Ask and ye shall receive:
At a defining moment like this, we don't have the luxury of relying on the same political games, the same political tactics, that we've become accustomed to. This slash-and-burn politics that divides us from one another... which the challenges and crises we face right now, we can't afford to divide this country. By race, by class, by region, by who we are, by what policies we support. Let me tell you something, because I know you've been hearing a lot of stuff lately. There are no real parts of the country and fake parts of the country. There are no pro-America parts of the country and anti-America parts of the country. We all love this country. No matter where we live. Or where we come from. ...
Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, city dwellers, farm dwellers, it doesn't matter, we're all together [...] The men and women from Virginia and all across this country who serve on our battlefields. Some are Democrats, some are Republicans, some are independents. But they fought together, and bled together, and some of them died together under the same flag. They didn't serve a blue America, or a red America, they served the United States of America. Nobody should forget that.
And that's what Barack Obama is all about, Charlie Brown.
I bet yer a commie
ReplyDeleteYou have nothing to lose but your chains, Bill.
ReplyDeleteI read your blog to be inspired that Obama CAN really win. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRock on hotstuff.
ReplyDeleteIs it my imagination, or haven't I seen your column in the Pilot lately? Miss ya!
ReplyDeleteIt's still just talk. I hope he can inspire like that after he gets elected. That's the real trick.
ReplyDeleteI'm a writer, Gerard. I know that words have power.
ReplyDeleteRhoades, I don't get your drift. Do you mean BO has the power to sway and convince once in office?
ReplyDeleteMy cynical thought on this is that every politician hopes to go to DC and get things moving and get people working together. A president who really wants to reform or rebuild will have a huge influence. But, I also think there will always be a core of nasty, greedy people to undermine that work. The "trick" to me is swaying both those people and his already existent political opponents.
It would be so great to shut up the smug anti-Americanism in the rest of world for a while.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, where is your newspaper column?
Columns run every Sunday. I reprint them here. http://jdrhoades.blogspot.com/search/label/columns
ReplyDeleteThat guy can bring tears to my eyes, even when I know what he's going to say.
ReplyDeleteI think what earns him the most scorn is that he keeps saying the kinds of things that really define what America should be about, and folks figure he *has* to be faking it because it's just too damn fashionable to be cynical and jaded.
But there are times when it's better to be unfashionable, and to realize you can just as easily go wrong being too cynical as you can by being too trusting.