The Prelude To The Continuing War

Every McCain-Palin rally over the last few weeks has been a source of high comedy for me, yet sadness at the same time. Its comedy because the Confederacy of Dunces are wearing the caps in the open for all to see. "Kill Him!" "Obama is an Arab!" etc, et al.
Yet this is a sign of resignation. They know, deep down, they are going to lose this battle. A powerful genie of change is out of the bottle now. The financial distress, the health care crisis, the war, the entire situation has too many people thinking. If we continue to do our job. If we continue to canvass. Continue to register voters. Continue to make sure that our voters get to those polls, then it doesn't matter. The number will be too great for them to steal it. Too great for them to count on a Bradley Effect. Too great for us who desire a new direction to lose.

We are working toward a celebration on November 4th, but know full well that by winning on November 4th, we are making a firm declaration of war come November 5th. For the next four years, we will be in a battle. The Cheap Labor Conservatives have shown their hand, and they've shown the banner in which they will fly and manifesto they defend. They seek a social charter that is part-"Atlas Shrugged", part-"Birth Of A Nation". They are marshalling their Joe Sixpack Coalition Of The Willing to block new direction at every opportunity. Hopefully, the new direction we seek will yield deserters from their bankrupt cause, but I'm not counting on a flood of them. As we've seen in the last few weeks, their ranks are more verbal than ever and probably larger than we'd imagine.

When I hear the vitriol I've seen at their rallies and the tenor of their distaste and hatred, I am reminded of a dusty football field at the age of 10. We were the poor and working-class kids from inner-city. Some black like me. Some white, but all in the same boat. We didn't have the fancy jerseys and helmet that the suburban kids had. And we always to play at their ballfield. They didn't come to ours.
I am reminded of one game. Their team all-white against us. Every play ended with a racial slur. From the parents in the stands and the kids on the field. We were angry. We were agitated. There was one kid who so got to me..I facemasked the hell out of him and get a penalty. At halftime the game was tied at 6. We whined about what they were doing. The cheap shots, being called "N----" and "Pickaninnies" and "Spooks"...even the white kids on our team where upset. Our coach said..."Don't get mad...GET EVEN...WE EXECUTE...WE SCORE POINTS...WE BEAT THEIR ASS"

The second half...We rolled them up...and won the game 46-6...and if 4 other touchdowns didn't get called back it would have been more.
After the game, It was time for the handshake line. As a team, we refused. As our coaches told the pissed off opposing coach whining about "running up the score."
"You disrespect my kids and expect some sort of respect in return?"

That is how I feel about November 5th. I am not in any mood to shake their hands after we beat them, because even after we beat them here, the war continues. They will not stop fighting for there bankrupt belief. They will do everything to derail a better direction and a better day. They are same people who ridiculed our hope, because they don't have any. They are same people who insult us, spit on us, call us names and now threaten us in the most basic, cruel way that they can.

These people you see at McCain's rallies. These people who truly believe that the country would be better off with a President Palin...They can't be talked to. They can't be bargained with. They can't be offered reasonable discourse. They will never be compassionate conservatives, for the two words are an oxymoron. THEY WILL NOT STOP.

On November 4th we will put Barack Obama in the White House. On November 5th, we continue to have his back...all the way to January 20, 2017...and even then We will not stop.

One question. January 20, 2017?

On January 20, 2017. Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States leaves office.

When Barack Obama won election in 2008, the United States was facing it greatest crisis since the 1930s. The economy was in freefall. The country was enveloped in an unpopular war. Americans felt despondent about their nation.

8 years later, through programs that reregulated American business, an energy conservation and expansion program that mirrored the 1950s era drive to the Moon., the introduction of AmeriCare, our nations first national health care system in 2013.. The United States saw in record expansion in investment and capital. Flat wages across all sector rose to level that would have make Bill Clinton's expansion of the 1990s jealous.
In the foreign arena. The United States left its adventure in Iraq in 2010, but not without sending in American humanitarian aid and expertise to help Iraqis rebuild their own country. That same year, President Obama went to Tehran and issued a firm but fair set of goals Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian President, deemed Obama as "A different kind of American leader." Ahmadinejad against the UN inspectors and a radical deweaponization of his nation's nuclear program, by 2011 the United States and Iran had full diplomatic relations for the first time since the 1970s.
Thanks to the work of an aggressive, professional state department, led by Secretary of State Jim Webb, the United States spearheaded a 101-nation peacekeeping mission to Sudan, which in effect forced the Sudenese Government to hold free elections, which were won by the Ecumenical Sudenese Peace Movement. The efforts of Webb and Vice President Joe Biden effective ended the humanitarian crisis in that nation and put the people on a path to true self determination. Such innovative policy became the trademark of Obama foreign policy. In his first term alone the United State brokered a new direction in Sudan, strengthened ties with NATO alliance nations, forged a new free-fair market agreement with the Mercosur bloc of nations in South America, and with the aid of at-large negotiator Jimmy Carter brokered the New Camp David Agreement with fostered a two-state solution in the West Bank that heartily endorsed by Israelis and Palestinians.

But Obama's crowning acheivement came in his second term, as the United States truly began to soar out of the malaise of his first term. The new health care system began bearing fruit as Americans went from the mid-30s in most major measurements in health care to the top 10 in the world. The passage of the Jim Valvano act in 2014 yielded a boom in cancer related research and preventative treatments, today more than 80% of the form of cancer have survival and cure rates above 80%. Also the passage of the John Lewis Environmental Justice Act in 2014 ended a long time practice among business of poorer communities being the waste dump. This act strengthen EPA enforcement to gave the body greater policing powers and in turn truly put environmental racism and classism in the nation's consciousness.

But the greatest thing the Barack Obama Presidency gave American was a new confidence and a new freedom from fear. Even the opposition Republicans are reforming their party to match this new national attitude. Across the country, American exceptionalism has given way to American strength in humility. The anti-elite anti-intellectualism of the Bush 43 era has given way to a respect to American ingenuity, intelligence and love of learning.

Incoming President Barbara Boxer said it best in her inaugural address: "I have large shoes to fill as I take this position. I take the mantle of leadership from a man who redefined what leadership should be in theory and in practice. The United States of America is much richer for having had Barack Obama as President. His like will never be seen again, yet we shall see his works and example shine forever in our national character."

Some people say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one.

Oh, and. GOTS DAMN!!, that is an awesome narrative. One last thing, there is a mountain in the Dakotas that had an upgrade to include someone.

August 28, 2038 -- Mount Rushmore National Monument, South Dakota


The satellite trucks and ENG camera were fixed on the covered stone faces on the mesa. For the first time in over 100 years, new faces would be added to Mount Rushmore.
What made it all possible was an act first signed in 2016, which gave more money to the Department of the Interior and the Department of Education to improve American History study and improve the monuments to our American legacy and heritage.

"The road to today began when I was younger woman," President Diana Taurasi said to the gathering. "It began with my first run for congress. It was during a time when America was beginning to come out of a long period of uncertainity to embrace our future. It was during those heady days that a man said, 'To best understand the American future it is important that we understand all of past. Where we got it wrong and where we got it right. America has given a lot to the world and we have more to give still, but to understand what we have, when have to really have a tangible understanding of where we've been."
"That man is sitting in front of us today, still a beacon of hope and service to our country. When he gave that speech, it was to help pass an act that expanded our nation's monuments, parks, museums and education of who we are as Americans, and today a piece of that act is revealed today. As part of a 5-year effort, we add a face to Mount Rushmore. We chiseled a piece of the past to honor a man who set us on a path to a new future."

With those words, two CH-80 Nez Perce helicopters lifted the sheer veil showing Mount Rushmore. The perfectly sculpted faces. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt...and one more...the image of Barack Obama.

The former President was overcome with emotion as he saw his face. It seemed so soon, much like his Presidency was, but it was an example of what his term in office was. It was all about something he said in his first campaign 30 years ago. The fierce urgency of now.

We are always living in history.

responses.

for respect.

Your vision of the future made my eyes tear. TY

K&R

:kick:

I especially loved your narrative... you're not the only one!

Really liked the President Diana Taurasi part too. She makes bad presidents look small. hehe