Last night here in New York, Barack Obama and John McCain attended a white tie political charity event (63rd annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner) organized by the Catholic Archdiocese of New York for the benefit of needy children. The two political combatants put their vast differences behind them for the evening as they laughed at themselves and each other along with invited guest and attendees in a cordial, friendly and uncharacteristically humanistic way
If only John McCain and Barack Obama could have been inclined and or persuaded to conduct their campaigns with the degree of what appeared to be genuine civility and mutual respect they displayed last evening, perhaps we all may be facing a brighter future than the dark and doom-like prospects we are bound to confront very soon.
With the nation at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the financial crisis we are not only facing at home but exporting around the globe, we are going to need leadership in Washington that can for once provide the country with a clear example of uniting through compromise and good faith negotiations for the benefit of the country. Yes, we are saying it; this country needs change; the kind of change that puts country first.
With all the partisan bickering between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, Blacks and Whites, rich and poor, and as silly as it seems, men and women during the course of campaign 08, we have allowed our differences and disagreements to morph into unadulterated hate. At a time in this country’s history when we may nearing the end of a promising empire, an empire that was the beacon of hope for a world ready and willing to follow our lead, an empire respected and envied, we have devolved into a nation of dogs consuming dogs. Bitching and back biting is consuming us while many in the world look on with horror, sadness and unfortunately a certain amount of glee.
We have a chance to influence our fate on November 4th 2008, perhaps for the last time as a viable nation. We have a chance to start a long overdue healing process by voting for the candidate that we feel is the most qualified to lead us out of these dark times we’ve been lead into by the out going administration. McCain supporters like Obama supporters must enter the voting booth with noting but pure intentions. They must leave their prejudices, unsubstantiated suspicions and bias, their pride and preconceived notions at home.
It does not matter who one votes for as long as one votes with a clean heart that has been thoroughly vetted prior to pulling the level, punching the punch card, making an electronic selection or sealing the envelope to cast the vote by mail.
If we can’t get beyond the petty but persistent behaviors that have kept a strain of hate flowing unimpeded through the life’s blood of America, then we will all succumb to a very slow and painful demise.
If we can’t remember the sixties when the country lost JFK, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. and how the nation was torn apart over Vietnam with college students pelting cops with rocks and bottles, and the National Guard firing live rounds into crowds of protesters on university campuses, then we have missed the lessons of history that could have offered us a perspective.
During the sixties, despite all the turmoil there was the saving grace of the nation’s innocence and youth that took a chance on love peace and the pursuit of personal happiness. Our youth began to embrace and involved themselves with people of other colors, races, religions and cultures. The country began to appreciate the value of a woman beyond a domestic maintenance worker and the African American as having equal value as any other. True, these were only the beginnings and over the last forty years, unfortunately, an argument can be made that we have taken nearly as many steps backward as we have taken forward, but there is hope. There is hope, because the youth of the sixties was us.
We can lie to pollsters telling them one thing when we really mean another, we can secretly hold private animosities close to the vest, continuing to let a cancerous and toxic anger build to a volcanic eruption forcing an unsound decision in the voting booth, but the price for that temporary release of negative energy will be high.
This election has been every bit historic as it has been dirty, hateful, vindictive and worst of all purposefully misleading. We have endured racism, sexism, religious and cultural hatred, seeing it take center stage, only to drive a wedge between us as wide as the Grand Canyon.
But alas, we still think there is a change to rise to the levels of our innate instincts; the instincts to do the right thing.
If we can understand our true predicament,then we'll realize that we are in this mess together as a collective and no one group standing alone without said collective standing together will survive. The world is watching and quietly hoping that we get this right, for it we fail and fall on the world stage this time, we are unlikely to ever get up again.
And remember, the smart voter, the honest voter and the informed voter always votes for the best candidate. Click here for the podcast. hppt://retrovisionmedia.com/bradley_effect.mp3