Shortly after the fizzle that was the 9/12 rally in DC, Pacific John posted a recommended diary that hinged on a YouTube video of a middle-aged progressive who waded into the teeth of the Beckista protesters and silently, courageously waved his "Public Option Now!" banner amid screams, squeals, and various slobberings.
Today I got to interview "MD Friend of Hillary," who is actually a Maryland lawyer and veteran activist named Ed Kimmel. I wrote the interview up for the Examiner, but I've posted some excerpts below.
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Ed was incredibly grateful, a crusty old cuss with a deep, abiding love of country, a thirst for progressive change, and a remarkable empathy for the teabaggers and screamers who make up the rank-and-file of the political opposition.
Here's the original video, from YouTube via Pacific John.
Here are some excerpts from the interview.
Ed is a veteran progressive activist who has been most involved in women's issues. In 2007 and 2008, he was an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton for president, but when Barack Obama finally locked up the nomination, he made the leap and became a staunch Obama supporter. He says that the loss hurt, and he understood the trepidation and reluctance of some Clinton supporters to join the Obama team, particularly the civil rights veterans who had been working for decades with Hillary and her husband for change, his ultimate goal was not to put Clinton in the White House, but to elect a Democrat and set about taking the country back from eight years of Republican misrule. He says that both Obama and Clinton have vindicated his belief in them by working with one another in the administration. "Hillary could have been one of the most sought-after and effective senators in Congress" had she refused to become Secretary of State, "and been in a position to challenge Obama in 2012 if he crashes and burns." For his part, Obama "took a real chance" in allowing his most powerful political rival to join his administration. "If he has to fire her," Ed says, "the criticism he stands to receive" from former and current Clinton supporters will be strong and bitterly acrimonious. "Neither one of them stood to gain anything politically" by working with the other one, he says, "so they must have done it because they wanted to do what was best for America." No matter what disappointments he has had, and may still have, with both Obama and Clinton's pursuits, he is convinced that they have the country's best interests at heart.
Those people were not there to harm anyone, he says. Like him, they are patriotic Americans, who gave their time and effort to join a movement that they hope will change America for the better. "They and I may disagree," he says, but he is sure that they, as much as he and his progressive fellows, are protesting and working for the betterment of their country. They are "empathetic, caring people who were going out there to make America better, just like I am." On a more pragmatic level, he says, they knew, as he did, that if one of them were to physically attack him, they "would lose the righteous moral ground" they claim.
One aspect of the laudatory coverage troubles him. The Daily Kos diary, and its commentators, repeatedly and effusively praise him for, among other attributes, his "big brass b_lls." The rather sexist compliment is not entirely welcome, he says. Of all the people in the world he admires, he says, the ones he holds in highest esteem are the Army triage nurses who served in Vietnam. Almost all of them were women, most young and relatively inexperienced, and every day they were faced with decisions over wounded soldiers' lives. Some, he notes, could be saved and set aside for later treatment. Others could be saved but only if given immediate attention. Some had no chance of survival, and would be given over to a USO volunteer for comfort in their final moments. And some were in a terrible gray area: maybe they could survive if they were given immediate and intensive attention, or maybe they would die anyway. The triage nurses had to make sometimes dozens of life-and-death decisions every day, often in a matter of moments. They got up every morning knowing that they would make those decisions that day. Ed says that when he is complemented on the metaphorical size of his male equipment, it sets him apart from those women whom he admires so much.
There's a lot more that I could excerpt, but I'll leave it here. Check it out if you like. It was a great privilege to interview Ed; I won't forget him anytime soon.