Election post-script

There is an end to a long campaignand while the Candidate of my choice prevailed in the contest of votes;it is only a step- vital one- towards an unfinished agenda, and a process
of national growth. The energy that was invested in the campaign, thelong hard look we have taken about progress and lack thereof-- of thevast opportunity and the seemingly meager steps we have taken. My conclusion is simple- we owe to ourselves, our children, to the sacrifices so many have made- to do better- to rise above the flood of dismal pettiness that has replaced our true purpose- toward a more perfect union- an opportunity based society.

We will not likely  succeed should bitterness become our objectives, rivalry in politics our goal-- we are a great part of a greater world, and by the blessing we have been given of wealth and strength - we have a great obligation to rise to the level of  an un-matched potential for good in the world.
We can put ourselves back to work - jobs for those who want them- opportunities for those with talent and ambition to seize them-- by the lessons we have learned as we have had to face our faults-our bigotry, our ignorance, our small mindedness- we can be so much more, if we allow ourselves to be the Big and Inclusive America, we can fall into our shadow should we remain the small and petty America- divided by conflicts over ideas that are insignificant to the great common interests in growth, opportunity, justice, clean air and water, sustainable food and energy.  I have seen in many ways a deep and abiding love of country,  concern for the disadvantaged;  a unity of purpose to make a better place for our children.

the price of free speech...

 

I grew up around public opinion
it was a strange and mottled thing
all the colors and stripes of life,
a blend of all voices upon its timid tongue.
It has been fed to grow and while naturally shy
yet so much attention each second and fourth year
It seems to shine like the greatest of fascinations.

It was the anchor that dragged an awful war
until the ship-of-conflict ran aground
public opinion stood like the stand at New Orleans
when young America found a stone walled  will.

But in recent times it has been battered
abused and terribly despoiled; when her dim eyed guardians
failed; she became the victim of a false crusade
so many bombs bursting in meaningless airs
and New Orleans fell beneath the sea...

Treated so shabbily, even by those once so adoring
now they put on skirts to mock it , and paint it
in colors that frighten and warn, but none so much
as those it holds most dear.

Poor public opinion and now those that
worship at the altar of a vengeful,frigid love
have given her over to those who speak
from the fattened  land of profits, while many suffer
they grow great, deciding the fates of pieces of the world.

Oh, poor public opinion, where to rest our weary frame
when the mountains that make war come to take you?
Where will you go...the back alleys, ahh, yes
will be safer than Main Street,  and the ballot boxes
will frighten you...they will look like the boxes you once knew
covered with flags, one by one come home...
to your tearful refuge.

Now, you will sink beneath waves of tainted green
here when truth comes to auction
Public Opinion, you can do nothing more,
if you cannot pay the price of freedom...

I last saw public opinion on a rooftop howling at the moon
it was a dream, I am sure, but the lonesome desolate sound...

made me weep.

Thank you, George Bush ...

So they convinced another young man that his calling in life was a senseless act of violence, and the multi-billion dollar setup that George Bush invented and foisted on a then 'still reeling' American public, the one we pay for as a line item on every airline ticket...the one we wait in line for a few times on a typical trip; yes that one. It, that made a WWII veteran sit and take off his artificial leg to pass through a check point..ahhhh yes, I remember it all now; good George ..that one, who made us safe from terror. Each day that went by with a different color for fear was a victory in the war on terror. Least mind that despite the billions to contractor friends of his puny days mis-running the government. So you see, we really are not safer because we hassle every American citizen who gets on an airplane because...gasp shock... this wave of idiots is from largely somewhere else, the middle east, Yemen, those hot spots of 'noise', that the Bush system takes in and ignores. Like the troop of middle east men who wanted to learn to steer and fly but not land a passenger jet. This troubled young man in the air above Detroit, from a wealthy family in Nigeria, gives us a warning, like the people who blew a hole in the basement of the Towers, a warning to do better.

We now have to really do, what we have already paid billions to do, and this theme will repeat itself over the next several years; we will discover more and more things that were supposedly fixed --- --- in reality not ever touched.

But to rely on anything that George Bush's Administration did, is a far greater peril than the doubt-filled future..it's a mortal lock, something critical and vital...was left undone