I am inspired by how this New Greatest Generation has come through in saving the American dream. It is hard to inspire an old cynic but you did it young ones and I can't thank you enough.
Thanks Young People & Barack
I watched on live television Lee Harvey Oswald get murdered by Jack Ruby, later I heard the news of the shooting and killing of Martin Luther King, Jr. Then I heard and watched my only real political idol Robert Kennedy have his promising life snuffed out in a California hotel. I cursed as this country elected Richard Nixon twice and cried for five of my childhood friends who came home in boxes from a meaningless war. I only had two political statements as a young man. One was laying out on the freeway, I-5, with hundreds of others and closing down the traffic as a war protest and chugging a pitcher of beer and getting into a barroom brawl the day Nixon resigned. I was a card-carrying cynic who cursed Disco, except for the Bee-Gees, and Ronald Reagan in the eighties. I saw with horror the emergence of the radical Christian right and how its message of division and ugly judgments of others dominated the political scene. I withdrew and went about my own business, thinking that nothing politically that I could do would ever make a difference.
Then out of the blue came a skinny black guy. He ambled onto the stage at the 2004 convention and 18 minutes later I was charged. It was like hearing Robert Kennedy again but with more emotion and style. Who is this guy? I followed him, bought his books and thought this may be a special guy that could reignite this country. I didn't think he had a chance in hell against the Clintons but he generated an entire new block of voters and his message took hold. The Iowa night was one that I will never forget, his speech, the cheering, the surprise on all the pundits' faces. Now, here it is days away. Another test for America and maybe the final test. Who do I have to thank? You young people. I never thought I would see this energy for changing our society ever again.
A few years ago I said that how could you expect any revolution to come from a generation that grew up with getting participation ribbons for just trying in events, never traveling around without a seatbelt securely fastened or ever riding a bike without a helmet. These were and are all things I support of course so don't jump on my ass about that. Further, Fox News has been on at most of their homes constantly especially in my red state world, and liberal causes have been assaulted to the point that being called a liberal has become a near curse word. In fact, we now have to hide behind the label of progressive. In short, I thought this group of young people was just too conforming to ever take on the entrenched powers -but boy was I wrong.
Bless you, young ones! I mean it. By your efforts you really may change the world. I don't care that people were brainwashed into thinking that Barack's speech in front of 200,000 people in Germany was somehow a net negative. What! Two-hundred thousand people cheering and waving American flags and they weren't burning for a change! The world will embrace us again if Barack is elected and immediately. The fight for health care could be won and maybe I would be able to get my eye fixed as I can't at this point and go around blind in the left eye because I can't scrape up the money for a simple operation. There are millions like me. Perhaps, there will be less people living out on the streets of our American cities. We may finally move on a massive energy change with clean sources that will help to heal the planet. These are optimistic times and I have daily bouts with butterflies waiting for this election to turn out our way. What you young people have done is unbelievable in so many ways. In my mind you may become the Greatest Generation. I am just happy to be along on your magical carpet ride in my twilight years and I can't thank you enough.
Please, I beg, you don't quit now. Get out and vote. The fate of our country is really in your hands now. If you kids, and everyone under 35 is a kid to me now, vote in large numbers we will win and things will turn around for the United States and the world. I realize that policies really matter. Good policies make everyone more productive, happier and more free. Bad policies cost people their lives. It is estimated that 250,000 people die every year due to having no health care. Thousands die in war and many of these are innocent civilians. George W. Bush, with the support of assholes like white-haired angry McCain, and the status quo have worked only for the rich these last eight years. Bush's policies have cost 2,000,000 Americans to die needlessly who could have been saved with adequate health care. At least a 100,000 innocent people unlucky enough to be born in Iraq are now dead and we killed them. The status quo could not have a better representative than McCain and that silly, stupid woman Palin. An angry old white-haired coot (hell that describes me) with a fairy tale of a hero story from a privileged background with eight homes who wears $500 shoes and claims to be a man of the people. What an obvious farce. Here is a quote from Robert Kennedy's greatest speech that he gave in a controversial South African visit in 1966. It is the quote that is at his Arlington National Cemetery gravesite
"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Kind of sounds like Barack doesn't it? You are the Ripples of Hope and now so am I. I gladly pass the torch to this new amazing generation as it was once passed to me. Here's some 60's inspiration:
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow
Langston Hughes