It’s late and I am in Jakarta. My brain is fried. Reading too much. Thinking to much. Discussing too much. Feeling too much. I have people emailing me thanking me for my thoughts, while an old friend said I am being toxic. I am having fifteen conversations my head every hour and thinking of twenty different things to write. This level of analysis is not sustainable.
I read one article that clearly resonates with me and articulates my dread perfectly. Then the very next one makes me doubt what I just agreed with. I am weighed down by guilt and sadness and anger. And exhaustion.
The next four years will be taxing, but we don’t have to figure it all now. Whether we listen or protest. Fight or try to understand. All of these things will work themselves out. We are human beings on our road to evolution and this election like all human events is but one speck in the grand scheme of things.
I am not giving in or giving up. Just saying that after a few days of watching swastikas painted on walls, or being called smug because I am educated, or being told that I should fight harder or cry softer or just accept it or never give up has got me spinning.
I have nothing intelligent or profound to say, other than we need to take care of ourselves first before we can help others. I am going to crawl into this giant hotel bed and get some rest, because tomorrow I will be working with a group of educators, trying to find ways to make non-fiction reading relevant and powerful for young readers.
I am not sure if these actions will have any effect on American politics, or if we will in anyway get any closer to peace and understanding, but I know that it is my skill set and it is the path I have chosen, so my fight starts tomorrow with the best tool I know of: Education. Book. Knowledge. Words.
Oh and Leonard Cohen….so so much to say. I very much look forward to writing that post when my brain settles.
It was hard to get out of bed today and live with the reality of what has happened. I skimmed a few articles and tweets and Facebook updates and tried to be present for my kids, but they can see that my mind is elsewhere and that my heart beats weakly.
I played guitar at breakfast, almost broke down in tears playing Give A Man A Home by Ben Harper...
have you ever worn thin have you ever never known where to begin have you ever lost your belief watching your faith turn to grief
...so I put the sad songs away and donned a fake smile. We ate in silence. Got ready for the day. I lingered in the shower, watching the cold water swirl down the drain and disappear, my thoughts scattered and unapproachable.
At school, I covered a mentor class and we decided to take a break and do something fun. Let off some steam, so we did a #mannequinchallenge and after we decided to vent our feelings about the election.
The kids needed to talk and be heard and give voice to their anger and confusion. One boy came from a Clinton Trump family and said things are weird at his house, while another girl felt genuine dread for woman around the world. I didn’t say much. I just let them say whatever it was they were feeling or hearing.
Next, I had a lot of busy things to do: Discuss students of concern, send emails, write parent newsletters, plan lessons- necessary tasks and welcome distractions. I tried to stay of twitter, not read the articles. Let my brain rest and focus on the work.
At lunch we had a Daraja Academy meeting, and this venue felt right to talk about gender, rights, justice and peace. The kids in this group seemed shell shocked and upset. We had a lot of work to do, but I spoke about the power of activism and the resilience that we earn from set backs and how the work we do is endless and reward-less, but for the sake of peace, love and justice we get up and keep working. It was hard not to cry, so I did. We assigned committees and selected leadership roles. We carried on the work toward gender equality.
I taught two classes about latitude lines and climate zones. We spoke about globes and seasons. We laughed a lot. I put on a show, the grade sixes ate it up. The classroom is my stage and I like having fun. We left the election outside, didn’t feel necessary.
After school we had our lit magazine meeting. These kids looked like they needed to talk, so I spoke about the power of writing as a healing agent and as an activist tool. I showed them the Michael Franti video and told them to be strong and fight for what they believe in. To use the power of words to heal and mend and educate.
They wrote some short piece and poems. We shared them and their innocence was something spectacular and raw. It was hard not to cry, so I did. We got to work to publishing our next issue.
They worked hard and laughed and ate candy. I wrote this. I know it’s garbage:
Dear Trump Voter,
I am really trying to understand you right now. I should probably wait until my anger and disbelief die now, it is never good to write with such a heavy sense of sadness and rage. There are times throughout the day when I feel nauseous, just thinking about where we are headed as nation, as a planet. I wonder if you would have felt the same had Hillary been elected President.
Are you excited? Are you celebrating? If so I really want to know why? What has you excited? I am not here to be antagonistic. This election has hollowed me out and left me exhausted and confused. I am teacher and a father and I think about the lesson I teach the children I see everyday. For me, the lessons worth remembering are the simple ones we learn as children.
Don’t be a bully. Be kind. Love your neighbour; I am pretty sure those lessons are written in a religious book somewhere. I think about my classroom and watching my own children playing on a playground. I would want them to treat everyone with respect, if not with outright love. I would hope that they would not force some kids off the playground, but rather invite everyone to come play. I would hope that any walls would be used for climbing and playing not for exclusion.
So what is it about this president, this party, this future that fills your heart with joy? What is that when you look your children in the eye fills you with hope. I hope to try and move away from the propaganda talking points, but based on his own words how are you explaining his attitude toward women to your daughters, your wives, you mothers, your sisters, and if you are a woman to yourself?
...
Back home, my kids were tired and sluggish. Kaia had homework, Skye played with her dolls. I wanted to do something with her, but I skimmed articles on my phone instead, wallowing in guilt and anger.
Dinner was quiet.
“Daddy, is it true that Donald Trump raped somebody?” What do you say to a ten year old? “He was accused of it, but the trial has been dropped.” “How can someone who raped somebody be president?” “Well it was never proven in a court, so we cannot assume he did it.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her she was twelve and there were others.
“Why would someone rape another person?” Really? On this night? “Hard to say. They could be mentally ill, they want to show their power, they hate women.”
She quietly scooped up a spoonful of peas. The idea that some men hate women had never occurred to her before.
We talked a bit more about how she heard that Trump gave a speech and that his okay and normal now.
We discussed his policies, his cabinet and how we cannot normalise the things he has said and the things he has championed and how it is the work of all us to keep him honest and push back against his actions when they are oppositional to what we value: peace, love, diversity, understanding.
They went to sleep. I did a bit of work for tomorrow. It all feels pretty incoherent.
Tomorrow I am off to Jakarta for a literacy exchange. I will see some friends. I am giving a short talk to kick things off. I am excited to tell some stories. I don’t intend them to be, but I am sure they will be tinged with anger and sadness, like most things these days.
I feel like noise tonight. Useless and grating. A white scratching hum, invisible and senseless, yet flashing between static and a void.
The only thing that brings me to this blank page, and the timeless battle with words, is my faith that they will somehow set me free.
I feel like I have had the wind knocked out of me. A surprise cheap sucker punch from a bully, I should have known better than to turn my back on. I am not sure if this low whisper, this whimpering, this noise I am producing will be helpful to any one, but I need it's slow release.
I have bee reading various accounts laying blame, promising resistance, analyzing and re-analyzing how we got here. I can’t bring myself to watch any live footage of his face. I can’t bare the thought of four years of watching him “lead.”
There is no direction to this confusion. I am bundle of chaos assaulted by every emotion- rage, fear, dread, hate, shame. Everyone but hope.
I wanted to write a letter to my kids or my students, but I didn’t know what to write. I wanted to write an analysis piece about how liberals don’t understand rural America. I wanted to write about how the death of the American left has been a long time coming, and how the capitulation to global corporartism forced us to have faith in a false process. I wanted to write about how America is not better than this. This is a nation built on genocide and slavery. Imperialism and Jim Crowe. I wanted to write about how we need to fight and read our Zinn and have faith in the ongoing struggle for justice.
But I feel like noise tonight. I want to be hopeful, but I need to grieve. I want to inspire, but I need to process.
Tomorrow morning I will wake up at 6am and it will be 5pm on the East Coast of The United States of America, or maybe it will be 7pm, I hate timezones; either way it will be evening and there will be piles and piles of election results for me to sift through on my tiny phone screen as I sit in bed in the darkness holding my breath, hoping that America proved that is the hopeful place I know it can be, and not the ignorant cesspool of hatred that I have seen it to be.
So much has already been written about this election, that I feel inadequate to add anything useful to the conversations at this late stage of the game. We have all drawn up sides and there is no convincing anyone otherwise.
I wish it were different.
I wish that we had subtle nuanced political discourse that allowed our diverse electorate a chance to vote on candidates that resented their needs and interests, but we are beholden to a reality TV style election, that let’s be honest- we might just deserve.
We are all in safely hunkered down in our insulated bubbles casting out jabs and punches and slings and arrows. We hurl quotes and share videos from Samantha Bee and Ann Coulter. Seth Meyer and Rudy Guiliani. It’s an interactive circus run by demented clowns. We are all nervous and punchy and dangerous.
We are all hopeful that somehow tomorrow, that when our side wins, it will all be over and we can go back to caring about….what was it that we cared about again?
But the scariest part is that this is not going to end tomorrow. This wound will bleed for years to come and the scar will leave a mark. Actually what we are experiencing is the same wound, reopened from the Civil War. But having said that...
I am hopeful that Hillary will win in a landslide.
I am an optimist. I believe in humanity and decency. I believe there are more people in American who side with love than hatred. I believe in progress and healing and evolution.
I believe that while it is easy to pick on our simplicity and backwardness that there are more Americans that believe we are ready for a woman president, that immigrants are not the cause of our problems, that Muslims worldwide suffer from terrorism more than we do, that people of the LGBTQ communities are intertwined in all of our communities, that women should have the right to choose what to do with their reproductive rights, that we need to look at structural racism. I believe that beyond the smoke screens and propaganda, that deep in our hearts Americans know that #blacklivesmatter and that climate change is real.
We believe in peace, liberty and justice for all.
I believe that if you take Americans from rural Alabama and put them in a room with people from inner-city Ferguson that they will find common ground. That all we need is to look past the rhetoric and lies and politics and media and into our hearts to know what is the right thing to do. I believe that there are still enough people in America who believe in America to make the promise real. And I believe that they will come out on election day and be heard.
At it’s simplest to be an optimist means that you must to believe in love.
I have to believe these things, because I am not sure I can go to work tomorrow if the results I see on my phone in the darkness at 6am show Trump winning or anywhere near a close call.
A Hillary win will not solve our problems. And while I will freely admit that I have been swayed by her slick propaganda machine, I nearly cried showing my daughters her final video tonight, I do know that at this stage in our countries lives, progressives need to feel that at least we haven't moved further right. That we are not a nation of racists and bigots.
The woman we elect will not be the champion of the left that we deserve, but at least her lies are closer to our truths than his. Her victory we will be a weak mandate for liberals and in any election year that is better than any mandate for ultra-right lunacy.
Everyday at lunch, I talk about this election with my non-American colleagues and none of us get it. How can you explain Trumpism to anyone with a head or a heart.
Here’s to hoping that tomorrow as I am sitting through a million hours of parent-teacher conferences and checking in on the stats, that I see each state turn blue- one after the other like a sweet calming wave cleansing our nation and preparing us for the work ahead.
Saw The Trolls movie today and thoroughly enjoyed it. Great music, cute, funny and a nice message about happiness and how and where to find it. Don’t want to give too much away, but the bad guys-The Bergens reminded me of Trump supporters. Just throwing that out there for when/if you see it.
Came home starting learning True Colors with Skye and Kaia. It is in a key scene in the movie and feels nice to sing with the girls.
Despite the joyfulness of said film, the Raisdana house was doused with a smidge of funk today. Not sure why, but we were all a bit tired and snappy.
Basketball, some time outdoors, Veganberg lunch, movie, a quick lesson in Poker and Black Jack, a few Skye melt down tantrums, some Supergirl and finally the deep deep sleep. We were functioning but not really feeling it. That’s the case some days- Families just misfire and sputter and fall.
This election is rotting my soul piece-by-piece and I don’t know if the climate of the country will change anytime soon. Either way is a bad case scenario. Trump wins will….I don’t need to say anything about that, but this vitriol will not dissipate much even if Clinton wins. Trump supports are just hearing their voices for the first time, I am afraid they will not shut up any time soon. I am not sure if my day-to-day life can handle much more of bleating.
I guess we must all have faith in the work toward peace. Focusing on the daily ways we try and teach a new generation to care and feel and love and move forward. Part of this work, must involve loving those who spew hate.
It can be difficult to do this work with our own hearts filled with hate, and Trump is so good at filling hearts with hate, regardless of whether or not you support him. Like an infection he burrows into your system and tears you apart. But we must internalize it and learn to transform it back into love to guide us.
I hope to wake up tomorrow, put on my clothes, sculpt the mustache, and help the people in my life live their true colors.
What else is there besides this? What more do you want? What fantasies do you still concoct as you lay awake in the darkness or when you let your mind drift at the traffic light? What random memory do you crawl to, to try and leverage a future you feel you are owed? Why can’t this always be enough?
The light kiss and the long hug from your wife in the living room on a Sunday afternoon. The fist pump from your daughter as she sinks a basket at basketball practice. The tangy salsa in your breakfast burrito. The casual conversation with a friend about the trials and tribulations of parenting. The work you begrudgingly had to do to get back in the swing of things. It could be worse- you could be doing a job you hate. Something that is not your calling.
What else is there besides this? Sure, the minutes can trickle by at a pace that feels frozen. A routine induced boredom that you try and remedy with…what? Why can’t you enjoy the trips and the journey? The small moments in front of the mirror, admiring how you have finally grown into yourself. The look matching the mood matching the inner voice- the one that won’t shut up. The one that is never satisfied. The one that argues with itself and demands more, while begging to be grateful.
The lives of the characters in the novel you’re reading seem so desperate, but their familiarity puts you in a panic. What are your rituals? Where is your romance and bliss? Is the literature a mirror of your routines? A cliched mid-life episode? Is this all there is? Will I cherish this at the end? Am I doing enough? Living enough? Loving enough? Am I to blame for the ho hum, hum drum of these days as they pass? Am I the only one who sees them? Feels their weight?
Why don’t we talk more about our dreams? At this point what the hell is your dream?
So many boxes already expertly checked: job. wife. kids. expat. travel. hobbies. friends.
What else is there to want? And if you can’t even name it, why do you want it so desperately?
As a kid from an inadequate family, why can’t you just focus on the one goal? Have you forgotten the promises of selflessness you made to your infant daughter, on those quiet dark nights in the glow of her bedroom, with the tender music, and her in your arms, perfect and precious, an empty vessel for everything they didn’t do for you, an empty bag waiting to be filled with everything you salvaged from yourself worth passing on. You vowed to erase yourself piece by piece on those nights, promised to ignore your selfish needs for the sake of your daughter and your wife and this family. And now what ten years later you are wondering about your needs again?
Where did they go? What are they? Why do they feel so trivial and obscene?
Your priorities are in front of you. No more lethargic days passing away in a slow drip. Tell her you love her more often. Thank her. Help her. Live your politics instead of tweeting them. Go to Ikea with a smile. Care about the curtains. Get excited about the parties and the holidays and the future and the present. Be more present. Play with the kids. Talk to them. Look deeply into their eyes so they can tie themselves to your ballast.
Slow Sundays in your head can be exhausting. This election is pulling on you like dead weight, forcing you to carry around its bile with every step. The videos. The words. The Tweets. The half-baked opinions of every idiot in a comment box. Why do you let them burrow into your heart. Your space?
What else is there besides this? You are a middle aged man: a father, a husband, a friend and a son who is doing his best. Although, this seldom feels like it is enough, you have to trust that it is.
Every night I want to sit and write something beautiful. Something provocative. Something thoughtful. Necessary. Every night the pressure builds up and explodes or slowly dissipates. Living a thoughtful, reflective life can be demoralizing when faced with the boredom of the mundane. Unless you shine a light on all the drab and ordinary moments as they pass.
Maybe it’s enough to grab a glass of wine and pull the Gillian Welch veil across your thoughts and see how you can make each minute shine. Play the keyboard like a guitar fret-board and allow the words to vibrate and ring out, like an empty open chord or a wave picking up force down in the infinite darkness.
Reveal the hours in the doctor’s waiting room. Flipping through your phone, trying to rid yourself of the Trump disease and the need to clothe your indignation and anger. Close Twitter for two minuets, no article or video will make him go away. Only you can expel his hate from your heart, by focusing on the moment and where you are. Focus on getting your child’s vaccine. Watch her act brave and face the very real terror of that needle.
The prick. The yelp. The reward for enduring pain. Is there more to life than that?
There was this morning with the guitar and the words of that song that her tiny seven year old soul seems to give itself over to. Where did that come from? That voice deep from her diaphragm? Her eyes closed? Did you teach her that? No way. Is it from exposure? Can she simply feel in a way that you only dream to feel?
There is nothing romantic about two hours at the optometrist or about buying a birthday present from the bookstore. Nothing worth sharing about the arguments in the car and the stores and the constant desire to raise a decent human being. But maybe there is a literature in parenting. Maybe the only thing necessary for poetry is the awareness of all the poems one can uncover and name by simply allowing for the simple truth that every moment has the potential for poetry.
You came home to a quiet house. Alone in the house for the first time in a long time. You ignore the ambition to get back on track, leaving the running shoes in the closet. You watched Michelle Obama on Stephen Colbert and are now convinced that the Trump to FLOTUS continuum spans the length of human decency.
You gave into your gluttonous appetite and lounged on the couch. Watching a movie at 6pm. What luxury is this? The movie made it hard to breathe. The tears welled up as you watched the literal face of racism and injustice. So much fear and hatred in the heart of a country that pretends to be so heroic. You cannot imagine a more rage inducing existence than to be black in America.
The movie ends. The family back home. The silence ended. These words are a poor substitute for the thoughts that swim through your consciousness on this boring Wednesday afternoon in October in your forty second year.
And to think that every person on the planet lives and writes and sings these poems in every second of everyday of their lives too. We are in there, up close and yearning, together.
Every night I want to sit and write something beautiful.
...
“Daddy? Has this Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump thing been forever?” Skyelar “You mean the election? Feels like it, but no. It has been a year and it will be over soon, when we vote for who will be president.” Me. “Vote for the girl!” Skye “Every time.” Me.
The thing about hateful people is that they are full of hate. They are so full of hate that it spills out of them and seeps into the atmosphere, so much so that sometimes you can’t help but breathe it in and become filled with hate yourself. These kinds of people bring out the worst in everyone. Their level of baseness is so despicable that you will find yourself expanding with rage and anger, fuming and wanting to lash out and insult them and call them nasty names. In short, hateful people like Donald Trump lower the bar so low that you find yourself wallowing in the blood and mud, wanting them humiliated and destroyed.
Donald Trump makes me a bad person.
I try and remain calm and rational and empathetic and loving, but just looking at his face and hearing the gibberish come out of his big mouth makes me want to break something or punch myself in the face or take a fork to my eyes. Is this how Trump supporters feel all the time? Does his orange glow force even his followers into a state of near demonic rage? Do they see the world through the lens of loathing? How could anyone listen to this lame excuse for a human being talk and not want the world to end? Even if you agree with whatever you can decipher from the bullshit that he claims as the “truth” just the sound of voice, the smirks and now the sniffs, the shrugs, the smug elitist chauvinistic little hand gestures are enough to make even the Dali Lama make fun of him.
This is not a person I can handle for four more years. For my own sanity and the sanity of the world, for all the peace loving and kind people, if Trump wins, he will bring us down too. The world will simmer in ignorant hate filled masochism. We cannot afford to watch this troll of a man on our little screens, making mistake after mistake for four more years.
We need him gone. Loser. Lose. Go home. Return to your gold laden cave, roll the boulder back in front of the door and disappear forever. We still have two more debates and countless more rallies, so the anger, like a fog, still sits over our collective consciousnesses, but after November 8th we can finally blow it away. Never to be seen again. Until next time he or some other GOP yokel comes looking for our blood.
…
I can’t stop watching that Shaq/Hillary .gif. I’m not sure what it is saying, but at the moment it is speaking to my soul. I never thought that I would find Hillary so endearing, but I guess when you put a fake doll next to a piece of shit and ask to choose, the doll has to win. She is killing it at the moment. Hope it can last. I can't believe this is even close.
…
Sorry I needed to get that off my chest. This is all too insane. I need some time in the woods or the ocean or somewhere away this election. Maybe Vietnam will help clear my head next week.
...
I had a nice evening skating session today The sun was low; the heat dissipating. Tried a few new things and I'm feeling more comfortable on the board. I might need a teacher/mentor soon. Perhaps after the break. I want feedback and things to work on.
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” That’s a quote from Hunter S. Thompson, and I only wish that he was still with us to witness the debacle we are calling the GOP candidate of the president of the United States.
I had a pretty long day. Played some leadership whack-a-mole, taught some classes, and then led a MS literary night for parents causing me to stay at school for 12+ hours. Then after a celebratory glass of wine I headed to meet some friends and spend some time with an old boss/mentor/friend.
I have been waiting to watch the debates all day and rather than just crawl into bed at 10:48. I am going to watch them in full and “not-so-live tweet them.”
Buy the ticket. Enjoy the right:
Lester Holt is pretending like this is all very normal and that everyone is equal. Does anyone actually believe this? Or are we are clear that one candidate is a seasoned states person and the other is well for lack of a a better phrase a total, “piece of shit?”
Point Hillary- the red pant suit is a power move that screams Chairman Mao, but also the human cheeto, I’m gonna eat you alive.
Nice to see the eagle getting top bill, perched over the Bill of Rights or Declaration of Independence or The Constitution or whatever other sacred document is draped behind them.
Hillary- Raise minimum wage- shout out to Bernie for pushing that issue. Equal pay for women. Yes please. Family leave. Earned sick days. Wealthy pay fair share.
Trump- Mexico. China. Fleeing. Fight. Winning. China. Piggy bank. Losing good jobs. Mexico. How does someone in the wealthy class “stop jobs from leaving.” Sniff.
Hillary- Zing- trump is a rich asshole and he just wants to reward rich assholes.
Trump- Sniff. Mexico. China. Sniff. Nafta.
Lester- How do you bring the jobs back?
Trump- Don’t let them leave. Sniff. Sniff. NAFTA is teh worst thing ever.
Hillary- Grin. That is just not accurate.
Trump- Interrupt. Interrupt. Interrupt. Interrupt
Hillary- I know you live in your own reality.
Trump- You have no PLAN!!!
Hillary- I actually wrote a book about it. You can pick it up at the airport.
Trump- Yell. Stomp. Stomp. You are a poo poo face and I hate you.
Hillary- Just join the debate by saying any crazy things.
Trump- The fed is doing political. More police. Stop and frisk. I have property there We need Law and Order.
Hillary- We have to address the system racism in our criminal justice system.
Trump- NRA. Good people. Endorsement.
…….side note- this is like torture……..
Trump- I say nothing. I say nothing.
Hillary- Just listen to what you heard.
Trump- That is the way I feel. That is the true way I feel.
Trump- THE CYBER. We came in with the internet. We came up with the internet. My son is good with computers.
Hillary- I took out Bin Laden. Boom Snap!
Trump- Take the oil. They have the oil all over the place.
Trump- Nato already does what I say. Believe me. Believe me. Sean Hannity. Sean Hannity. Sean Hannity. Sean Hannity. Sean Hannity. Call him. Nobody calls Sean Hannity.
The convention is over and thank god, because I am out of political juice. The whole Tim Kaine and the snub by the DNC to its progressive wing can wait until next week. This guy is what he is and the Dems are what they are. The powers that be have succeeded in scaring the bejesus out of everyone on the left and we will be stuck with what we get. Nothing to get excited about. But I don’t actually live here, so maybe I should calm the hell down.
One thing I have learned through another election year is that these presidential elections are not the way to affect change. We have to get in there and vote at every level, at every election and if there are no candidates that match our needs we need to find some, or become some, but this system is broken from the top down and the only way to fix it is from the grassroots.
I remember going to ISO (International Socialist Organization) meetings when I lived in NYC years ago, and never have I seen such committed and dedicated people to making real change for everyday Americans. We discussed politics, planned demonstrations, sold newspapers and tried to get people involved. It is this level of involvement that is necessary. If the ISO is not your thing that join a church group or find like-minded people and start your own group.
Because regardless of what happens in November there will be work to do.
…
In other news:
Roxanne Gay and Ta-Nehisi Coates are writing a new Marvel comic. That is pretty rad.
The murderer in Munich is apparently Iranian. #sigh
In North Miami, the police officer who shot an unarmed African-American therapist trying to calm an autistic patient said he shot the therapist by accident—and that he actually meant to shoot the autistic man, who was cradling a toy truck.
…
My day was dull and cloudy and grey. We went to an outlet mall and stocked up on some school clothes for the family. Not fun but necessary.
Not one photo from the day. That is sad.
…
Tomorrow I will pick up Ari from the airport. I have not seen him in six years. We will spend a week together, catching up, chatting, hiking, swimming and all that other good jazz. Tonight, I owe Mairin some TV, seeing that I have been up late each night carving out my own spleen watching the RNC.
I don’t want too many of these posts to be about politics. There is only so much we can take, so even after the events of Chicago, Cleveland and St. Louis, I will choose to write about something other than you know who tonight.
Although I will say that I am having a very hard time distinguishing between anger and sadness these days. Article after article and video after video fall like granite through my Facebook feed, and I am lost as to which new emoticon to present that accurately represents my emotions.
It feels like a blend of anger, sadness, shame, pity, frustration, fear and loathing, but ultimately I think all of these emotions can be summed up as hate. This campaign is making me hate, and this is why it is so dangerous.
Having said that I hope that I have enough faith in humanity, peace, love and understanding. Perhaps this is the darkness before the dawn and America has started the healing process by ripping off the scab.
…
It is a beautiful early afternoon and the clouds are a rainbow of white and black and different shades of grey. We are all on bikes and the sun is gently toasting my skin. Kaia is up ahead lost in her thoughts, while Mairin and Skye are just behind me.
East Coast Park is crowded with campers and picnickers. The BBQ pits are strewn with balloons and the smoke of cooking meat. People are covered in sand and water and the calm lethargy of a well spent Sunday. There are large groups of expats, Muslims, Indians and Chinese. Couples and families. Athletes and loafers. A diverse range of people, peacefully enjoying the sun and the sand. Say what you will about race relations in Singapore, but on a day like today at East Coast Park, you cannot help but fall in love with what our human family can look like if we just chill the hell out and do our own thing.
We bike passed the crowds and stop at the restaurant with the pool out front, for a quick stop to eat and a dip. Just as quickly as we stopped we are back on the road, headed to Kallang Wave for some Lazy River fun. The ride is hot and hard- probably over twenty kilometers in total, but we all ride in our own silence and occasional conversations. The girls are not complaining, as this is what we do- we ride our bikes and enjoy the air and the strain on our legs.
We swim a bit and float in the sun at the Lazy River. Rain clouds are threatening, but the air is thick with heat and the water feels perfect. Still wet in swim suits, we are back on our bikes and head back to East Coast park. Large dark clouds are right behind us, stirring up the wind and a soft splash of drizzle. A quick stop at Starbucks for some donuts, fruit and smoothies.
Toward the end, Skye is tired, but peddling. We are home and showered and napping and playing games on iPads. We earned it. Bed time comes fast and easy, as our sun drenched blood shot eyes welcome the quiet solitude of sleep. We will dream about the graceful beauty of a day spent on a bicycle. I know that John, Roderick, Chris and Andrew will understand what I mean.
…
Read an article today about how parents in France can be sued by their kids if the parents post pictures of the kids on social media. I have also seen several articles about kids who are upset about their parents sharing photos of the kids online. As many of you know, I have been sharing photos of both my kids since they were born. I think they both have an ultrasound photo online somewhere.
I have lots of thoughts about the issue, but it is too soon for me to comment at length. I am letting it stew. I think I would like to make a video and ask Kaia what she thinks. I need to actually show her what is out there, explain why I put it there, show her some of the reactions and see what she says.
I was feeling the slight sting of that last Cascadia beer this morning when I woke up. It wasn’t crippling, but it made my eyes burn a bit, you know, in that I shouldn’t have ordered that last beer after midnight kind of way. All I wanted was to lay in bed and sleep till noon, but Mairin had us all up and out of bed and headed toward Bedok before nine. She was off to her Zumba class; Skye had a play date; Kaia and I had agreed to run around the reservoir. This was not something I wanted to do, but I had promised that my return to drinking would not effect the girls in anyway, so in a matter of minutes I was at the reservoir stretching with Kaia.
From the first step, I knew that Mairin was right. The sun was soft and golden and the water still. We found a comfortable pace and enjoyed the early silence of our run. I’m not sure why, but I raised the topic of politics with her. I realised as a third-culture American, she has no idea who our president is, so I told her. We discussed four year terms and two term limits. I told her we are in an election cycle right now and tried to explain the two parties and the current batch of candidates. It went something like this:
Some people believe that the government should stay out of people’s lives. That we shouldn’t pay too many taxes and that citizens should decide what to do with their own money. These people also believe that people should be more religious, and they often want to make decisions that effect everyone based on their religious ideas. They like to have a big army and are often afraid of things that are different and that they don’t understand. They don’t want too many people from outside of America to come to America. They call themselves conservatives or Republicans.
The other group thinks that the government’s role is to help as many people as it can. So if you are lucky enough to have an education and a good job, then you should pay slightly more taxes so that we can build better schools and help every American have the same opportunities. These people believe that everyone has value and that diversity makes our country stronger. They prefer to solve problems by talking instead of fighting and think that our army might be too big and causing more problems than it is solving. They work toward peace and equality for all and think that your religion is your business and has no place in government. The people are called liberals or Democrats.
One thing that is exciting is that one of the candidates is a woman. Which is cool because the USA has never had a woman president. She is a Democrat and many people are excited about her, but she is running against another Democrat who is much more liberal than her. He really wants to create a government that helps poor Americans. I voted for him last week.
On the other side there is a business man who has lots of money, but has never been in government. He is saying some very aggressive things and people seem to like him for it. He wants to build a wall to keep people out of America. He thinks that Muslims should not be allowed into America, and he is often rude to the other candidates. he makes fun of them and calls them names.
He is running against a very religious man who thinks that America should be run like the bible and that women need help deciding what to do with their bodies. There is another guy too, but he doesn’t really stand for anything and he does’t have a chance. Any questions?
“Are we muslim? Is Grand-ma? Will the rude rich guy let us back in America since we live in Singapore?” No. No. Yes.
Then there was silence and we ran for a while as the sun shimmered in golden ripples on the reservoir and a dragon boat team grunted their way across the water.
…
It’s nice when people like your stuff: your ideas, your world view, the things you say and write and share. It’s nice when people like you. Writing these daily posts has been a very positive experience for me. It is interesting to see what people like and who and when and how often. Somedays, the posts are lame and float by unnoticed as they should, and on some days the words seem to resonate with people from various stages of my life. People have sent me private messages saying what they enjoy or told me in person how much they are appreciating the post. At first I thought I would turn a lot of people off. Who the hell wants to hear about anyone’s daily life? But apparently some of you do. So thank you. Thank you for reading, liking, commenting and participating in my life through this bizarre tiny cyber-window.
…
I finished the running book. It got okay at the end, when his wife left him and he questioned why he ran and contemplated some life decisions. But the majority of the book was like this:
I am training for a race. I don’t think I can win. I am vegan. I almost lost the race, but because I am a great runner I won. This narrative plays out for like ten races. I am sure he is an amazing athlete and and inspiration for sure, but a writer and a storyteller he is not. I found this quote from a review to be perfect:
Reading this book is like getting stuck in a one-sided conversation with the most boring dude at the party. In this particular case, the offender is an ultra-marathoner who's discovered the miracles of a vegan diet. As much as I love veganism and running, turns out I can't stand the person who's most famous for living/promoting the two.
Anyway, glad I read it. Had a few gems that made me think differently about running, but it was a marathon to get through. Next up….The Bell Jar.
Today was a long one. Got home from school around 9:00 pm. Started the day with a short planning meeting with Anne, taught a class, had an hour at Skyelar’s work share, grabbed a salad on the go for lunch as we had a Daraja meeting at lunch time, taught two classes, chilled out a bit after school, ran Skye over to grab a quick bite to eat and then Kaia Art’s Festival at six and home around nine.
There is some student work that needs reading and comments and feedback, but there is little that can be done when your brain is fried. My brain is fired.
We stopped at the gas station to grab some chips, a chocolate bar and a coke, hoping it might be some kind of salve.
Tomorrow is Friday and Mairin is off to Bangkok. I have a chilled out weekend planned with the girls, one that I am very much looking forward to.
…
I need a plan on how I will survive and stay sane throughout this election cycle. We are not even at the conventions yet and the latent feeling of anger and crippling dread is really cramping my style. I keep asking myself why I even care so much, and I have no clear answers. I ranted too much last night, and while it felt good at the time, I was plagued by a feeling of guilt all day.
I don’t mean those things about Americans. Hell, what do I even know about people like that? I know that most people wherever they live just want good simple happy lives. I mean even the ISIS guys like to sit on the couch and have some tea sometimes right?
We can’t all be deranged lunatics.
We are beyond the 24 hour news cycle. We are in the social media stage, where every time I open FB or Twitter, someone is posting something about the elections. Some of it funny, some it terrifying and some if it down right bizarre. I saw a photo of Ted Cruz and the Duck Dynasty dude that will give me nightmares tonight for sure.
My advice to myself is to take long deep breaths. Hang out with friends and tell jokes. Read books. Run. Spend quality time with my kids. Maybe write about something other than this stuff every night. Take it all with a grain of salt.
Because the 2016 US Elections might be too much for this political junkie to handle.
…
I had three light bulb moments in class today:
Talking to a kid about symbolism and Animal Farm. She said that she knew the windmill was a symbol for something, but couldn't name what it was. We went into the book and found some critical scenes, within seconds of reading the text, “It is a symbol of the revolution. The fact that they are forced to rebuild it means that it never worked in the first time and this time it will be even worse.” Boom……off you go.
Talking to a kid about symbolism and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Back in the text. The first page, “I think the dog must be something right. Maybe the dog symbolises Christopher’s relationship with his dad and the pitchfork is how the relationship was severed so violently. Maybe the pitchfork could be the betrayal of the dad’s lies, or even the mom.” Boom…off you go.
There is something so satisfying about guiding a kid to the edge and watching them jump off and fly to the other side. Those moments are priceless and they are what keep me going. It’s like you can see the learning seep into the kid right in front of your eyes. They get excited and look you in the eyes. Your eyes say, “See? It’s worth it after the hard work isn’t it?” They smile and begin to write furiously.
On that note, I leave you with Juicy America. Laugh, Cry, Do what you need to do- I’m gonna chase some chocolate down with a coke.
I did some serious soul-searching today as I sat and watched the election results pour into my computer . It all happened so fast and without fanfare. All the little red states suddenly turned blue, McCain gave a concession speech, Palin was returned to her rightful place of obscurity, and Barack Obama became the first African-American President of the Untied States of America and apparently our new messiah.
Even while hounded by doubts and insecurities, I was excited. For the first time in my life, I felt different about politics. I could hear die hard left-wing revolutionaries shaking their heads at my naiveté; I know that this president elect is not much more than a carefully crafted puppet, designed to ease America’s pain and rage, but like everyone else, I need something to believe in. The last eight years have turned me bitter.
Even as I felt my enthusiasm grow, I couldn’t help but think back to Naomi Klein’s book No Logo, in which talks about how Wall Street hijacked youth culture in the nineties to sell their products, transforming the very concept of alterative into mainstream commerce. By branding counter-culture values like environmentalism, personal freedom, and youth culture, corporate American suddenly made consumerism cool. This was a major factor in the rise of globalization and the way multi-national corporations do business. One can’t help but see the parallels in this campaign.
Klein says of branding,
If they were going to turn lackluster products into transcendent meaning machines- as the dictates of branding demanded- they would need to remake themselves in the image of nineties cool: it’s music, styles, and politics.
This is what I feel the Democratic Party has done with Obama; they have created a brand based on our collective need for change. He is perfect in every way. The market research crew over at the DNC has done their job. They have created a brand that is hard to refuse.
Wikipedia says this about brands,
Some marketers distinguish the psychological aspect of a brand from the experiential aspect. The experiential aspect consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand and is known as the brand experience. The psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic construct created within the minds of people and consists of all the information and expectations associated with a product or service.
If we substitute Barack Obama with a product, I hope we can see that we are in the midst of a multi-million dollar brand experience. This symbolic construct has been created within the minds of people and consists of all the information and expectations associated with change.
I am not, however, writing this post to rehash my doubts. I am writing this post because despite my reservations, I want to admit that even I was swept up by the fact something in the air today feels different. Even if his promises of change and hope are a carefully crafted ruse, then at least this campaign and this president is moving our conversations to the left. This shift is no small feat, and deserves applause. The DNC is talking a gamble, by giving us what we clearly want, and it is up to us to make sure we collect.
A majority of people in America have at least awoken to the fact there is a political system in place, and it would behoove us to pay attention to what it is doing. I hope that now that these conversations have begun, we do not shelve the momentum until the next election.
I like to think of myself as an open-minded person, who is willing to concede when the need arises. My wife and people who know me well would argue that I am an obstinate stubborn, bully, but I am here to say that I have been listening to what people have been saying.
I read the comments from my last post:
whatever you think about obama- americans are changing. i hope that his words are backed with action- but at the very least, i know in my heart that a large number of americans believe in change. the change at the top matters less than the change at the bottom and for whatever reason- obama personifies that change for many, many people. i have hope- not that obama will save america- but that americans will save America
He's promising something that he *can't* provide. I know that sounds like splitting hairs, but the distinction is important to me because it subtly shifts responsibility. If Obama is choosing not to make change, then I could spend all my time standing around pointing fingers. But if he *can't*, then I'm forced to ask who can. And it turns out that the answer is "I can" and I don't have time for standing around pointing fingers, I've got some gardens to tend and some neighbors to bullshit with.
Obama HAS ALREADY BROUGHT MASSIVE, EARTH-SHAKING CHANGE just by being the first black president.
Actually, take a minute to picture President Nader, and what he'd accomplish. NOTHING. That guy'd get nothing done. Everyone would hate him. No one would follow him. He'd be the worst president in history. POLITICS IS ABOUT COMPROMISE.
It is that last line that really put me over the edge. I can appreciate that America is nowhere near ready for the truly progressive society I envision. The values that I cherish are still years away from entering mainstream conversations in American politics. I know that the battles I want to fight must be fought on a daily basis through: conversations, grassroots work, volunteering, work in our classrooms, and in every aspect of our lives. No candidate for any office will ever bring about true change. We as a nation must search our souls and slowly work together to move closer true change. We must not only examine our political leaders. We must re-evaluate our very culture and our economic systems.
This collective national transformation has nothing to do the whims and power of our two-party system. It has to do with the intensity with which we move forward at this time in our nation’s history. If anything Barack Obama, whether intentionally or not, has initiated this shift.
It is important to state the fact that, even if it is only surface-level, this change in the collective American consciousness is historic. The least I can say is that we are no longer focused on the ignorant ramblings of neo-conservatives and the religious right. At least for the moment they have been made irrelevant.
Rob Kall does a great job of putting things in perceptive when he says,
The religious right was put in its place yesterday. If the Republican party learned anything, it is that America is sick and tired of right wing extremism. I expect to see a strong rise in progressive and centrist religious leaders.
While they may roam the halls of power for years to come, on the surface, out in the open, we are finally allowed steer the conversations and demand more from our leaders. Whether they deliver or not is still up for debate, but at least on this day as the world is swept up by brand-Obama I want to let down my guard and say I am hopeful.
The journey to a truly just world will not come through the Democratic Party and Barack Obama, but without his opening of the door, the journey would have taken much longer to begin.
If the opening of this door is the only significant event of this election, then we have already made huge gains. If Bush claimed his 2004 was a mandate for the Republican Party, then this landslide is a mandate for progressive politics. Whether or not the Democratic Party will live up to these expectations will be determined in the next four years. I for one must be cynical, it is in my nature, and think they will wait for the momentum to dissipate and continue with business a usual, but that will be a huge mistake. For now, I too will wait and see.
If all of these people in the streets of America are truly ready for change, the maybe we are closer to a revolution than the DNC thinks. If the Democrats let us down, again, hopefully they will have something substantial to reckon with.
I am not sure if I have come out and said it, it is hard for me to make concrete statements but I am sure I have friends that will be overjoyed to hear me say:
Thank you Barack Obama for opening the door to a new era in American politics. I hope you can work your way out from under the weight of a system that has grown out of control and lead us to a more just and peaceful future. The hopes of a generation are on your back. Don’t let us down.
I write with a heavy heart tonight; as I type these words America is taking part in what has been pounded into our collective consciousness as the most important election of our time. Thousands, maybe millions of young Americans are taking part in the political dance that passes for Democracy in these Untied States, thinking that they are acting for change. Filled with a desperate sense of hope, they are voting for Barak Obama thinking that he will usher in a new America.
I have written before how much I want to be one of these people. I feel like an anti-social pariah, as I sit alone and brood over the charade that has been so carefully scripted by the Democratic Party and their corporate backers. I feel like the crazy person screaming fire as people stroll aimlessly about drunk on the idea of change without substance.
I can’t get passed the fact that the same corporate media that most left leaning progressive Americans have been criticizing for giving the Bush administration a free ride, has the American left drugged and subdued into believing that they are partaking in an historic event. Bludgeoned by the words hope and change, so often most people forget that the same “bad” guys we have been fighting for the last eight years have sponsored the Obama campaign.
Ralph Nader, in his open letter to Obama says it best,
In your nearly two-year presidential campaign, the words "hope and change," "change and hope" have been your trademark declarations. Yet there is an asymmetry between those objectives and your political character that succumbs to contrary centers of power that want not "hope and change" but the continuation of the power-entrenched status quo.
Far more than Senator McCain, you have received enormous, unprecedented contributions from corporate interests, Wall Street interests and, most interestingly, big corporate law firm attorneys. Never before has a Democratic nominee for President achieved this supremacy over his Republican counterpart. Why, apart from your unconditional vote for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, are these large corporate interests investing so much in Senator Obama? Could it be that in your state Senate record, your U.S. Senate record and your presidential campaign record (favoring nuclear power, coal plants, offshore oil drilling, corporate subsidies including the 1872 Mining Act and avoiding any comprehensive program to crack down on the corporate crime wave and the bloated, wasteful military budget, for example) you have shown that you are their man?
To advance change and hope, the presidential persona requires character, courage, integrity-- not expediency, accommodation and short-range opportunism.
I suggest you read the letter in its entirety. Contrary to the clown the media makes Nader out to be, he is at his best when he cuts to the heart of the matter in indictments like this:
Should you be elected President, it must be more than an unprecedented upward career move following a brilliantly unprincipled campaign that spoke "change" yet demonstrated actual obeisance to the concentration power of the "corporate supremacists." It must be about shifting the power from the few to the many. It must be a White House presided over by a black man who does not turn his back on the downtrodden here and abroad but challenges the forces of greed, dictatorial control of labor, consumers and taxpayers, and the militarization of foreign policy. It must be a White House that is transforming of American politics-- opening it up to the public funding of elections (through voluntary approaches)-- and allowing smaller candidates to have a chance to be heard on debates and in the fullness of their now restricted civil liberties. Call it a competitive democracy.
Your presidential campaign again and again has demonstrated cowardly stands. "Hope" some say springs eternal." But not when "reality" consumes it daily.
Follow the pack, Jabiz! Just trust in Obama to save America, the earth, and our progressive ideals! I hear this voice loud and clear. I feel alone. I feel like a trader, but I will not be able to celebrate tomorrow even after the historic landslide, even after all the fan fare. The circus will be staged as a mandate for false-liberals. Thousands, maybe millions of left leaning Americans will feel final they have their man. Built on the foundations of hope over fear, they will proclaim that their time has come, but the reality will be much different.
The top 1% of America’s wealthy will sigh and smile, realizing that they dodged another bullet. After some of the biggest land grabs in Iraq and Afghanistan, the emptying of the treasury and nearly bankrupting the nation, they will have once again diverted any chance of an American revolution. Instead of general strikes, protests in the streets, and grassroots organizing, they will have made the American people submissive with promises of optimism and change; they will continue to pursue their goals of wealth accumulation. Business as usual behind closed doors, the smiling face of change on the TV. America is back, you will chant.
Obama has caught the moment, he’ll win tomorrow, probably by a landslide. Our hope for a great leader, I guess, is once again out-shined by the reality of “good-enough.” President Obama will continue the war in Afghanistan, continue NAFTA and CAFTA. All the while we will continue to kindly ask our dear great leader to listen to us. It will be a democracy, as we’ve had for decades, maybe a bit closer to our hopes but still mostly kept for our dreams.
I see Obama for who he was, just another frightened politician who when given a moment to show his true colors exposed himself to be yellow. I’m tired of these leaders, Democrat and Republican. They play on real people’s hopes and fears and use them for their own political ambition.
What makes this the hardest to swallow is that none of what I say matters. Most people are so tired of the mess American politics has become, they want an easy answer, and that is exactly what Obama is. The world is hungry for justice, for peace, for everything liberals fight for, but now these issues, these dreams have been hijacked by this Democratic charlatan and passed off as his own.
Maybe I am wrong. I hope I am wrong. I sometimes dream that upon his inauguration Obama will strip himself of the corporate shackles he has so willing worn throughout his career and perhaps deliver a speech like this:
My fellow Americans, I am here to address you not as the first African American president, but as the first president to put your needs before those of the corporate moneyed interests that have stolen our nation. I understand that every human being deserves a say in the decisions that affect their lives and not be subject to the will of another. Therefore, I will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. I will also work to create new types of political organizations which expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the decision-making process. As of now I denounce the Democratic Party and declare myself the first independent president of the Untied Sates. The White House is officially closed to Big Pharma, Big Argi-business, The Military Industrial Complex, and all the other corporate thieves who have hijacked our democracy. I only used their funds and influence to get elected, as of today I will work tirelessly to expel corporate America from government and return it to its rightful owners, the American people.
I believe that all persons should have the rights and opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment. We must consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers such as racism and class oppression, sexism and homophobia, ageism and disability, which act to deny fair treatment and equal justice under the law.
Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society which utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must practice agriculture which replenishes the soil; move to an energy efficient economy; and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems.
It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to society’s current patterns of violence. We will work to demilitarize, and eliminate weapons of mass destruction, without being naive about the intentions of other governments. We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of others who are in helpless situations. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace. I will end the War on Terror and bring our troops home today. I am not afraid to use the label imperialist to describe our actions. We must reevaluate our entire culture and work towards finding peace in our hearts. I will shut down the majority of the 170 US army bases that littler the globe guarding our imperialist interests.
Centralization of wealth and power contributes to social and economic injustice, environmental destruction, and militarization. Therefore, we support a restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system which is controlled by and mostly benefits the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system. Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local level, while assuring that civil rights are protected for all citizens. The corporate feeding frenzy is over. As your president, I am not afraid to mention wealth distribution any longer. We will cut defense spending and increase corporate taxes. No longer will oil companies make record profits while America mires in bankruptcy.
I recognize it is essential to create a vibrant and sustainable economic system, one that can create jobs and provide a decent standard of living for all people while maintaining a healthy ecological balance. A successful economic system will offer meaningful work with dignity, while paying a “living wage” which reflects the real value of a person’s work. I will work on deconstructing the World Bank and the IMF. No longer will we allow globalization and this new form of colonialism rape the rest of the world, so that we Americans can lead this unsustainable lifestyle.
Local communities must look to economic development that assures protection of the environment and workers’ rights; broad citizen participation in planning; and enhancement of our “quality of life.” We support independently owned and operated companies which are socially responsible, as well as co-operatives and public enterprises that distribute resources and control to more people through democratic participation. If this sounds like Socialism, that is because it is. No longer will words like unions, workers rights, and social programs be taboo in America.
I have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics. We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as equity between the sexes, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with moral conscience. We should remember that the process that determines our decisions and actions is just as important as achieving the outcome we want.
I believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across these lines.
I believe that the many diverse elements of society should be reflected in our organizations and decision-making bodies, and we support the leadership of people who have been traditionally closed out of leadership roles. I acknowledge and encourage respect for other life forms than our own and the preservation of biodiversity.
I encourage individuals to act to improve their personal well-being and, at the same time, to enhance ecological balance and social harmony. I seek to join with people and organizations around the world to foster peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet. I will examine and dissect the very core traits of the capitalists system that is destroying our planet and find alternatives.
My actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. I seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or “unmaking” all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival. We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that economic development, new technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations who will inherit the results of our actions.
In short, America, the change I was talking about during my campaign was not empty rhetoric and broken promises. I will not bend to corporate pressure. I ask you the American people to help me return to you what is rightfully yours. America is yours, help me build it to what it was meant to be.
There you have it folks. Maybe I will be extremely surprised by Obama’s actions after he wins. I am not holding my breath. If these ideas sound good to you, and sound a bit familiar, it is because they are the ten key values of the Green Party.
Later this week while everyone is celebrating because they feel they participated in a historic event, I will sit and brood over one of the biggest scams perpetuated on the American people. You were promised a liberal “socialist”, but really you were given another frightened politician who when given a moment to show his true colors exposed himself to be yellow.
This may be better then McCain. A message of hope may be better than a message of fear, but a lie is a lie, and it is difficult to take comfort in that. After Obama wins, celebrate America if you must, but please do not believe that you have done anything historic. Do not fool yourself into believing you have caused any change. You have done nothing more than tow the party line. You have allowed the American ruling class shift from team A to team B.
I am a sucker for online political questionnaires. I am not sure why, they never tell me anything I didn’t know before I completed them, but it is always reassuring to know that based on answering a series of questions I can feel justified in my political beliefs. See my results here.
I don’t believe in voting, because I don’t believe in participating in a system that is broken, besides living overseas it is a pain in the ass to get absentee ballots in time to vote. I am not organized enough to ever get it done. If there is a candidate that I felt strongly about, I may start the process earlier next time, but if I am only offered a choice between two corporate candidates then, I choose to abstain.
But if, I were to vote this year, I would vote for Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente. Why would I waste my vote? Because they speak to the things that matter to me. Period. If you are voting for any other reason you are delaying the inevitable. I want my candidates to say things like this:
We are in this to build a movement. We are willing to struggle for as long as it takes to have our values prevail in public policy.
I don't care if they are unelectable. That says more about the system than my candidate of choice.
Answer the questions and see who you get. If you get Obama then vote for him by all means, if however you don't then ask yourself why you are voting for someone who doesn't stand for your interests.
I think I have made my thoughts on the Obama campaign quite clear here at Intrepid Flame, so please do not take this post as a change of heart. I still feel that any support for a a Democratic candidate who does not talk to the issues that matter is the wrong choice for anybody who is concerned with revolutionary change. Let's face it, if you are not concerned with a major overhaul of the system that who cares who is in the White House.
Wow! Even when I try to be brief, I feel it getting away from here. Let me get to the point- my best friend Ari has started a new blog/art project/political statement.
Here is what he says,
Grab a scrap of paper and write something down like Obama '08. Then find a public space to place it, paste it, tack it, fold it, stick it.
Email me a photo of it, and i'll put up on this blog. (His email address is on the blog.)
We only have one month to go. 30 days until the defining election of our generation, our lives. Every vote counts and so does every note. Barack the note. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, email http://barackthenote.blogspot.com/ to everyone you know.
Yes we can. Yes we can.
In a personal note he goes on to say,
will you make a barack note and photo of it.
i know both parties are the same, but i really think john mccain might be worse than bush. bush i think knows he is just a filthy rich businessman who was born into a dynasty...mccain is this war hero cowboy moron who i think really believes in all the lies bush knew were bullshit
i at least think obama represents a change in the white male protestant presidential paradigm...and maybe that might hint at a 14 year old chomsky out there to get elected one day under something called the Education Party.
So there you have it folks. I always love any grassroots DIY campaigns. I am not sure if I will make a Barack note, but I may try my hand at a Nader, Mckinney, or Sheehen note ( I don't care if they haven't a chance of winning. I just want to hear people talk about these things out in the public. Tell Obama to pick a few of these things and I will do more that see you over at barack-thenote.
My last post has had me thinking, did I really advocate talking to Republicans and trying to understand where they are coming from? I think I did. In addition to my own deliberation, two people have left some comments that I would like to address here in a new post, rather than in the comment section. Before I do, let me try to condense my point into a more manageable thesis:
The battle lines that have been drawn in America should not be between red state vs. blue state, or liberal vs. conservative, religious vs. atheists, insert any volatile dichotomous pairing here. The battle should be based on class interests. The fight that we should be fighting is between us, the 99% of Americans who generate the wealth in this country- the people who fight the wars, bailout the CEOs, collect the trash, and teach the children. We are rural and urban, black and white, gay and straight, educated and illiterate, we attend churches, mosques, and Zen centers. We should not be fighting amongst ourselves.
So who should we be fighting? To whom should we direct our wrath? That 1% of people who make up the ruling class. The people who just stole $700 billion dollars form our pockets, the people who orchestrated the Iraqi war to line their pockets with oil money and established control of the Middle East, the people who manipulate our media to make it seem like Joe-Six is angry with liberal boogey man, or vice versa. But the reality is that the single mom hooked on crack in Baltimore has more in common with the single mom working at Wal-Mart in any town USA. The same force that is keeping them apart is keeping them down.
This force is not some ambiguous, conspiracy theory. So what is this force? We all know it is naive to lump all of America’s problems on the lap of “The Man.” This force, this ruling class to whom I refer are the people, they only make up about 1% of the population who have access to the capital. Take a look at your news they are currently running away with your money. They own the banks, huge media corporations, defense industries, agri-business giants, and pharmaceutical companies. Take a look at the fortune 500 top companies and you will find the culprits.
The men and women who profit from these companies are the same ones who are destroying our nation and the world at large. Joe Six pack is just another cog in their machine as are we. Until we join forces, we will be at each other’s throats for another century.
The point of my post is that the political machine is manipulating the left just as much as the right- worldwide! We need to look past brazen attempts to make heartland Americans the enemy, and realize who is truly attacking our rights.
I can't really claim to celebrate diversity if I'm only celebrating people who are just like me.
It is hard to understand our adversaries especially when a third party is constantly pitting us against each other. It is to the ruling classes’ advantage that the myth of Red state Blue state goes on forever. They are hoping that neither side will muster up enough energy to fight our true enemy. If I am a republican conservative losing my farm in Iowa, it is much easier to blame some liberal conspiracy and big government. If I am a liberal teacher, it is much easer to blame the crumbling school system on the loss of my candidate because of the ignorance of country yokes, who admire Sarah Palin, but the reality is that the same agri-business interest that are sweeping up farms in the heartland, have their hands in the educational system, and the justice system. The entire system. As corporate interests take over our government it is up to the American people to join together and reclaim what is ours.
This bailout is a test of sorts. I am sure the House will pass this bill and spin it as a heaven sent prize for the average American, when in reality it will be one of the biggest heists in American history. How the American people, both red and blue state citizens react, will be litmus tests for the future.
He and I are both operating from a place of deep deep sadness and fear about the state of our world. And we even have common ground in our beliefs about what it would take to fix it. We both believe that a connection to spirituality, a belief in ethics and morals, and a strong sense of family and community are what's missing.
This disconnect is not an accident. This sense of alienation is the ruling classes’ way of keeping us divided and at each other’s throats so we cannot organize based on our shared class interests. Instead we bicker on hot topic issues that have nothing to do with our day-to-day lives.
We've become disconnected from our support systems and that makes us vulnerable to manipulation from governments and entities that do not have our best interests at heart.
Exactly what I have been trying to say!
It was eye-opening, and heart-opening, to realize that even this ultra-conservative old middle-class white guy and I have much more common ground than difference. That seems important somehow.
My question is how can we have more of these interactions? How can we invite opposing groups to come to town hall meetings and simply try to communicate- not about gay marriage or religion, or even war, but about everyday problems that we share like the loss of the wealth we generate to 1% of our population, or the affects of globalization and privatization on our communities, the rise of agri-business and the affects on our rural infrastructure. We need to be discussing class-based issues!
So to give my answer to betmo's question, why would you want to understand someone who is bent on destroying the american way of life? Because in understanding is your only chance of averting it.
As for Betmo’s comments, I really appreciate your anger and frustration, but it is important to remember that change, healthy meaningful change will never stem from anger. When you say things like,
a large chunk of them want to take away civil liberties from everyone in order to maintain their fragile facade of a fearful life.
Or
they have no right in a free society.
You are simply playing in to the hands of the ruling class. We need to be able to collectively pull ourselves out from the orbits that the ruling class has put us on and join forces to see how we are being controlled.
I am not sure how we do this, so I am all ears if you have any ideas. I hope some conservatives are reading this and can join the conversation.
As much as I would like to turn my brain off to the farce that passes for American politics these days, I simply cannot look away. Tis the season, and so I writ. I am fully aware that each post trickling from my mind is stating very little that can pass for original thought, but my voice creeps from my throat nonetheless.
let’s face it, it is easy and fun to make fun of Sarah Palin, but an article came across my doorstep tonight has got me thinking.
It is a blog post by my new hero Joe Bageant. I suggest you read his posts in its entirety here, but below are a few points that I would like to examine.
…you must not only take these people seriously (referring to conservative white, heterosexual Christians) and by that I do not mean demonize them, but rather understand why they believe what they believe -- and figure out how to understand and even, yes, find common ground. No matter what your kind Democratic congressman tells you in order to capitalize on you alienation, we need to think for ourselves and try to understand America as it is, not the way we wish it was.
I wish that we could slice an independent nation from the bosom of conservative America, and live happily ever after, but last time people tried to carve up the union there was a long dirty war. I don’t see a United States of Progressive America having a seat at the UN anytime soon, besides if we did have our own country, we would probably immediately be invaded by the real USA and forced to “share” our natural resources.
While I have a hard enough time relating to progressive Americans, as any reader of this blog knows I spend much of my time trying to waken people to the deceitful nature of the Democratic Party, to me connecting and understanding the Red state voters is like trying to connect and understand people from another planet. To think that I need to try and empathize with the conservative minions in our crumbling empire seems like a task beyond my capabilities. I simply do not understand people who shoot moose from helicopters, speak in tongues, and pray to deities they call the “Lord.” But what Bagaent is trying to help the me and the Left understand, is that the voters that Palin and her Republican puppet masters are trying to appeal to, are the exact people that we need on the Left need to be connecting with as well. Before you click away, please hear what I have to say.
I know it seems like a monumental feat to connect with people who believe in creationism, the big JC, and think that having a passport makes you a terrorist, but let’s face it, America has always been two nations dancing under the guise of a United States. Or is it? What the right wing politicians fear most is that their constituents will see that a left wing progressive agenda is more aligned to the needs of the very people they are brainwashing, and so they spend all of the energy trying to tear the right wing voters away from their very own interests, but telling them that the left will never take them seriously.
An anti-corporatist, socialists, (Under any other name) Eugene Debbs style campaign running through the fly-over states designed not to alienate and ridicule the American heartland is what is in order.
I would like to think I am the type of person who can see things from my opponents point of view, and realistically, if I was a lower-middle class Nascar dad, why would I vote for a candidate who not only does not understand my day-to-day life, but who also does nothing but call me a moron every chance he gets.
Bageant goes on to say:
Sarah Palin's real coup is that she brings out the snobbery of the left in their dismissal of her as an ignorant hick typical of small town red state America. They vastly underestimate her. Just like they have underestimated George Bush for the past eight years.
...each time Democrats and liberals take a shot at her religious beliefs and moral choices, which just happen to be those of tens of millions of heartland voting Americans, she gains political ground, or at a minimum, holds some for herself and McCain.
This point is a very important one. I am just as guilty as any reader of this blog, when it comes to looking down on rightwing conservative beliefs. As liberals, we cannot continue to play into the corporatist agenda and belittle a very large and powerful voting block of the American electorate.
This sounds impossible, but if we truly feel that we are open minded and “progressive,” then we must progress beyond entrenching ourselves behind our beliefs. If we believe in the power of truth and justice, peace and science, law and order, evolution, then we must have faith that our ideals will prevail. How can we accuse the other side of being close-minded and unmoving, when we never even acknowledge them as political equals? Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating you try and turn all your gay friends straight, but we do need to start finding a way to at least understand what factors have divided the two sides to such extremes.
The corporate ambush of our media, the influence of religious organizations, the deteriorations of our public schools, and the specter of the great American Dream and manifest destiny telling us we are perfect, come to mind, but the left has also been brainwashed to believe that we alone can save America. Until we realize that we need the help of every member of the American underclass, no matter what his or her beliefs, we cannot move forward.
We must learn to relate to the red states and not divide ourselves on the issues like the political machine has been forcing us to do. We must unite our needs based on class. This bailout should be a unifying force; the war in Iraq and the men and women who are forced to fight it should be a unifying force.
Luckily for me Bagaent agrees with me and can articulate my point much better than me:
But one thing I know for sure. Liberals and leftists, theoretically at least, have more common national interests with red state heartland white working class Americans than any other current political group.
We need to make these connections more real. Like I said in a previous post, we need progressive intervention in the heartland. I am not talking about face value campaign stops making empty promises, or “liberal” media berating the very people we want to influence, but actual grassroots work. We need progressive activists talking to farmers, factory workers, Red state voters, not talking about them or down to them. We need a Paolo Freire style campaign in the American Heartland. Pedagogy of the Oppressed is dedicated "to the oppressed, and to those who suffer with them and fight at their side," in which Freire includes a detailed Marxist class analysis in his exploration of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. It is rooted in his own experience helping Brazilian adults to read and write, the book remains popular among educators in developing countries.
Heartland America is colonized territory. We need to be engaging average Americans and educating them on their own oppression by corporate forces.
Bagaent goes on to say:
And the way to communicate that is NOT sneering at the only candidate who resembles ordinary Americans, their beliefs and lifestyle. When we do that, the Republicans grin like Cheshire cats, our global financial oppressors turn the screws down a bit harder, and the Devil takes a nap, because his work is done for him by fools using the most efficient tools available -- arrogance and hubris.
Rather than humiliate and degrade people like Palin for what they represent, we should be looking to debunk the lies she is telling her base. Hatred and ignorance are easy. Pointing fingers and degrading what we don’t understand is easy. If we truly are progressive and liberal than we must be able to sit down and understand and appreciate not Sarah Palin, but the people who understand her. Would love to hear your thoughts. Reach out...
