Boehner, Remixed

Whoever produced this is brilliant. It is brilliant because it is true. Hate never wins. Fear never wins. They may capture the occasional victory, but such victories are always short-lived.

I don't want to gloat or celebrate in the wake of the passage of the healthcare insurance reform bill. I find it hard to celebrate because there is so much work to still be done. And it's tough to celebrate something like the guarantee of a basic level of healthcare insurance, which is no big deal in other, civilized countries. And it's not a single-payer system, so much of the burden is still on employers, for one. But it's a giant step in the right direction. I don't want to gloat, or sing, but then I remember the text message I got from my former friend on the night Barack Obama was elected president, which stated, "Hope isn't any good when planes fly into buildings." I also think of the lies that were spread by those who opposed reform from the start, and I think of all those who from the moment he was elected, devoted their lives to derailing the presidency of Barack Obama.

I think of the Congressman who shouted, "You lie!" at the president. I think of Rep. Boehner shouting "Hell no!" in Congress. I think of smug John McCain, who though he lost to Barack Obama, couldn't get the smirk off his face during the president's bipartisan meeting on healthcare reform, the same meeting in which the Republicans went to and treated as a campaign debate then got their asses handed to them, wrapped up quite nicely, by this president. I think of the police officers I sometime hear on the police scanners late at night saying things like, "tell Obama to take care of them," when a dispatcher or another officer says someone has been injured or wounded on the city's streets. I think of the editorial writers and cartoonists who have been saying for the past year that freedom as we know it would cease if Obama got his way (of course none of them offered any workable alternatives). I think of the racist imagery so often used to criticize the president, and on, and on, and on, and I can't help but think ... you lost. You all lost. You lost the election, you lost on healthcare reform, and you're going to lose again and again. "Hell no!" sounds like the last words of a movement going down in flames. We've said it before, we can say it again -- Yes, we can.

Where I Stand

I'd rather stand with those being spat on, screamed at, called names, than those who spit, scream and call others names. I'd rather aspire to people's better angels and work for something better and occasionally fall short than to play on and play to their fears for short-term victories. The win is so much sweeter when it does happen and it's easier to keep fighting the fight if you know in your heart that it's the right fight and your world, or someone's life can be somewhat better through your efforts.

When mouth-breathing, drooling hateful people scream "faggot" at Congressman Barney Frank, when they yell "nigger" at Congressman John Lewis, when they boo and scream at Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when they spit at other Congressmen and Senators, when they put the word "KILL" uncomfortably close to their caricatures of President Obama, when they vow revenge on any elected official who supported healthcare insurance reform, I stand proudly with the screamed at and spat upon.

And I know that even if Obama, Pelosi, Frank, Lewis, Reid, Dingell, Schakowsky, Quigley, Weiner and every other one who worked to make reform a reality hadn't wiped the floor with the "no" crowd, they'd still be right.

The arc is long, Dr. King said, but it does tend toward justice.

The Wordsmith

President-elect Barack Obama said some pretty extraordinary things during his primary and general election campaigns over the past two years. His words were sometimes criticized and belittled by his opponents, but the fact is that they inspired millions and more impressively, they consoled and encouraged his supporters when things seemed down, when the campaign experienced a setback or two. Like any politician, Obama didn't write every word of every speech. He had a team of three people handling those duties. Esquire magazine has put together a brief profile on one of Obama's speechwriters, Jon Favreau. (Not the star of "Swingers," in case you are wondering.)

One of the more interesting things about Favreau's work, the Esquire piece points out, is how he handled Obama's primary loss in New Hampshire to Hillary Clinton.

"After consulting with Obama for half an hour -- Obama talked, Favreau typed notes -- they decided to reprise the hopeful refrain of 'Yes we can ...' which had been the slogan of Obama's 2004 senate race in Illinois. And at that moment, a mere presidential campaign was transformed into a movement, coalesced around three simple words."

Awesome. People who use words to inspire and encourage and aim for the stars. How cool is that?

Rick Astley for VP!

Barack Out!

On his recent trip abroad, Sen. Barack Obama, while in England, met with Conservative party leader David Cameron. 

Cameron, according to British news sites, was reportedly very impressed by Obama. The Sunday Express says Cameron "cheerfully confessed" that he would "have no hope" if pitted against Obama.

The Sunday Times says Cameron gave Obama a selection of CDs by The Smiths, Radiohead and Gorillaz. 

I can't wait to hear Obama quote The Smiths. 

Picture of the Day

(Barack Obama in Greensboro, NC, via Reuters, via the Beachwood Reporter)

This is the sort of image and moment that brings tears of ... joy? pride? dare i say hope? to me and hopefully all patriotic Americans. I almost don't want to get all Flickr comment about it, but I wonder if it would look better, be more powerful, if it was cropped so that the people taking their own pictures were cropped out of it. (I'd really like to know what the photographers out there think of that.)

You don't often see pictures that exemplify the "1,000 Words" maxim, but this is one that does, that if you have a heart, and hope, you need not say much about it. That being said, I just feel that were Barack Obama to be elected president, ours would be a country that, once again, people (yeah, like the young man in the photo) would be able to look up to again.

"Don't Tell Me Words Don't Matter!"

Hope is not passive, hope is not blind. Sens. Clinton, McCain and everyone who says Barack Obama is getting people's hopes up, giving people 'false hope,' sound less like the people who should lead this country and more like the bitter, angry townsfolk in movies like "Footloose" and "Pump Up the Volume," telling us what we can't do and can't hope for instead of helping to lead us to where we want to be. 

Barack Obama is finally answering the criticism and the fear-mongering like a fighter, like a Chicagoan, [the above quote is from a speech he gave in Wisconsin this past weekend], and it is enough to have me cheering for him.