2 I thought Obama delivered the goods last night.
3 I don't know that the media did the moment a bit of justice, but it didn't really matter to me.
4 I flipped channels last night trying to find someone who was willing to give it the respect it deserved.
5 Well it was about what I would expect.
7 But to me, the Democratic Party dropped the ball onthe build-up. Maybe it's because I've become cynical, or maybe it's because I have a sneaking suspicion that all the media is now controlled, but somewhere there should have been a much tighter connection between King and Barack.
8 Black people got the connection but I don't know that people in say, St. Louis got it.
9 For one thing, they dragged a bunch of kooks out just before they brought out Barack. One lady was some Hispanic teacher who looked completely out of place. another was some goober who looked like a hog-caller from the back country, complete with checkered shirt and all.
10 It's difficult to explain until you realize that some very effective people could have been called to the podium instead.
11 They needed a powerful media speaker, someone like Bill Cosby, or Paul Newman, Maya Angelou, Ben Harper or really, Oprah for Gawd's sake. Personally I'd have loved to have seen Jon Stewart or Bill Maher. Instead there were nobodies after nobodies, and in fact, some pretty geeky choices.
12 So as much as I'm enjoying the history of the night, I'm a bit concerned about Obama's ability to realize how much the media has been infiltrated with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and his cronies. Bill Clinton hinted at the cronyism the other night, but I'm guessing that mainstream America may be a bit too trusting, or unaware of those sorts of things.
13 My biggest worry is that Barack Obama might not realize the vultures who circle the White House and feast on it's excesses routinely.
14 Sadly it took me an entire lifetime to realize all of that. Cosby gets it, and Oprah gets it because they are media giants.
15 Fortunately, Obama is a bonus baby. He appears to be the real deal, and probably has some sense of the dangers and pitfalls of running with the big bulls. He isn't a stupid man, that's for certain.
16 And his walking out on stage the other night was a bit of a statement to all the old-schoolers that once he does have the reins, he may be a bit of a maverick, which is good and bad, but certainly interesting.
17 One thing is certain: we can't afford more of the same. I've seen the agenda and it was perhaps the most frightening eight years in the history of American politics. The Bill of Rights was tossed into the fire, and we have been on the brink of a police state under the current regime.
18 There's a great book out there called They Thought They Were Free : The Germans 1933-1945 by Milton Mayer. It's an account of the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany from a guy who lived through it. The parallels to modern times are chilling. I'm including an excerpt from the book right here:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html
19 If you look to the true history of the Bush family, you'll see that his grandpa, Prescott Bush, was rather chummy with that entire movement. I taught vigorously about the JFK assassination for years because there were some pretty sinister connections running all through that historical "mystery".
20 I'll back off at this point, but on a much more upbeat note: what I DID see was this: last night at around 1 a.m. the Oprah show was re-played, and Cosby was the guest. He talked very much about the need of everybody to wake up and see what is really going on. At the end of the show, Oprah asked the Coz if there was any hope, to which Cosby looked up to the camera with a cat-that-ate-the canary smile and said simply, "Yep!" I finally broke into a wise smile myself.
21 It brought me right back to the reality that despite ALL those shock-and-awe guys, Obama IS the hope, and with the strength of his own amazing talents, could certainly bring that hope to our country, to the world, and most importantly, to the children of the world.
22 Lofty? You damn right.
23 I'll toss my hat into the ring.
24 Time to take the gloves off. We finally have the guy to do it.
25
"Enough. This moment, this election, is our chance to keep the American promise alive."
---Barack Obama, Acceptance Speech August 28, 2008
26 There's strong hope.
27 For the first time in a long time, there's hope.
28 Peace.
~H~
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