I never saw a picture of George W. Bush among the tombstones in Arlington. I never saw a picture of George W. Bush serving a meal to the homeless. I never read a book that he himself wrote. I never heard him give a speech regarding how best to deal with our wounded veterans, their orphaned children, their devastated families. I don't recall George W. Bush encouraging volunteerism, caring about a cure for cancer, the homeless, the poor, the stricken. I don't remember him ever caring about anyone who had lost their job. Or their health insurance. I don't ever remember feeling actual hope while he was the president. No, all hope back then was for the future, hope for a new direction for our country and the world, the polar opposite of a misery and misdirection in which he and his cohorts took us. I and millions of others placed our trust in one Barack Obama and now he holds the highest office that America bestows.
Such narrow shoulders and such an unimaginable burden...
I am hopelessly unqualified to give anyone a history lesson, my education sadly lacking compared to most of you here, but, I know you know. Stop for a moment and ponder. America's history, the mantle of the presidency. Our nation in times of true crisis. There must be a reason that people often make jokes or anecdotes about a presidential hopeful being crazy to even want the job. It is a burden that so few in our long history have borne. Most were lucky in that economical stability, peace and relative calm prevailed. Things pretty much rocked along normally and aspiration to greatness was not required. This is not a normal time and you don't need me to tell you that. My own year has been so far out of the realm of norm, my husband having suffered a rare cancer and we have no insurance and are financially devastated. But we are still here and he has a shoulder replacement and this has really nothing to do with this diary, other than to say that this year was nothing like I expected it to be given my great joy when we elected the forty-fourth president of the United States. My world narrowed considerably because of all this and I haven't written a diary in, well, since I can't remember when and visits to Daily Kos were limited to reading and a rare comment, and that only recently. So bear with me if you will...
Few of the fourty-four have endured what we are now asking of our president, the problems astromical and numerous. To see him now suffering such slings and arrows is heartbreaking. And don't think that means that I as a citizen am unquestioning. Or have doubts. How often have my husband and I discussed the question of Afghanistan, the country's history, the alieness, if you will, of people so unlike ourselves so as to be inconceivable to any ideas or lifestyle that we here are privaleged to live. It is unthinkable that a woman would be burned simply for the crime of being a woman. Or that someone there would be put to death for daring to practice a different faith. I cannot conceive of an anger that would enable me or anyone I know to bomb a crowded market, killing innocent children.
Images, like snapshots, should be passing through our minds. Thankfully, throughout our long history, few have been called to bear such an unimaginable burden as the president we have here and now. But make no mistake, some have been called. FDR, Lincoln. Yes, those among all are the two that come most to mind, for I believe that these times are probably the toughest that our nation has endured with the exception of our first presidents and our founding, or perhaps LBJ, agonizing over the immense losses in a tangled jungle land called Vietnam. Kennedy. Yes, according to my parents, we really came that close.
FDR. The great depression. World War II. If you have never seen Ken Burns documentary "The War", please do. I remain convinced and rightfully so that that generation was indeed our greatest. The losses on even a weekly basis were astronomical. The sacrifices that all Americans bore at home and abroad was astounding and inspiring, wrenchingly heartbreaking, faced with such rare character and resilience that one cannot help but ask. Where are such Americans today?
Lincoln. The Civil War. Imagine if you will the millions that died. A country being torn assunder, brother against brother, father against son. What kind of man was Lincoln that he was able to bring this country back together? He too, had narrow shoulders for such an unimaginable burden. History reflects and reverances the kind of man who would bear such a thing. Such rarity. In the end, he paid with his very life.
So. Here we are. Tearing each other apart. If there was a Limbaugh or Beck during other times of crisis, history has mercifully obliterated their foul names. Oh, I have no doubt they existed, but in an age when media and technology did not exist as it does today, we were spared the full brunt of their unmittigated hatred. I will say this, dammit! Those guys don't need any help from us!!! Yes, by all means, question, discuss. Care. Act.
Our problems now are too numerous to mention. Overwhelming. We require such leadership that is rarely required and that which few have had to aspire. We cannot know or probably even imagine such an unimaginable burden.