies already making billions in profits."

And of course this does nothing to get us off our addiction to oil. Like a Stanford student with her daddy's credit card the idea of the future or good decision doesn't enter into the question. One more fix, if only I can get one more fixsaid the junkie.

One has to ask, "Why the flip?" Clearly the energy question has become an election issue, maybe the election issue. Does the President and Presidential hopeful believe people's memories are that short and their rhetoric to blame Democrats will make it true? Won't people remember McCain was for this ban in his 2000 bid for the White House?

Maybe Big Oil knows that their game is up, but they want to make one more grab before the game changes to another sport? Maybe President Bush with his term waning and doubts over the party of the next President is trying to get a parting gift for his friends in oil. You never know when the favor will need be returned.

Habeas Corpus Rules the Day

The Supreme Court decided 5-4 last Thursday that foreign suspects held at Guantanamo have a right to challenge their detention in American Courts. "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in Boumediene v. Bush. "To hold that the political branches may switch the Constitution on or off at will would lead to a regime in which they, not this court, say 'what the law is,' Kennedy added.

McCain reacted by stating it was "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."

Maybe I missed something in school, or maybe I don't understand the separation of powers between the three branches of our governmentbut I don't think so. This ruling seems to return us to the checks and balances that are necessary for this great country to operate as intended.

"The true measure of a society is how well it provides for it's weakest member." There is some confusion about whom this quote comes from, but I think of it often and wonder.I wonder about what playing the world bully in the hall says about us as a country. I fear ill. To say the people in our custody are not citizens does not comfort me. We must as a civilization treat everyone with respect and due process. To work by the assumption that tough and fair are mutually exclusive seems less than juvenile.

To say that our courts cannot find a cause to hold criminals nor terrorists seems ridiculous. Does anyone really believe if Osama Bin Laden were an American Citizen we would have no foundation to hold him, try him or find him guilty? I for one have faith in our Constitution and the rule of law. I have no confidence in anyone holding themselves above either the Constitution or laws of the land.

Justice Scalia went the furthest adding that we are, "at war with radical Islamists," and this ruling "will almost certainly cause more Americans to get killed. The nation will live to regret what the court has done today."

The claim of "judicial activism," I find up surd, as the interpretation of our laws and Constitution, despite the times, are exactly what the Supreme Court is charged with. Indeed, it is no reach of their responsibility, but exactly what they are charged with.

Barack Obama has called Guantanamo "a legal black hole." A black hole this ruling may indicate we are emerging from. Restraint on tyranny is a healthy sign as we must not indeed cannot rely on individuals always doing the right thing.

Obama Fights Whitey

Presidential Democratic Nominee Barack Obama last week launched a website,fightthesmears.com to combat the usual gossip and pettiness that seems to dog most high profile campaigns these days. The particular inflammatory gossip that inspired this counter-attack seems to be a persistent report claiming there is a video of Michelle Obama, "Blasting 'whitey' during a rant at Jeremiah Wright's church."

Never mind for a minute how ridiculous that claim is or that no one has been able to produce such a tape...

Although not resorting to launching a website, Republican Nominee John McCain asked on Friday that all candidates' wives be treated with respect. It seems Cindy McCain has had her own run-ins with the rumor mill.

Which brings about the questions, what constitutes fair play? And - How do we fight unsubstantiated and ridiculous rumors that pass as news?

In one of my favorite political movies "The Contender", Joan Allen almost losses her chance at becoming the first female Vice-President of The United States because she will not dignify rumors of sexual misconduct as a college student with a response. A Gandi, and a high road response to be sure but is it the right reaction in the 24 hour news cycle, internet, blogger world in which we now live?

Should one's private life be off limits once again?

I think if Cindy McCain has investments in Halliburton we should know about it, or if Michelle Obama stayed on the Wal-Mart Board after Barack criticized them - but the claim Cindy had a love child or Michelle was ranting about 'whitey' is not only untrue but out of the bounds of good taste.

What happens when news organizations report this petty smut on the news channels and talk shows?Intelligent people would be fools not to just turn off such channels and never listen to these programs again.

But, what if they do listen? We have a friend for instance who believes Fox News Channel is a reliable source for facts, a relative who gets his news from Lou Dobbs and another relative who believes lock stock and two smoking barrels that a candidate cannot win a Presidential Election without winning the "big" states.

What happened to common sense and independent judgment? It makes me crazy when people believe nonsense over good sense. When it is people I know and care about it makes me particularly crazy. I stopped reading "The Nation" magazine because in an article about legalizing marijuana such blatant lies were used to make a point that I never picked up the magazine again. It seems both sides are guilty of this indiscretion.

But what about speaking truth to power? I think Barack Obama may be on to something. Flat denials just seem like agreement and propaganda to me anymore. "I didn't inhale", insults my intelligence - but a replay of the facts or a request for proof of such rumors almost seems revolutionary in this day and age. I am so hungry for a direct, truthful answer that I hope Obama's website works and is just not wasted effort.

But maybe these questions just shouldn't be asked in the first place. What if Barack Obama or John McCain simply stated, "That question is not relevant and I refuse to answer questions wholly unconnected to this election". Would that help put the conversation back on the right track?

One can only hope.

Will the Real America Please Stand Up

It's down to Barack Obama and John McCain. The drama will play out now through November when not just a new President will be elected, but a new version of what it means to be an American.

One view offers inclusion, a strong middle class, standing in the world, an end to endless wars, choice for women and a hope for a new day in Washington D.C.

The other view offers exclusion, class privilege, standing alone in the world, endless war, government interference on women's reproductive rights, and more of the same in Washington D.C.

I remember learning about the founding of America in grade school and the great melting pot that we made up symbolized by New York City. Immigrants coming to these shores full of hope and work and from scratch building lives they couldn't have imagined in the bleak places from which they came.

It's a bit nostalgic I have to admit but I managed to keep this image of America with me through all my school days in the almost exclusively white, Christian, upper-middle class town of Sonoma to my mid-twenties and the truly diverse Los Angeles and years later in the cosmopolitan San Francisco.

I never thought about America as a mostly white, Christian sort of place but rather of people from all over, usually overcoming prejudice to find a welcome home here on these shores. Which is why the anti-immigration sentiment and violence is particularly shocking to me. History is made up of an endless stream of peoples migrating here and there from someplace else. To think of a country as the divine right of a certain nationality or religion seems ludicrous to me. Only to be outdone by people who truly believe God is on there personal side. What arrogance is this?

However I must admit that people have the right to their own image of America, no matter how distant from my own. They are fighting for that image with this election.

That's why I believe no matter how many people are loyal to Hillary, or turned of by McCain's liberality no one will risk staying home this time around. Everybody knows instinctively what is at stake and will fight to see his or her version of America come to light. Now November is a long way off and people's sentiment could change, but if I were either camp, I wouldn't count on it.

As Betty Davis states in All About Eve, "Fasten your seatbelts, we're in for a bumpy ride."

The Last Presidential Campaign

Barack Obama has me thinking a lot about horse racing lately. Maybe it's the timing of the primaries with the running of the Triple Crown. He was my favorite candidate right off in a busy field. I heard him speak once and I knew.

When I was a little kid my father used to take us to the racetrack at the county fair. We would wait until the horses came out and then pick one. He would bet two to five dollars for us and if our horse won we would be given the winnings. There were things you could tell about a horse by watching even for a short period of time that the stats and odds just couldn't reveal.

Barack Obama was a long shot but he got my bet anyway. My family all told me why he would never be the Democratic nominee and I just smiled and said we'll see.

I put my bumper sticker on my car and I went online and ponied up a small donation. I visited his table several times at the Farmer's Market and even went to a meeting hoping to volunteer - but that's another story.

Politics in America is a lot like horse racing right now - it's in crisis. We've seen a lot of our politicians break down in very public way in the last few years. And we just don't trust them - but it's worse, we are beginning to question their worth in the first place. Do we really need them? There must be a better wayLike our athletes and drug use we just don't know if we should admire anyone anymore. And where does all that money come from anyway? It's enough to make anyone cynical and uneasy.

Just when we're about to throw in the towel on the whole mess along comes a new kid on the block. Like watching Big Brown run he takes our breath away and despite ourselves we start cheering, exhilarated like kids again. Instead of a doubtful sport in a broken down, smarmy fair where the more unsavory elements live, we again see the magic and feel a quickening inside. Go Barack, Go. Can this be unbridled enthusiasm?

If he wins the whole show, we will clap our hands together three times and say, "I believe". If he breaks his leg in the final stretch- it will mean so much more than the loss of one candidate in one Presidential Race.

For Better or For Worse

How will the issue of same sex marriage effect the upcoming Presidential election? It's hard to say. One-issue voting certainly gained popularity with the whole abortion debateand some people absolutely believe that Bush is in the White House rather than Gore because of this one issue.

But how do you gauge how it will effect an entire election? People are undoubtedly passionate about this issue. I am not, which may make me the wrong person to write this piece, or maybe exactly the right person. You see the only thing I've been passionate about the whole marriage issue is stridently trying to avoid it.

Marriage is an institution, one I don't trust. It may have something to do with the fact that in my small class of maybe thirty students give or take which started first grade together at St. Francis Solono School, most parents were divorced by the time we graduated high school. Until death do us partwas definitely not true. My parents were among the divorced and let's just say that event was not a pretty sight.

I believe this to be the equivalent of pulling out the rug from under the feet of an entire generation. I'm not saying I'll never get married, I'm just saying when and if I do, it will be on my terms and not because it is what's expected of me.

So I never rushed to the altar or spent a large part of my youth envisioning that special day which always makes hearing people longing for such an event a strange concept to me. No one has ever seemed more committed to the concept of for better or for worse than the gay couples I have known over the years. Maybe they are such fans of the concept because they were always told they were excluded from this particular tradition.

In many ways they seem to be keeping the flame of commitment to another human being alive. I'm not saying I don't have any heterosexual friends who are married, but the truth is many are divorced once maybe twice and the ones that aren't hold their partners at a certain arms length. I'm not innocent here - I definitely believe in the concept of for better much more than for worse. I feel very comfortable with the fact that I can always leave. Now with a little bambino on the way, and with years rolling by that gets much more unlikely all the time, but still I hedge my bets.

The best example I ever had of true love was Randy and Rand. I worked with Randy and he had AIDS. His partner gently reminded him to take his medication and made him nutritious meals every day, including the lunch he brought with him to work. I never say a stronger to commitment between people in my entire life before or since. The way they took care of each other was truly inspirational. You may say they made me believe in love again and I am very grateful for the lesson however non-traditional it may have been. They would have gotten married if they were able, but it wasn't even part of the national debate at the time.

Our neighbors down the street moved several years ago. They were a gay couple who owned a home together and had recently adopted two crack babies that otherwise probably would have lived in state care until they were eighteen. The odds of them being independent adults were never very good under these circumstances. However, they had been given a second chance, and now had grandmothers concerned for their welfare, good schools to go to, proper nutrition and adequate help for any lingering physical and emotional problems they face. I like their odds a whole lot more now. There are no guarantees in life, but I feel they have a fighting chance.

I have some friends who will be getting married shortly after a twenty-year wait. They own a home, have investments, dogs and a camping trailer. Twenty years is a long time to be committed to another person and I believe they should be allowed to get married just like the rest of us. It's not a dogma thing, or a religious thing, I just think it's a matter of basic fairness.

If religions want to exclude people, or clubs that is their right but our government was founded on separation of church and state and I just don't see how the government can legally do this without violating civil rights. If two adults want to make a commitment for better or for worse I think good for them and good for society as a whole. Their divorce rate maybe as high as the rest of the population, but no one ever said gay marriage would be more successful.

I think any two adults walking down the aisle is extremely courageous and they have my vote. I just hope fear of this issue won't drive this election and sway it for the worse. Another four years of Republican rule would just about bankrupt us in more ways than one.

The Audacity of Barack Obama

I remember the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and the absolute disbelief I felt the day the Supreme Court decided the election, George W. Bush would be our next sitting President of the United States of America. For six months each and every day I awoke with renewed shock and denial. How could this happen in my country, how could "that man" be President? The best man by far didn't win, and I couldn't understand it.

My belief in everything noble, just and right was severely shaken to its core and an instinct for flight I never knew existed rose inside of mepure emotionget out, get out while you can. Was this really me contemplating moving out of the land of my birth?

I won't recap the highlights between that fateful day and now. Everyone is familiar enough with recent history and frankly I don't think my own morale could withstand such a walk down memory lane - suffice it to say my pride in America and her standing in the world at large have suffered many blows. I know this all sounds a bit melodramatic, something I strive vigorously to avoid, but at risk is no less than my belief in the goodness of my own country.

And now there is a new kid in town promising to rise to the magnitude of our challenges rather than be distracted by the petty and trivial. He has a message and a vision and is not in a state of constant reaction to his rival's barbs, conventional wisdom, constant attacks or the disappointing distraction of the media and political pundits. He doesn't profess to have all the answers we so desperately want and need, rather he seems ready for something that hasn't taken place in this country in I can't recall how longa healthy National debate about the real issues facing us in the world today. No finger pointing, just good old-fashioned hard work.

Barack Obama's audacity to speak the truth and keep as clear from compromising his integrity as possible is a breath of fresh air. The truth I've told myself from the beginning is that her may not win, but another truth is that no political contest has come close to the importance in my own lifetime as this one. This election has the opportunity to redeem my country in my own eyes. To wake up again in America and live my life with the confidence that someone is minding the store.

Please let me wake up in a country where the best man wins. Let me awake in an America where the little guy has a shot and honesty is still the best policy. Let me wake up in an America of war only as a last resort, and America that puts people ahead of profits and where the word decency isn't sniggered at cynically. Where companies and accounting firms don't cheat and Politians don't put the desires of the lobbyists ahead of the needs of the people or common sense. Let me awake in a country where lining the pockets of friends and relatives isn't more important than the lives of our courageous armed forces. Let me wake up in an America where greed isn't a virtue and immigrants aren't looked at as criminals. Let me wake up in the America of my youth - or at least the vision of what she could and should be that I have been searching for all these years and nearly given up on.

Barack Obama's Audacity is that he has renewed my hope in this country. Let me wake up in an American where my pride once again lives.