It's cold here in New York today. I am not ready for it, nor am I interested in wrapping my body in "X" amounts of fabric to still have that chill run down my spine. It's grey today. My time of the month is approaching and therefore an urgency of crawling underneath my "daddy" blanket is upon me.
Barack Obama is running for president. As I read all the opinions, watch the experts, see the crowds, view the polls, listen to the commercials, send the reminder texts about voting early, get up at 6am to watch Morning Joe as I throw my half eaten turkey bacon at the TV, pray that others will see past the fear, while I weed through the cynicism and hypocrisy of it all, I am stopped by my decision to vote for Obama. I was on Slate and Salon, no surprise both are backing Obama by in large, and I wondered what this election says about us at this moment. Are we the 1 dimensional conversation about racism, that we bring up when it is convenient? Are we the prejudice bigots that throw around "MUSLIM" as if everyone who believes in a higher power is in fact out to kill or harm you and your kin? Do we all have to see each "issue" in our lives as right or wrong and if we are right what does that do to the ego, except for levitate it? Am I the only one that believes both McCain and Obama are Able to change the world? Yet it is our humanness that pushes us to point the finger... sometimes backward.
I think Palin is out for her own good, but McCain, something tells me deep down that his age is in fact an addition to the PRO column. He seems past the silliness that we sometimes allow to exist in the everyday. He has lived long enough, it seems, that his experiences and expertise would make him not only a formidable candidate, but probably put a few people in place that can make up for his own admittance of economic idiocy and evolve the world slightly to see the US as an equal as oppose to an enemy or a dominance. I know politicians lie, but you can tell his heart is in the right place. The television is a good use for something... it keeps most of the people on it surprisingly transparent. Now, I don't believe in any of his policies, I don't think he realizes what being middle-class is in the 21st century, (THERE ISN'T ONE), really means, and as stated before I think the raising of taxes is necessary, although for the love of God, I wish one of these political savants would state the economics is not all tax. The people who are voting for McCain either believe in his policies or are scared of the unknown. It's your right, by all means...
Me... I like the unknown. Essentially, that is what our life is. We don't control what is coming and can't change what has passed. I can understand why it is hard to embrace, because after all, we crave stability and snark at difference. I like the unknown. Although scary... it strikes me as easier when you go towards the darkness with a friend or 2 behind you, only to find out that there is light inside. With the sake of sounding idealistic, God forbid, we are the light. The unknown is not going to change our lives, no matter how great it sounds. We tend to want change to come from an outside source because after all we'd have someone to blame in the end. However, what if with the unknown what he/she was saying mimicked what you have always thought and came in a package that society always saw as different. By example, the unknown made you feel like the "difference" we have always pointed to is now what will remind us of what we posses.
Far be it for me to change any ones mind, because it's only my dear friends who read my thoughts, but Pamela always says put it out there. I guess I will watch to see how it spreads. Obama is not our savior, nor will he change what we do in the everyday. He is a leader. By definition, a guiding or directing head, as of an army, movement, or political group. If only by his movement with the masses over the last 2 years, Obama has proved this definition. A man that will continue to make disagreeable decisions and tactics, of course, but for a second, (minus the passion, speeches, rhetoric, and words), something speaks to his silence, his candor and intellect, his perseverance, his humanness, and his love for his family. I am struck by his intellect and quiet confidence. For you folks that have never met and gotten to know a black man... that thing you call "arrogance" is a a characteristic that is posed by most black men I know and one of the most attractive qualities. I believe some call it... umm... swagger! I will vote for Barack Obama because yes, that is my "dad" running for President of the United States, but I also believe what has worked is no longer, it seems. Insanity is doing the same thing continuously expecting an alternative result.
If only for a second, we all could embrace the collective that has formed on all fronts behind the need for difference. I wonder if we could, if only for one more moment, put our egos and fears aside and allow our purpose to move forward.
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