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Beyondanada
Brightness, Political Intelligence, humor elections, wit,Beyondanada, Bruce lipton
Date: 1/10/2008 1:25:31 AM ( 16 y ) ... viewed 1483 times You Say Osama, I Say Obama
January 9, 2008
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by Steve Bhaerman
A couple of days ago, I received an unintentionally amusing email from the Dennis Kucinich campaign. It was a clarifying message about Dennis asking his delegates to support Barak Obama in Iowa, except there was one glaring mistake: Every place where the name Obama should have appeared, Osama appeared instead. Being a "Type-O personality," I noticed the mistake and sent them a polite "your-fly-is-open" message. Back came an official apology. Apparently, spell check doesn't recognize Obama as yet, so it dutifully replaced his name each time with "Osama."
The incident did spark an internal conversation, though, as I wondered a year from now will spell check recognize Obama, or just Osama? More to the point, I realized that the 2008 election really is Osama vs. Obama, regardless of who the candidates end up being. Osama (who seems more a mythical villain than a real person these days, with as many stunt doubles as Saddam) represents fear and contraction. He is the boogie man who helped reelect George W. Bush in 2004, and may help elect a Hillary or Giuliani this time around. He is the force we are reacting against when we ... well, when we give our tacit agreement to reactionary policies.
Obama represents expansiveness, hope and love. Notice I say "represents." In one of the great oxymorons of politics, the word "candidate" begins with the prefix "candid." Ha! It would be more appropriately "canned," although time will tell whether Obama to falls prey to George Burns' timeless political axiom: "Honesty and sincerity. If you can fake those, you got it made."
I don't mean to be unnecessarily cynical here, but anyone who survived the first Clinton Administration can tell the difference between the rhetorical ideal and nitty-gritty real deal. I remember just about ten years ago, in the midst of the Clinton impeachment crisis, Bill delivered an awesome speech. I knew it was complete and utter %¤#&!§-, but my thought was whoever will actually stand behind those words will have my enthusiastic support and the support of 75% of sane, non-sociopathic Americans.
I had another realization that day, and it applies more than ever now. That is that the real adult way to choose a President or any other representative of the people is to write a job description, then hold interviews as we would for any employee. That way, we the people would ask the questions, not the lackeys at CNN (they're all C-B.S. in my book) or any other network. We would also make sure to interview candidates like Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul, who have all been virtually shut out because of "credibility problems" -- in other words, they speak too much truth.
Even if the buzz and excitement around Barak Obama is merely projection, that in itself is a good sign. Why? Because it expresses the need and desire for an America that is expansive (in love, not in empire), where we share a positive mission together. Obama represents that potential for unity. After all, he brings together two races, two religious traditions, and in a certain sense the overclass and the underclass. (See Gary Hart's endorsement) Barak's growing popularity reflects the "heart core" values of America. In a country where we the people have been largely disenfranchised, he is the closest we can come to a "healthy central voice."
Some see his finishing second to Hillary as a setback, and others like my friend Mark Crispin Miller and Brad Friedman see all the earmarks of another stolen election thanks to the "faith-based vote counting" of optical scanners. (Perhaps New Hampshire needs to change it's state motto to "Live free or Diebold.") Others, while rightfully suspicious of voting technology see this as the resurgence of a still-powerful Clinton political machine.
For those of us who do not wish to be ruled by the machine, two things to keep in mind. First, there has never been a battle for justice where the "lowest common dominator" simply rolled over. Years ago, when I taught Labor History to auto workers at Wayne State University, some of them were surprised to find out that people died so they could have not just a union, but a living wage. Likewise, there was a lot of marching and a lot of hosing down of marchers before the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964.
Are the cards stacked against justice? Well, let's put it this way: Which side do you think the card-stackers are on? It means, more than ever that we make sure we are registered to vote, that we register others so that our cards will stack higher than theirs. It means we continue to speak the truth, to question unquestioned answers about fixed elections and 9/11, that we work for impeachment ( George McGovern being the latest to call for it) and continue to move the field of truth forward. This may seem way too metaphysical, but mark my words. If we continue to speak the truth and encourage others to do the same, there will finally come the crack in the wall of lies that cannot be repaired.
Even more importantly, we must come to accept that -- as the Swami says in his upcoming State of the Universe Address -- the only way to overcome Big Brother is with Bigger Brotherhood. To those who say that the whole ball of wax is run by a very, very few people I say, "Great news. It means there are way more of us than there are of them." Our mission this year, regardless of the electoral outcome, is to give the powers in power the very clear message, "Bigger brotherhood is watching you."
Notes on Notes
I've been considering how to maximize the effectiveness of Notes From the Trail, understanding that we all have way too much to read. (If only the powers in power had adopted Swami's precedential plank of giving more time to everyone by going on the eight-day week.) Consequently, this piece is much shorter. I will also be sending Notes out twice a month, once as a brief message like this one, the other alerting you to articles of note both in the realm of "Truly Unbelievable" (some huge irony you should know about) or "Profiles in Encouragement" (good news that needs to spread). May this newsletter continue to "serve the scene."
P.S. My book with Bruce Lipton is now in the "om stretch," as we write and edit the final pieces. On one hand it's taken longer than we imagined, but on the other the delay has allowed us to incorporate some awesome breakthrough information in politics, economics and integrating the masculine and feminine. If you're interested in participating in our financial success, please send an email with the subject title "Spontaneous Evolution," and we will send you more information.
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