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(my first political campaign), it would have read a lot like this--short on political agenda, long on that indefinable quality I perceived in JFK, which, thinking back now, I realize was the creativity of youth, the ability to change--which JFK did, in transit, during his three short years as president, from a "Cold Warrior" into someone seeking something better--to be a peacemaker, a nuclear non-proliferation treaty maker, a hammerer of swords into the space program, an unleasher of the future that was the mid- to late-1960s and early 1970s, which brought the most awesome range of progressive social changes that any generation has ever accomplished. It was WITHIN me to facilitate and help create those awesome changes--not only civil and voting rights for black citizens, but also the massive youth rebellion against unjust war, amazing advances in women's equality, in gay rights, in indigenous rights, the liberalization of churches with the ecumenical movement, revolution in every sphere of American life, breaking every barrier, including, finally, the very barrier of earth itself with the moon landings.
I looked to JFK as the President of the Young--of the future, away from the dark, scary, McCarthyite, old curmudgeon past. But the change was WITHIN me as well. And I recognize it in these youthful outbursts of enthusiasm for Obama, where the writer can't put her finger on what it is. But what she's trying to say is: It is US. WE are changing. WE reject the darkness of the Bush Junta. WE are going to make a better country.
And you better believe her. She means it. It won't matter all that much what Obama does. SHE is going to do it.
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I was struck by something in this sentence:
"...we know that behind every bad leader is a nation of citizens who would choose peace over destruction if they had the ability."
Wow. That is us--all of us, young and old. I already learned, once in my life--during Vietnam--what it was like to live in "a nation of citizens who would choose peace over destruction" but who weren't permitted to do so. Now I have experienced it again, and a whole new generation of Americans has learned it. And so now, we--me, once again, and many others, for the first time--know how to recognize that problem in OTHER nations. MOST Iraqis, MOST Iranians, MOST people everywhere want peace. It is corrupt leadership that denies it to us--and often we stand utterly helpless, stripped of our power as citizens, to prevent catastrophe. It is a very, very important lesson to learn. It is why human beings have acquired the wisdom, over the millenia, that war. must. be. a. last. resort. I thought we had learned it for good, in this country. We had not. Or, rather, our people had learned it (56% of whom opposed the Iraq war from the beginning--Feb 03--BECAUSE OF the Vietnam War), but had NOT learned how to avoid being disempowered as citizens. So now we have to learn that--how never to be disempowered again, with our war profiteers and oil-greedy corporations even now hunting the world for new opportunities to kill and steal, in our name. (The Bush Junta is now looking at South American--and instigating conflict there, in the oil rich Andes region. Be warned!)
This young woman's statement is not without a political agenda, actually, though her agenda is stated in general terms. She wants to live in a peaceful world. She rejects the paranoia, aggression, hatred and greed that the Bushites and collusive Democrats have inflicted on us. She wants politicians to be community organizers, for godssakes! To CARE about ordinary Americans, to experience life with the rest of us, to promote and believe in citizen activism, thus making themselves accountable to us. She wants to promote transcendence of race, class and identity. She believes in Constitutional government. The Bushites and collusive Democrats have pushed us back to the basics of democracy, that need renewal, and she lists most of them. (I would add TRANSPARENT vote counting.) That's a progressive program. In fact, it's a revolutionary program. Peace is as revolutionary an idea now as it was back in the 1960s. We didn't achieve it then. Will we now? If this young woman has anything to say about it, we will.
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