Between the GOP outrage (!) for Harry Reid's racist comments and the prospect of Sarah Palin's face (FOX)joining to Pat Robertson's (CBN) on the flat screen TV's at my local gym (yes I live in Virginia), and Liz Cheney's call for inquisition, a delightful distraction on today's online Spiegel International, "Barack Obama Musical to Kick off in Frankfurt," saved my sanity for the moment plus gave me enough strength to face another day in our nation's increasingly disturbing political hurricane from hell.
And, ironically, the best part of Jeff Smee's article is the news that, in the musical titled Hope!,"Sarah Palin also has her own solo, surrounded by a troop of scantily clad dancers" (The photo gallery added to the article does not dissappoint, so don't miss it).
Smee opens his Hope-a-Loosa news with the following lines
Barack Obama and his dramatic ascent to power has inspired a raft of books and articles. Now a German musical is set to pay an all-singing, all-dancing tribute to the world's most powerful man. Hope! will soon premiere in Frankfurt.
What a contrast, I said to myself, next to the insanity hurricane blowing from sea to shining sea, brimming with right wingnut tea-baggers, kill-the-bill left wingers, Dino riding Adam and Eves, scientists (!) who equate the millenias old Golden-Ratio to Vodoo, and the reason-logic experts (!)who beat down anyone and everyone who dares to travel the road not taken before.
Somewhere on the other side of the ocean, where things are a bit more sane, however, someone remembers the history changing importance of the 2008 US elections (not only for the US but also for the world) and proceeds to immortalize the experience with a musical. This event did not only helped to lift me out of my doldrums but also made me realize that hurricanes don't last forever. After all the lightning and the thunder clapping is over, the eventual calm settles on a fresher smelling earth. And when that happens, we too will create art (music, songs, paintings, sculptures, movies, plays, literature, architecture) so that we can properly recognize our history as it demands to be recognized and understood.
Then and only then sanity will return to these states, I am convinced. Until then, my advice is that we grab on to something and hang on tight, 'cause "yes we can."
Barack Obama, German Musical