Old Man River [View all]

[H2O Man]

“Hillary Clinton is the most qualified candidate for the political system we currently have but Bernie Sanders is the most qualified candidate to build the system that we should have.”
-- FourScore; DU:GDP


A few years ago, some environmental activists I was acquainted with asked me to attend a Democratic Committee meeting in a distant town. The drive allowed me to travel through a couple of counties in upstate New York, a setting that is truly beautiful at all times of year. Being the guest speaker in a meeting in a tiny community like this is both “small stuff,” and the essence of our constitutional democracy.

Being the guest speaker also allows one the opportunity to sit through the committee meeting. Like in most of this region, Democrats are the minority. It’s not uncommon for towns, like this one, to have more citizens registered as Independents, than as Democrats. And republicans always are in the majority.

I immediately liked everyone I met. I was especially impressed with three long-term leaders of the town’s Democratic Party. I learned that these three ladies had run the committee since the early 1970s. Before that, in the 1960s, they had been the small town version of “Flower Children,” protesting the war, racism, and sexism. Now they are Elders.

The other leader was a university professor, who teaches sociology and political science. She had her young daughter with her to the meeting, always a good sign. One of the things she said that struck me as important came when she asked for volunteers to distribute something. It could be accomplished by handing them out in the local plaza parking lot, or going door-to-door.

No one volunteered, and this lady seemed slightly frustrated. She said that the people on the left are always willing to step up, and do this kind of activity. The registered Democrats at the meeting are more comfortable doing other types of campaigning.

The topic I selected for my talk was, of course, how everyone’s contribution had value. Everyone is not equally talented in every area of political activity. The simple truth is that we need each and every person to contribute, according to their talents. When we do that, we win. It’s not really that complicated.

On my ride home, I stopped along the Susquehanna River. It is a powerful, living entity, that helps to sustain life around it. I was thinking about how few people have an intimate relationship with the river any more. For thousands of years, it was a highway for the Ancient Ones. Even up until fairly recent times, communities along the river recognized it as playing an important role in their lives.

Every year in May, one town in Chenango County holds a 70-mile canoe race, known as the General Clinton Canoe Regatta. It celebrates a violent chapter in our nation’s early history, during the Revolutionary War. I found myself remembering a story that the Elder of the valley I grew up in told me, when I was a wee-little boy. As a adult, I found some historians -- including faculty at local colleges -- told me that they had never heard of this episode, and could find no documentation. Many years later, in a soldier’s diary, located in the musty basement of a historical society in another state, I found a detailed telling of that very story.

For whatever reason, I found myself thinking of another time, in my home town, when I studied the official records of a huge, toxic landfill. It was 120+ acres of extremely toxic industrial wastes. Among other things, I was looking for documentation to prove that something that an Elder on that mountain had told me. Quite literally, I would find it on page 100,556. The industry was lying, and several state and federal officials had taken the industry spokespersons at their word. What may appear true on paper, may not be true when you visit a site. It’s always good to listen to a creek: like rivers, they don’t lie.

I think about these things, as I sit back as a spectator to much of what is going in the Democratic and republican presidential primaries today. At my age, there are days when I’m not physically able to attend meetings, go door-to-door, or anything else meaningful. Instead, I sit back, and watch the river flow. The currents -- and especially the under-currents -- in the republican primaries is fascinating. While dividing the republican party along harsh, sharp lines, they are creating an opportunity that I have not witnessed in my adult life.

Yet, the growing division in the Democratic Party is concerning. Even here on DU, I see people who I am sure are sincere when they say that the 2016 primary is not as bad as, say, that of 2008. But they are wrong. And sincere but wrong isn’t a winning combination. (Note, for example, that republicans historically demand a combination of wrong and insincere from their ranks.)

Now, back to the quote from our good friend FourScore’s wonderful OP. If we are looking to continue to operate in the current socio-political environment, I think that we can all agree that Hillary Clinton is the perfect Democratic candidate. However, if we view the current system as grossly contaminated, and believe we need to create a very different system, then Bernie Sanders is the only option.

I understand that many good people are no more aware of the potential for changes to be made in the system, than they are of the rivers they see each day, on their drive to the factory or office. They are disconnected. They may take note of the rising waters associated with the river flooding its banks. And they understand that a community such as Flint has been poisoned, as a result of a river and some old pipes.

But the Sanders movement has a different relationship, and makes other connections, when it comes to water and land and air. They might live in a city, but they understand the consequences of our systematic destruction of the living environment. I “linked” to an article from the Binghamton, NY, newspaper a week ago -- the article was about numerous sources of water being cut off, due to the unacceptably high levels of lead. It’s not just a few communities facing that type of thing: it is a common feature in both urban and rural areas, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. It is no longer just the rural poor, and often non-white, communities that have been poisoned for decades.

I think about an American “war” that they don’t teach about in school. It’s a part of New York State’s history, that has implications for this time. It was known as the “Second American Revolutionary War” in its day. It started in 1839, when there were building tensions between the elite land-owners, who lived around Albany, and the tenant farmers in the outlying counties. It was a form of feudalism, of course, and crushed hard-working people, so that the !% could live an opulent lifestyle.

Unlike the Revolutionary War, which was violent, the Anti-Rent War (as it has become known) was largely non-violent. And it worked. It changed the balance of power in upstate New York. The 1% were still wealthy, and as obnoxious as are their heirs today. But the revolutionaries changed the socio-economic-political system. They did this at a time when the establishment said they had no chance. They did so, knowing they faced the wrath of the powerful elite.

Since then, of course, we’ve had the powerful example of the civil rights movement. It, too, had a lot of different participants, who made valuable contributions. Of the most important for our consideration are those of Martin Luther King, Jr., and those he labored with. For, exactly opposite the members of the Tea Party, we know that we are not going to find solutions by carrying side-arms in public. That is not the type of “power” that can repair and heal our society.

Across America tonight, there are small groups in little towns, working on the Sanders revolution. There are student organizations on college and university campuses, actively supporting the movement. And there are rallies and similar events, in cities in every state. We are intent upon building a new society, out of the compost of the current rot. We aren’t interested in sugar-coating the present system, for Washington has become a toxic waste dump site. We aren’t satisfied to think about incremental change, or possible future improvements. We are changing things, now.

That river is rising.

Peace,
H2O Man