Re: Barack 2008!
One of my favourite songs atm is ‘Broke on a Wheel’ by Plug in City:
“It doesn’t matter what you want… it matters that you get what you want”
http://www.kovideo.net/music/video/Plug-In-City---Broke-On-A-Wheel/1933.html
Too many people complain about their lot but don’t make the effort to shift the focus to what they want.
Such a waste of time and effort with no functional outcome!
When they do know what they want
it doesn’t matter to do something about getting what they want because basically
some people are like elephants!
They say an elephant never forgets. The basis of this cliché is that if you chain a baby elephant to the ground, it will pull at it and pull at it until it eventually realizes it can’t do anything to free itself, so it acquiesces and lives its life within the parameters it knows. It grows. It becomes big and strong but it does not forget that when it tried to break free it couldn’t… so it doesn’t try. An adult elephant can pull out the chain peg but it doesn’t know this. It remembers it couldn’t. So it doesn’t try.
Being cynical about politicians is a predisposition based on past experience. Like elephants, we never forget.
Prospective politicians promise what people want so they can get their votes and have the power to rule, then renege for a myriad of reasons.
In the 1939 movie, Abraham Lincoln fare-welled his townsfolk, (after winning the presidency) and as he boarded a train to Washington said, “
I must go now and do what they have paid for.” The lobbyists were alive and well in 1860. And they have thrived ever since. If you had the money, you could buy influence and own the
figure-head politician. Barack is a maverick in refusing money from lobbyists and financing his campaign with individual donations of $25 to $2300 which, in effect, has created the groundswell of grassroot support turning this snowball into an avalanche. Each supporter becomes part of the team. This is unifying.
A champion team will defeat a team of champions any time. A politician is historically divisive and a bully.
Obama is neither!
I was so frustrated and bewildered, three years ago, when I visited friends in Orange County. They were not interested in politics nor would attempt to assuage my frustration about how over half their countrymen/women could glibly put their heads in the sand and blindly enable the re-election of Bush when his lobbyists provoked previous-non-voting religious extremists to come out of the woodwork to “prevent Democrats from legalising gay marriages and abortion”. They sidestepped their cynicism of politics by renouncing its very existence! Now… people are getting out and voting!
For me, the greatest promise, of
daring to imagine things could be different, is personified in Barack Obama. When I watched an interview with Senator Obama and his wife on Oprah, in Calgary, in December 2006, my intuition and instincts were ignited. There was no talk of his vying for president but I sat there shaking my head in awe and thinking that this man’s attitudes and aptitudes were unique and could make a difference by uniting all races and creeds. When I read his book,
The Audacity of Hope, I was inspired. This was not rhetoric, this was written from his heart and soul and life’s experiences, as his wife and daughters slept at night. When I read his book,
Dreams from My Father, my instincts were justified as I read his efforts to comprehend where he fitted in the world. His penchant for considering the situation and the plight of others was extraordinary. He listens to people and gathers their concerns in his repertoire. He listens and he hears. He represents their hopes for a better future. I fully believe his influence will extend far beyond the borders of the US and have a profound effect on the world for the better.
What the poll results don’t overtly advertise, are the numbers of people who actually turn up to vote in proportion to the population of the states! So, despite the huge turnouts, they are still a mere fraction. The votes are percentages of the turnout… not the population! Too many are cynical about politics and feel any effort is inept. Why should they bother when the delegates’ votes don’t necessarily reflect their choices? Why should they make the effort and forego their lunch break or upset their after-work schedules, especially in freezing weather? They are helpless. They don’t count.
Obama and Hillary have both made historic inroads into cracking and disintegrating the nonchalance and apathy. They have both stimulated people to think
it does matter that they want what they want. The young turned up at earlier rallies for entertainment and announced their preferences to the press but failed to turn up at the voting booths. This is changing. They queue for kilometres now to vote! Obama has confronted the freedom of voter inaction which has allowed the economy, health and the global reputation of the US suffer. Obama has proven what I suspected he could accomplish by putting his hand up.
Obama has proven he is a leader and like moths to a flame, people with experience and proven contributions have rallied around him. He listens and has a critical intelligence to involve people as part of a team. He is not out there issuing rhetoric except for those who read only the headlines and have not bothered to analyse and dissect his record and his philosophies. They see the iceberg and don’t even know it’s just the tip of it.
For those who choose to have a look below the surface and make up their own minds about Obama on 20 issues:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/
There are three kinds of people in this world:
Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen… and those who wonder what happened!
There are three more kinds of people in the world:
Those who see the light, those who see it when it’s shown to them… and those who never see it.
Too many people
complain about their lot but don’t make the effort to shift the focus to what they want.
Such a waste of time and effort with no functional outcome!
Another of my current favourite songs is ‘Touched by Love’ by Eran James- video clip: Lovitt!
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/e/eran_james/touched_by_love.html
If you’ve been touched by love
Then you know exactly how I feel ... (in awe, inspired, excited, motivated, star struck)
At the point of giving up- your words
pull my heart clear …. (he gives a belief that real change is possible. He speaks the voters' language.)
…You turn a half chance into one
you’ve waited your whole life for … (his life has prepared him well to be a creditable leader of a population he has united)
You feel as strong as superman
You take the world on ’cause you can ... ( He is articulate, confident, passionate, genuine, with the wind behind his back)
And in all my dreams
Never once did I
Ever dare to imagine you by my side ... (imagine a man who could inspire and unite all races and creeds… to work side by side)
Every breath I breathe
Tastes sweet for sure ... ( no more divisiveness nor ill-thought decisions, no more capitulations to lobbyists)
I found me a reason to live and die for ... (a reason to go out and vote… grassroots support to make life the way they want it to be)
If you’ve been all strung out
Then you know exactly how I feel ... ( US economy in tatters… Iraq…)
At the point of losing faith- your words
pull my heart clear … (It’s time to turn the page and write a new, different future)
…The wonder of it all
Spells the fears I’ve had before. … ( cynicism/fears that all politicians are merely rhetoric)
… but
the functional cynic dares to imagine HOPE,
remembering why an elephant never forgets.
A bully uses actions or words to make the victim feel uncomfortable, belittled or afraid.
Such a waste of time and effort with no functional outcome! Divisive. Dysfunctional. Destructive, Belligerent.
There is too much of this in politics and in everyday life.
Should we sidestep this by renouncing its very existence? Turn around and walk away?
I read Rev Jesse Jackson did this in his second attempt at nomination in 1988 due to his wife’s fears of an assassination attempt on his life.
Bhutto knew the risks she faced but kept on for what she believed she could do for her country.
Long Live Obama!