Former Dem VP Candidate Wants Chance To Explain Recent Comments
(Mar. 21, New York City) Just days after being forced to resign from the Hillary Clinton campaign finance committee, Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman ever to run for Vice President in a major party, has asked the producers of the Oprah Winfrey Show if she could be a guest. Ferraro had made some very controversial remarks about democratic presidential frontrunner, Barak Obama, a senator from Illinois. Oprah herself has campaigned for Obama and is considered to be one of his high profile supporters.
Ferraro made comments to a small newspaper in California several weeks ago which reached the national headlines days later. She stated, in part that “He (Obama) would not be where he is if he was white”. That and other comments she made where met with swift indignation and outrage from many influential groups and individuals in the Democratic Party and across the country. Even when confronted by the media about the tone and tenor of her opinions, she refused to back down from them. She accused the media of protecting Senator Obama and that anyone who “dares to make a public statement critical of him” is automatically called a racist. After days of hanging tough, she finally resigned from her post with the Clinton campaign.
Now, apparently, Ferraro is seeking to further explain her comments and herself to a large audience. Her spokesperson, Florentina Fusco told reporters at a news conference that “Ms. Ferraro believes she has been misunderstood, that her comments, as reported in the press were taken out of context. She wants to appear on the Oprah Show so she can have a national dialog with black women who sit home and watch TV all day, eating Doritos and drinking cheap wine, will come to understand her.” Ms. Fusco continued, “Geraldine Ferraro made history as a woman, a white woman and she knows that some dull minded, poorly educated white women love to watch Oprah too. She intends to speak to all of them, even those who haven’t the brains to understand her.”
The Oprah Winfrey Show, which airs from Chicago, has high Nielsen ratings and reaches an audience in the millions daily. Oprah’s audience is vast across all demographic, geographic and economic segments of society. Many high profile politicians and celebrities have used an appearance on the Oprah Show to make apologies for offensive statements or other embarrassing public missteps. Wilma Martin-White, the senior producer for the Oprah Show said in a telephone interview that “We will take Ms. Ferraro’s request under consideration. We will really have to examine her motives and her message. We have many, many people, important people, who want to be on Oprah. Right now we’re trying to book that Jersey hooker who brought down Eliot Spitzer. Larry Craig from Idaho and J.J. Walker have been trying to get on this show for months. Ms. Ferraro will just have to be patient.”
Ms. Ferraro, who had just delivered the keynote address to the Associated Aryan Affiliates in Rupture, Idaho, spoke briefly with some white reporters before boarding her flight to appear at the Daughter’s of the Confederacy Council in Biloxi, Mississippi. Ferraro commented, “Oprah’s telling me to be patient? She wouldn’t even have a TV show if she was just a semi-obese white lady. I’ll be patient, alright. Tell her that I don’t have to wait to appear on Hannity and Combes.”
Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved
Friday, March 21, 2008
McCAIN BROUGHT FEW FACTS WITH HIM ON FACT FINDING TOUR
GOP Presidential Hopeful Came Back With Even Fewer.
(March 18, Tel Aviv, Israel) Having just completed a fact finding tour that took him to Iraq, republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain of Arizona, stopped in Israel to meet with high ranking officials, bolster his standing with American Jewish voters and to demonstrate the broad scope of his confusion.
Traveling with fellow senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the trio spent their time in Iraq visiting with top commanders and rank and file soldiers. The bulk of their time on the ground was spent within the heavily fortified and protected “Green Zone”. McCain, a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq since the outset and a vocal advocate for the so called “surge”, the GOP candidate appeared to enjoy his time in that battle torn country. “My friends, yes, this surge is working. You bet it is”, commented McCain while on a military transport aircraft on his way to Israel. “Look, we have to defeat them here. Iranians are training Iraqis to become Al Qaeda and they have vast support from Iraqis who wish they were Iranians”, said the somewhat befuddled McCain. Responding to reporters questions the 71 year old former Navy pilot, POW and cradle robber became visibly agitated. “Hey, my friends, I did not pick this to be the transcendent issue of our time. This war on terror, on Islamo-Facists who hate our way of life, uh, that was up to them. I can promise you this; I will follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell. I will find him and everyone he knows. I will beat him like a mangy dog. That, my friends is what a McCain presidency will be all about.”
When questioned about what potential role Senator Lieberman, a renegade democrat, might play in a McCain administration, the candidate warmed up considerably. “Joe Lieberman is my friend. I am proud of him as a Jew, as a Joe and as a regular Joe who is a Jew. As a Joe Jew, Joe understands the transcendent issue before us. We must keep Joe and all Jews, both in Israel and elsewhere safe from Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamo-Facists who hate ice cream, music, bagels and wrestling. My friends and Jews, this is our calling. This is what I have prepared my entire life for. This is why I live on Maalox and V-8.” After this statement the senator retired to his cabin for the remainder of the flight. Sources close to the candidate say he had been suffering from a mild case of sun stroke from his time in Iraq. They added that he was receiving an IV drip of Red Bull, Viagra, Ginko Baloba and Pamprin.
Upon arriving in Israel, McCain met with top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his cabinet. Matters of security, American financial aid, trade and American financial aid were the top items on a tightly packed agenda. After hours of intense meetings, McCain gave a brief statement to reporters. “Israel is important to Jews and to me. My friends, Israel is a Jewish state but can continue to co-exist with the Palestinians as long as they keep them oppressed, segregated, deprived of all human rights and behind a big, tall cement wall. I support the Palestinians to seek their own destiny provided Israel can bomb them at will, assassinate anyone they please and continue to occupy their land. America supports this and has been a good friend to Jews and Israel. Nothing will change when I live in the White House.”
Before boarding his flight back to America, McCain commented at the Ben Gurion Airport noting that the Jewish Holiday, Purim, was being celebrated that day. “My Jewish friends, I am glad to be here on Purim, the Jew version of an American favorite holiday, Halloween. We all know what Halloween means to us and Purim to Jews and how Halloween was a major cause of the Holocaust. Jews everywhere should trick or treat today just because they can.” Before the addled senator could make an even larger asshole of himself then he already had, he was quickly hustled onto the waiting aircraft by several Marines.
Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved
(March 18, Tel Aviv, Israel) Having just completed a fact finding tour that took him to Iraq, republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain of Arizona, stopped in Israel to meet with high ranking officials, bolster his standing with American Jewish voters and to demonstrate the broad scope of his confusion.
Traveling with fellow senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the trio spent their time in Iraq visiting with top commanders and rank and file soldiers. The bulk of their time on the ground was spent within the heavily fortified and protected “Green Zone”. McCain, a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq since the outset and a vocal advocate for the so called “surge”, the GOP candidate appeared to enjoy his time in that battle torn country. “My friends, yes, this surge is working. You bet it is”, commented McCain while on a military transport aircraft on his way to Israel. “Look, we have to defeat them here. Iranians are training Iraqis to become Al Qaeda and they have vast support from Iraqis who wish they were Iranians”, said the somewhat befuddled McCain. Responding to reporters questions the 71 year old former Navy pilot, POW and cradle robber became visibly agitated. “Hey, my friends, I did not pick this to be the transcendent issue of our time. This war on terror, on Islamo-Facists who hate our way of life, uh, that was up to them. I can promise you this; I will follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell. I will find him and everyone he knows. I will beat him like a mangy dog. That, my friends is what a McCain presidency will be all about.”
When questioned about what potential role Senator Lieberman, a renegade democrat, might play in a McCain administration, the candidate warmed up considerably. “Joe Lieberman is my friend. I am proud of him as a Jew, as a Joe and as a regular Joe who is a Jew. As a Joe Jew, Joe understands the transcendent issue before us. We must keep Joe and all Jews, both in Israel and elsewhere safe from Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamo-Facists who hate ice cream, music, bagels and wrestling. My friends and Jews, this is our calling. This is what I have prepared my entire life for. This is why I live on Maalox and V-8.” After this statement the senator retired to his cabin for the remainder of the flight. Sources close to the candidate say he had been suffering from a mild case of sun stroke from his time in Iraq. They added that he was receiving an IV drip of Red Bull, Viagra, Ginko Baloba and Pamprin.
Upon arriving in Israel, McCain met with top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his cabinet. Matters of security, American financial aid, trade and American financial aid were the top items on a tightly packed agenda. After hours of intense meetings, McCain gave a brief statement to reporters. “Israel is important to Jews and to me. My friends, Israel is a Jewish state but can continue to co-exist with the Palestinians as long as they keep them oppressed, segregated, deprived of all human rights and behind a big, tall cement wall. I support the Palestinians to seek their own destiny provided Israel can bomb them at will, assassinate anyone they please and continue to occupy their land. America supports this and has been a good friend to Jews and Israel. Nothing will change when I live in the White House.”
Before boarding his flight back to America, McCain commented at the Ben Gurion Airport noting that the Jewish Holiday, Purim, was being celebrated that day. “My Jewish friends, I am glad to be here on Purim, the Jew version of an American favorite holiday, Halloween. We all know what Halloween means to us and Purim to Jews and how Halloween was a major cause of the Holocaust. Jews everywhere should trick or treat today just because they can.” Before the addled senator could make an even larger asshole of himself then he already had, he was quickly hustled onto the waiting aircraft by several Marines.
Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved
Thursday, March 20, 2008
WE SHOULD ALL BE SHOCKED AND AWED
SHOCKED BY WHAT WE HAVE WROUGHT, AWED THAT THIS PRESIDENT HAS SURVIVED IT
The patient was identified many years ago. There was pathology present, chronic illness with acute episodic flare-ups of various maladies. For an extended period of time the physicians merely observed, they did not intervene beyond some management issues, a few palliative measures conducted more for their sake than the patients.
As time went by new physicians took over management of this patient. They seemed to share very different views and opinions regarding the pathologies involved, the manifestations of the various ills the patient had exhibited in the past and his potential to act as a vector, a carrier of some contagions that could pose a wider threat. Without timely, accurate clinical data available, they relied on theories and the past history of the patient. Discarding the clinical course the previous team of doctors had charted, they began to plot a new path. They could, in their minds, solve all the problems ailing the patient while also eliminating the possibility his illnesses would spread.
They began to develop their plans even as some of the consultants and specialists called in voiced grave doubts regarding the efficacy of what they were planning. Their concerns and doubts were ignored. This team of doctors was experienced. They were seasoned experts in a broad range of specialties; many had worked well together in the past on other difficult cases. Their past success had given them a collective confidence, an arrogance, actually, that would prove fatal.
Best practices demand that prior to any procedure and certainly one of the magnitude planned, the entire battery of diagnostics and imaging modalities be employed. No operation can be commenced without a wealth of information. The doctors do not want to be surprised once the patient is open on the table. In this particular case, this group of doctors was not very diligent in the pre-op phase. They relied on dated imagery and old diagnostic information that was not only aged and suspect, in was seriously flawed. Using improper data is the surest way to make erroneous decisions and undertake actions that are doomed to fail. That is precisely what happened in this tragic case.
The fear of a malpractice suit never crossed the minds of these stubborn doctors. This team, individually and collectively, felt absolutely immune to any negative repercussions resulting from their actions. They were so bold in their certainty that prior to the actual procedure they offered a glowing prognosis: not only would their operation be a success, the patient would be healed beyond anyone’s expectations, this patient’s recovery would usher in a new era of robust health and wellness for many other patients similar to this one. The threat of a widespread, virulent contagion would forever be eradicated and never again would there be cases of this pathology again. They were not simply performing their miracle on this one patient but, by virtue of that one operation, many others would be healed, cured and brought to a level of wellness they long aspired to.
What transpired since has been the typical cascading of events. The patient has been a clinical nightmare and, truly to the disbelief of anyone familiar with the case, the patient had languished in critical condition for four entire years before a new approach was implemented. The suffering and trauma from that four year state of near death has taken a toll that has not only dramatically impacted the patient’s ultimate chances for recovery but his survival. That he has lasted this long, endured so many invasive procedures, lost so much blood and been clinical dead untold times is miraculous. Now, five years later, to announce that he has achieved partial recovery based on the drastic measures taken one year ago, four years into the raging illness, is an almost criminal statement. Having left the patient in such abysmal condition, under the care of so many grossly incompetent doctors defines neglect and tragedy of the highest order. Other patients have watched this course; some have grown sicker while others have lost all confidence in the abilities of the institution for which all these doctors worked is capable of anything beneficial.
Looking at the patient today one cannot help but feel pain. Pain mixed with anger that such an abomination was permitted to be perpetrated. Arguments pro and con are rhetorical at this point. What’s done is done and even now, the life of the patient hangs in the balance.
This clinical presentation provides a brief summary of our patient, Iraq. Iraq has endured what George W. Bush and his cast of maniacal imbeciles have inflicted upon it and its ultimate prognosis now, even this far along, remains no better than 50-50. Soon, this group will abandon the patient and leave the case management for another group to resolve. That is part of their arrogance, ineptitude and abject cowardice. They have admitted defeat, kept the patient on life support for five years and will soon exit the arena.
We have a stake in Iraq’s recovery. Everyone does. America, Iraq’s geographical neighbors, every one has an interest. The failures so sadly and blatantly demonstrated during the course of the last five years has not only inflicted irreparable harm on our patient, Iraq and it’s people, but on people all over the globe who once possessed faith and confidence that America could and would cure ills. Their faith has been shattered as they have witnessed what has transpired in Iraq.
It is beyond shameful that the original planners and implementers of this operation had not the fortitude, intelligence and judgment to adhere to the adage, “First, do no harm.” This applies in medicine and geopolitics especially when military intervention is chosen as an option to the exclusion of all others. First, do no harm. How many lives would have been spared had someone in authority, someone in this administration of lunatics, some one brave individual among them would have voiced our prime responsibility to first, do no harm.
The operation may have been a success but the patient is just about dead.
Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved
The patient was identified many years ago. There was pathology present, chronic illness with acute episodic flare-ups of various maladies. For an extended period of time the physicians merely observed, they did not intervene beyond some management issues, a few palliative measures conducted more for their sake than the patients.
As time went by new physicians took over management of this patient. They seemed to share very different views and opinions regarding the pathologies involved, the manifestations of the various ills the patient had exhibited in the past and his potential to act as a vector, a carrier of some contagions that could pose a wider threat. Without timely, accurate clinical data available, they relied on theories and the past history of the patient. Discarding the clinical course the previous team of doctors had charted, they began to plot a new path. They could, in their minds, solve all the problems ailing the patient while also eliminating the possibility his illnesses would spread.
They began to develop their plans even as some of the consultants and specialists called in voiced grave doubts regarding the efficacy of what they were planning. Their concerns and doubts were ignored. This team of doctors was experienced. They were seasoned experts in a broad range of specialties; many had worked well together in the past on other difficult cases. Their past success had given them a collective confidence, an arrogance, actually, that would prove fatal.
Best practices demand that prior to any procedure and certainly one of the magnitude planned, the entire battery of diagnostics and imaging modalities be employed. No operation can be commenced without a wealth of information. The doctors do not want to be surprised once the patient is open on the table. In this particular case, this group of doctors was not very diligent in the pre-op phase. They relied on dated imagery and old diagnostic information that was not only aged and suspect, in was seriously flawed. Using improper data is the surest way to make erroneous decisions and undertake actions that are doomed to fail. That is precisely what happened in this tragic case.
The fear of a malpractice suit never crossed the minds of these stubborn doctors. This team, individually and collectively, felt absolutely immune to any negative repercussions resulting from their actions. They were so bold in their certainty that prior to the actual procedure they offered a glowing prognosis: not only would their operation be a success, the patient would be healed beyond anyone’s expectations, this patient’s recovery would usher in a new era of robust health and wellness for many other patients similar to this one. The threat of a widespread, virulent contagion would forever be eradicated and never again would there be cases of this pathology again. They were not simply performing their miracle on this one patient but, by virtue of that one operation, many others would be healed, cured and brought to a level of wellness they long aspired to.
What transpired since has been the typical cascading of events. The patient has been a clinical nightmare and, truly to the disbelief of anyone familiar with the case, the patient had languished in critical condition for four entire years before a new approach was implemented. The suffering and trauma from that four year state of near death has taken a toll that has not only dramatically impacted the patient’s ultimate chances for recovery but his survival. That he has lasted this long, endured so many invasive procedures, lost so much blood and been clinical dead untold times is miraculous. Now, five years later, to announce that he has achieved partial recovery based on the drastic measures taken one year ago, four years into the raging illness, is an almost criminal statement. Having left the patient in such abysmal condition, under the care of so many grossly incompetent doctors defines neglect and tragedy of the highest order. Other patients have watched this course; some have grown sicker while others have lost all confidence in the abilities of the institution for which all these doctors worked is capable of anything beneficial.
Looking at the patient today one cannot help but feel pain. Pain mixed with anger that such an abomination was permitted to be perpetrated. Arguments pro and con are rhetorical at this point. What’s done is done and even now, the life of the patient hangs in the balance.
This clinical presentation provides a brief summary of our patient, Iraq. Iraq has endured what George W. Bush and his cast of maniacal imbeciles have inflicted upon it and its ultimate prognosis now, even this far along, remains no better than 50-50. Soon, this group will abandon the patient and leave the case management for another group to resolve. That is part of their arrogance, ineptitude and abject cowardice. They have admitted defeat, kept the patient on life support for five years and will soon exit the arena.
We have a stake in Iraq’s recovery. Everyone does. America, Iraq’s geographical neighbors, every one has an interest. The failures so sadly and blatantly demonstrated during the course of the last five years has not only inflicted irreparable harm on our patient, Iraq and it’s people, but on people all over the globe who once possessed faith and confidence that America could and would cure ills. Their faith has been shattered as they have witnessed what has transpired in Iraq.
It is beyond shameful that the original planners and implementers of this operation had not the fortitude, intelligence and judgment to adhere to the adage, “First, do no harm.” This applies in medicine and geopolitics especially when military intervention is chosen as an option to the exclusion of all others. First, do no harm. How many lives would have been spared had someone in authority, someone in this administration of lunatics, some one brave individual among them would have voiced our prime responsibility to first, do no harm.
The operation may have been a success but the patient is just about dead.
Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
RACE AGAINST TIME
Obama Addresses Our National “Racial Stalemate”
(March 18, Philadelphia, PA) If democratic presidential hopeful, Barak Obama’s speech given here earlier today has any longevity beyond the 37 minutes it took to deliver it and the hours since spent analyzing it, is largely irrelevant. Virtually forced to speak about race relations in America after his pastor, Jeremiah Wright’s controversial remarks entered the public domain, the Illinois Senator’s speech was political, personal and extremely important. It was a speech that only he could give.
As the product of a mixed race, broken home, the Harvard educated lawyer is poised to become the first African-American presidential candidate. Currently engaged in a bitter, often hostile, contentious battle with his opponent, New York Senator, Hillary Clinton, their contest is as historic as it has been divisive. Issues long simmering throughout our society, matters anchored to the thick, gnarled roots of history, have emerged in all their ugliness demanding attention.
Obama, as the first viable black presidential candidate obviously injects an overdose of race into the contest while the infusion of gender stares out at us as Mrs. Clinton seeks to be our Commander-in-Chief. Race and gender; two long time, hot-button issues not only in politics but in society as a whole. As each issue is possessed of its own complexity, history and legacy, they are not of equal weight in the collective conscious nor in reality. The differentiation between them is obvious and apparent. To equate the struggle of women to vote and for equal rights in the workplace is to put it on par with one of the most sordid, tragic, cancerous chapters in our nation’s history.
Obama deftly presented his thoughts on the state of race relations today and yesterday emphasizing the “generational” differences in the black populace. Collective memory is as long as is the history that shaped it. Anger bred from centuries of inhumanity once condoned by the US Constitution does not easily diminish. When the ramifications of that history reverberate throughout every aspect of our culture to this day, minds must be opened or, if not opened, at least exposed to some simple yet profound truths.
The primary fight between Clinton and Obama has been hardcore, sometimes counterintuitive but, in many ways, played out predictably. The demographics of the votes cast reflect the inherent divisions within our society despite evidence that significant numbers of voters have not aligned with race or gender. It has all been confusing, to a degree surprising and sadly, virtually preordained to have devolved to the place it has.
Senator Obama, no matter his true motivations, reasons or purposes did, in fact, across the street from where our Constitution was written, stepped into the breach having taken ownership of the podium exposed by this devolution of discourse. Attitudes and opinions were not necessarily Obama’s targets; after all, they are notoriously difficult to change. It appeared that he was after our nuanced neural processes, that mysterious, infinitely complex apparatus from which our attitudes and opinions form and reside. It was if we were all being asked just to “think” about this, just to try to imagine the other side of the coin be it black and white, male or female, us or them. For all our technical sophistication and digitally enhanced awareness, we should be challenged to think.
Maybe time does heal all wounds, a lot of time. Perhaps after the last of the generations that remember America before women could vote, the Civil Rights movement and subsequent legislation, Jim Crow, forced bussing, race riots, water hoses as crowd control, boycotts, marches, the Equal Rights Amendments fight, the 1940’s, ‘50’s, ‘60’s and 70’s have passed on, race and gender will exist less conspicuously in the fabric of that society, those future days and times.
We know that thus far time has not promoted much healing; actually, time has been an enemy in the sense that we have allowed far too much to elapse before being asked to think about the things we need to think about. That time elapsed saw many well intentioned but inherently flawed attempts to reconcile the past with the present. They are far too numerous to mention. Most did more harm than good and what good did manage to see the light of day was usually tainted and blemished from the fires that forged it.
Possibly we are moving to a better place. The issue of “race” as a black and white history, of one intimately and monogamously related to our Civil War is morphing into the multicultural spectrum that defines more and more of us. The evolution of our nation has been in a new phase for many years with the influx of non-eastern Europeans; Hispanics, Asians and mixed race people of every combination are more numerous now than Caucasians. This should not be viewed with fear or associated as a cause for any of our many social problems. It is what it is, we are who we are.
The question of whether or not having a black man as the President of the United States will or will not promote any kind of “healing”, whatever that means, should not be asked at all. It is unanswerable on its face. A more appropriate question and one with far broader ramifications for our future as a united country might be, can this man make us think and are we willing to think about what we need to?
To be continued…sometime later this year.
Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved
(March 18, Philadelphia, PA) If democratic presidential hopeful, Barak Obama’s speech given here earlier today has any longevity beyond the 37 minutes it took to deliver it and the hours since spent analyzing it, is largely irrelevant. Virtually forced to speak about race relations in America after his pastor, Jeremiah Wright’s controversial remarks entered the public domain, the Illinois Senator’s speech was political, personal and extremely important. It was a speech that only he could give.
As the product of a mixed race, broken home, the Harvard educated lawyer is poised to become the first African-American presidential candidate. Currently engaged in a bitter, often hostile, contentious battle with his opponent, New York Senator, Hillary Clinton, their contest is as historic as it has been divisive. Issues long simmering throughout our society, matters anchored to the thick, gnarled roots of history, have emerged in all their ugliness demanding attention.
Obama, as the first viable black presidential candidate obviously injects an overdose of race into the contest while the infusion of gender stares out at us as Mrs. Clinton seeks to be our Commander-in-Chief. Race and gender; two long time, hot-button issues not only in politics but in society as a whole. As each issue is possessed of its own complexity, history and legacy, they are not of equal weight in the collective conscious nor in reality. The differentiation between them is obvious and apparent. To equate the struggle of women to vote and for equal rights in the workplace is to put it on par with one of the most sordid, tragic, cancerous chapters in our nation’s history.
Obama deftly presented his thoughts on the state of race relations today and yesterday emphasizing the “generational” differences in the black populace. Collective memory is as long as is the history that shaped it. Anger bred from centuries of inhumanity once condoned by the US Constitution does not easily diminish. When the ramifications of that history reverberate throughout every aspect of our culture to this day, minds must be opened or, if not opened, at least exposed to some simple yet profound truths.
The primary fight between Clinton and Obama has been hardcore, sometimes counterintuitive but, in many ways, played out predictably. The demographics of the votes cast reflect the inherent divisions within our society despite evidence that significant numbers of voters have not aligned with race or gender. It has all been confusing, to a degree surprising and sadly, virtually preordained to have devolved to the place it has.
Senator Obama, no matter his true motivations, reasons or purposes did, in fact, across the street from where our Constitution was written, stepped into the breach having taken ownership of the podium exposed by this devolution of discourse. Attitudes and opinions were not necessarily Obama’s targets; after all, they are notoriously difficult to change. It appeared that he was after our nuanced neural processes, that mysterious, infinitely complex apparatus from which our attitudes and opinions form and reside. It was if we were all being asked just to “think” about this, just to try to imagine the other side of the coin be it black and white, male or female, us or them. For all our technical sophistication and digitally enhanced awareness, we should be challenged to think.
Maybe time does heal all wounds, a lot of time. Perhaps after the last of the generations that remember America before women could vote, the Civil Rights movement and subsequent legislation, Jim Crow, forced bussing, race riots, water hoses as crowd control, boycotts, marches, the Equal Rights Amendments fight, the 1940’s, ‘50’s, ‘60’s and 70’s have passed on, race and gender will exist less conspicuously in the fabric of that society, those future days and times.
We know that thus far time has not promoted much healing; actually, time has been an enemy in the sense that we have allowed far too much to elapse before being asked to think about the things we need to think about. That time elapsed saw many well intentioned but inherently flawed attempts to reconcile the past with the present. They are far too numerous to mention. Most did more harm than good and what good did manage to see the light of day was usually tainted and blemished from the fires that forged it.
Possibly we are moving to a better place. The issue of “race” as a black and white history, of one intimately and monogamously related to our Civil War is morphing into the multicultural spectrum that defines more and more of us. The evolution of our nation has been in a new phase for many years with the influx of non-eastern Europeans; Hispanics, Asians and mixed race people of every combination are more numerous now than Caucasians. This should not be viewed with fear or associated as a cause for any of our many social problems. It is what it is, we are who we are.
The question of whether or not having a black man as the President of the United States will or will not promote any kind of “healing”, whatever that means, should not be asked at all. It is unanswerable on its face. A more appropriate question and one with far broader ramifications for our future as a united country might be, can this man make us think and are we willing to think about what we need to?
To be continued…sometime later this year.
Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved
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