Thursday, August 28, 2008

Chardonnay or Beer?

That seems to be what the Presidential race has come down to in this country full of “bubbas”. I do feel better about the race as the convention winds down and I do think there has been more positive than negative, but again the “bubba” mentality doesn’t seem to have evaporated as it should have. I know, I know, I’ve been told by more than one not to “should” on anything, but there are times when it is called for and this is definitely one of them!

A major part of this country is desperate and cries for reform and change and yet when someone who has managed to pull himself up, educate himself and pay for it the same way most of us have to do, he’s called an elitist! He has a mixed heritage? So what? Most of us do. He started with so little and has achieved so much, as has Joe Biden, but if we all had the same dream and the same determination perhaps we could have done the same things. Are we so small minded and bigoted that we’re automatically suspicious when anyone, in spite of a background so like our own, climbs up the hill and urges us to come see what we can achieve with him? If this is the case – and I hope it isn’t – then we’re in deep trouble. If this is the case, what are we saying to our children and grandchildren?

Forty-five years ago today, Martin Luther King “had a dream”, we all have dreams, but how many of us prefer to sit on our butts and whine rather than work to make that dream a reality? How many of us fret and worry about a “funny name”, the color of skin, rather than see the dream and be willing to work for the chance to make it a reality for all of us?

These are the questions that I’m still asking. And they are the questions that I still don’t have answers for. The next few months will say a lot about this country, about each one of us. I hope when November arrives we’ll see this country wake up and push past the stupid questions, but right now McBushCain has narrowed Obama’s lead. Our country is deep into economic depression, deeper into two wars and weary of Republican fear-mongering.

So, what will it be in November? It’s up to each of us. What do you want for yourself and your family? It’s up to each of us. Tired of the same old politics? Then put up or shut up because this may be the last chance you get to bring about real change. Stop worrying about the fact someone says “isn’t right” instead of “ain’t right”. Take a sip of Chardonnay, it may taste funny, but it can give you the same glow as a sip of beer.

3 comments:

Margie's Musings said...

I fear that margin will shrink even more. There are so many ignorant voters who distrust a mixed race candidate.

Those are the same folks who re-elected Bush, an ignoramus if there ever was one.

Judy said...

I sure hope that people don't let race keep them from voting for Obama. I agree with Margie about Bush. I don't think McCain is going to win.

K. said...

Great post. Every problem of this sort that Obama personally faces is a challenge to the entire country.

"...when someone who has managed to pull himself up, educate himself and pay for it the same way most of us have to do, he’s called an elitist!"

In this election, read "elitist" as a code word for "uppity." It's precisely because Obama has done all of this that certain people won't vote for him. He doesn't know his place, in other words. (The poor white trash Bill Clinton went up against some of this himself, prompting Toni Morrison -- I think -- to call him the first black president.)

As pathetic as it is, some people pride themselves on being ignorant and bigoted. It's psychologically more important to them to feel "better" than the "other" than to make common cause with them. I can't begin to imagine the self-loathing that that takes, but it's murky and dark and long-lived. A convention can't change it. In the end, we have to get more of us out to vote.