Okay, so here is what President-Elect Barack Obama chose to discuss on the day before Christmas. A lot of what he said was laudable and much- needed. And then he strayed off into talking about George Washington's epic Christmas Day attack on the British, after a hazardous night crossing of the ice-choked Delaware River. Obama refers to it as a "surprise attack" that won a key strategic victory at a time of low ebb among the Continental Army. Obama speaks of it as "the first American Christmas". Hmmm. So help me understand here, are we meant to honor our Founding Fathers by staging a traditional "surprise attack" every Christmas? So what was he trying to tell us? Were these code words, a secret "dog whistle" to war hawks that the big one is about to be dropped, in honor of George Washington. Did he intend for us to not be shocked if we bombed the crap out of Iran the following day? Watch this and see what you think. Have I become a paranoid?
And then I realized something that gave me a bit of comfort. If Bush used a line like this, any intelligent listener would KNOW that we were going to blow someone up in about 14 hours, maybe less. But nothing personal, they and their nation just made the mistake of being in our way. And then I realized something important; this is not Bush, this is not Cheney, this is not Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz. This is something new. This is probably just a somewhat awkward metaphor, but nobody dies because of awkward metaphors. I still think that part of his message was a bit odd, but what I realize is that we are about to have a President who can think out loud and talk about all manner of things, without ever feeling the need to kill a bunch of people just to make sure people are paying attention. People all over the world ARE paying attention to our new President, and for the most part they seem hopeful about his prospects.
This has been a tough series of years. We have tried being a Clint Eastwood Nation, asking the rest of the world if they felt lucky that day, that month, that year. It didn't work out well for them, nor for us. We tried being the Nation of No Regulations. That was not an outstanding success, either. It was as though there was an enormous pent-up lust for trying out stupid right-wing theories. None of them was worth a damn. You beg to differ? Name one that did a damn bit of good for the American population. Just one.
Sorry, time's up.In more ways than one.
Best wishes to all for the upcoming year. There will be some ups and downs, but I like our chances to take the current bumper crop of lemons and turn them into lemonade. At our best, that is what we do. Working in harmony, pulling in the same direction (up out of the gutter in this instance) I think we will do just fine and we will eventually look back on this era as one to treasure the memory of. A period when we were tested in a multitude of ways, and sorted it all out. That's my prediction, and I am sticking to it.
Arthur
And then I realized something that gave me a bit of comfort. If Bush used a line like this, any intelligent listener would KNOW that we were going to blow someone up in about 14 hours, maybe less. But nothing personal, they and their nation just made the mistake of being in our way. And then I realized something important; this is not Bush, this is not Cheney, this is not Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz. This is something new. This is probably just a somewhat awkward metaphor, but nobody dies because of awkward metaphors. I still think that part of his message was a bit odd, but what I realize is that we are about to have a President who can think out loud and talk about all manner of things, without ever feeling the need to kill a bunch of people just to make sure people are paying attention. People all over the world ARE paying attention to our new President, and for the most part they seem hopeful about his prospects.
This has been a tough series of years. We have tried being a Clint Eastwood Nation, asking the rest of the world if they felt lucky that day, that month, that year. It didn't work out well for them, nor for us. We tried being the Nation of No Regulations. That was not an outstanding success, either. It was as though there was an enormous pent-up lust for trying out stupid right-wing theories. None of them was worth a damn. You beg to differ? Name one that did a damn bit of good for the American population. Just one.
Sorry, time's up.In more ways than one.
Best wishes to all for the upcoming year. There will be some ups and downs, but I like our chances to take the current bumper crop of lemons and turn them into lemonade. At our best, that is what we do. Working in harmony, pulling in the same direction (up out of the gutter in this instance) I think we will do just fine and we will eventually look back on this era as one to treasure the memory of. A period when we were tested in a multitude of ways, and sorted it all out. That's my prediction, and I am sticking to it.
Arthur
No comments:
Post a Comment