It's hard to be articulate when all you want to do is sputter, spew, rant and rave or simply sob in utter despair. I have not written a diary in quite some time and rarely commented as of late, not wishing to get into muck and mire that too often goes on in here. I will say only one thing about that, as briefly as possible. It is possible to entertain more than one thought or opinion, agreeing with some of what people might say, and disagreeing with another part, even seesawing back and forth on one's own opinion. I have had, during this Obama administration, moments of pride and moments of dissapointment. But, I am not sorry we elected him! And, to that point, there is something I have wanted to express for a long time and it is this... The election of Barack Obama as our president of these United States was about much more than politics. This current situation we find ourselves in is a perfect example of that and though Mrs. Shirley Sherrod is at the center of the storm, bless her sweet heart, hopefully I will be be somewhat successful articulating what I feel is something so much deeper and wider than any one person, but about our nation and what I feel is the mortal/moral peril in which we find ourselves now.
Firstly, let us harken back to the HOPE. It's my own theory that after long years of Republican rule and uber cruelty, callousness, carelessness and incompetence (Katrina), along came a man who told us it could be different. Really different. He reminded us about caring for one another, being our brother and sister's keeper. He inspired us. He enlightened us. He brought us together and gave us back our hope. Who amongst us here does not remember the pictures of all peoples, red and yellow, black and white, arms linked, smiling faces and open hearts? Most of all we saw and reached for the art of the possible, for America to be once again a bright and shining place, the haven for all that we know it was always meant to be. To be sure we had our political issues, economic, war, environmental, so very, very many steep mountains to climb. But, at larger issue, the majority of American, I think, were feeling somewhere deep in our heart of hearts that as a country we could do so much better. Be better, simply as people. More unselfish somehow. It was time and long past time for us to care that everyone has health insurance, that no man no matter how rich or powerful was better than another. As I said, so many mountains to climb. He said the climb would be steep and little did I know, just how steep and how a particular issue would be so blatently used against us and our ongoing battle for a better world. Racism. I was naive and for that I apologize. I thought that surely so few who harbored that particular ugliness in their hearts were few and farther between than ever before. I still harbor that faint hope, that they are few and far between. I hope that those racist of the now are just more blatently fearless in their ceaseless quest to bring this country down, because if there are few, we can beat them! But...
Damn they are good! Master baiters, master manipulators and masters of evil! They twist and they bend and they lie! THEY LIE! They are ceaseless and untiring and hourly they rant and rave, spewing their own brand of hateful toxicity. Words cannot, or I have not the words, to describe what it is they do everyday and their willingness to destroy this country from within. I personally have grossly underestimated their abilities. It's so hard to get into the mind of any person who would so willingly buy into their venom that for the life of me, I suppose I will just never get it. My mind and heart just don't work that way. I don't know whether to pity the poor unfortunate's soul who does or despise them. I know I have contempt. I know I have fear that they will at long last get what they seek and someone will pay in blood, that someone will lose their life to some crazy out there, in fact they already have. Remember the Holocaust museum? The church in Knoxville, Tn.? I think they harbor a deep seated hope of a real blood bath somewhere...black against white, democrat against republican, liberal against conservative. How else should we construe their own words, words that they daily spew, fires they constantly stoke? How, in all that's Holy do they get away with it? But, they do, they have and they are. Just ask Mrs. Sherrod.
A house divided cannot stand. Truer words were never spoken. I don't know how in a nation that prides itself on free speech what we can do about the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Palin, Bachmann, so called Fox News, et al, of this world. I don't know quite what to do with an average everyday person who is willing to spit on, call an ugly name, throw a brick through a window or hurt another human being. The damage, the real damage they do and have done must not be underestimated or ignored. Ever. Again.
Mr. President we need a finest hour here. We need healing and hope and possibilities. We need what really does after all, make the world go 'round. We need love.