Happy New Year
Here it is, 2009, we've got a chilly one. No snow, there's clear sunshine and a little wind, but nothing like yesterday. We lost our recycle container yesterday, it just flew away. Same thing with a tarp on the deck the other day. We had bought The Boy a bumper for his car for Christmas, and hid it in plain sight - well, where do you hide something that big? The box was almost as big as a refrigerator, so we set it on the deck with a tarp on it, and one of those windy days before Christmas there was a gust of wind that felt like a little tornado, everything was banging around and later when I went out the tarp was just gone. Maybe one of the neighbors ended up with it, I don't know, there is simply no sign of it. And then yesterday -- on the news they said there were gusts up around sixty miles an hour near here. That blue recycle container disappeared, we'd left it out at the curb in the morning and when we came home in the evening it had blown away.
We watched Dick Clark last night, and I guess the "world's oldest teenager" label doesn't apply any more. He looks good, but he's had a stroke and it's affected his speech. Still, it's cool to see him looking better each year. I noticed something interesting, the younger world's oldest teenagers who had microphones and introduced the pop stars had a certain tone. They all said things like, 2008 was a hard one, but I have the feeling things are going to get better. I heard one guy talking about how there was hope and change in 2009.
America is experiencing a sigh-of-relief moment.
I remember after the 2004 elections, my office was like a mausoleum. People walked down the street with their shoulders slumped, Metro cars were silent, it was pitiful to see that our nation had chosen -- chosen! -- a dangerous ignoramus to lead our country, to represent us to the world and make important decisions. All my life I have felt good about my people, I could go into a store or a bar or a bus stop or whatever and strike up a conversation, but I began thinking, is this somebody who voted for that guy? Nobody I knew would have, but millions of Americans voted to support the destruction of Iraq, torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and who knows where else, warrantless wiretapping, corporate greed, destruction of the environment, millions of Americans chose to believe that we were in constant danger of being attacked by swarthy foreigners who hate our way of life, and that the response to that was raw blustering ignorance. It was heartbreaking.
Okay, that's ended. In a few weeks the core of our urban center will be repopulated. The faith-and-greed crowd will be moving out, the hope-and-change crowd is moving in. According to the polls there are still some people who are sorry to see the current administration go, like maybe a quarter of Americans, well it just goes to show you. Three-fourths of us are breathing a sigh of relief.
Here's where I hope we're going. I think I spelled this out back in 2005, but I will reiterate here. There is room in America for liberal and conservative people. I have taken a position regarding the Rick Warren prayer, I think it's okay to acknowledge that there are conservative people in our country, we might think they're wrong or stupid or even hateful but they're Americans and we're all in this together. We can't do anything without them. I think it's fine if there are people who disagree with me, I will take it as a challenge to persuade them to change their minds but I do not consider mere disagreement to be a crisis. We can argue, make our points as forcefully as we can, go home to our families and come out tomorrow and do it again, that's wonderful, that's how it works.
But we have seen the emergence of a group that wants to shut down the dialogue. We saw it at the national level, there were years where you would be unpatriotic if you asked why we were attacking a country like Iraq that hadn't done anything to us. And they tried to impose silence at the local level, too, they tried to remove any mention of sexual minorities from the Montgomery County Public Schools' sex-ed curriculum. It wasn't just that they wanted a more conservative curriculum, they wanted the discussion to stop, where we needed to talk they reduced the discussion to name-calling, misconstrual, lies, and you ended up having to argue about the lies rather than discuss the details of the curriculum. We claim success, but the curriculum is still ridiculously conservative, kids don't really learn anything about sex. We claim success but we didn't really win. It's not much more than we got from Mr. Holland the shop teacher in the sixties. Big controversial breakthrough: if a student asks, the teacher is permitted to tell the class that homosexuality is not a disease. In the twenty-first century, is that enough? Is that where we stop? No, now we need to start talking about it, in 2009.
This is a time for hope and change, no doubt, the November election was a gigantic weight off our back. Not only does the New Guy make sense, but he can fight a tough fight. He is putting his foot down and making it clear that he really does intend to include everybody in the discussion, not just people who agree with him. Our side is going to have to relax a little, there isn't going to be any "mandate" this time around, we won't automatically get our way on everything, but we will be at the table when the discussion is held. And that has to be the goal. You may have an opinion about any of a hundred things, and you can't expect the government to do everything you like, but now you can expect that they'll talk about it, they'll consider your side. It just might be that the leadership decides to go with the conservative idea sometimes, and we'll have to live with that, at least the logjam is broken.
I know how I feel about things, and I've known a lot of people in my many years and have some idea how ordinary people feel about things. American people are not hateful, they're just people, and they can be manipulated by propaganda, they'll take the easy solution if you can frame it in a way that makes it sound obvious and sensible. They're just people. If we can get to a point where the knee-jerk response is labeled for what it is, where we can consider all sides of a situation and choose the best one, then I'm good with that. We don't have to choose my favorite idea, though I'll argue as hard as I can for it. Mainly I just want to see the dialogue opened up again.
I think that's what 2009 will be for America. It is a year for change and hope. We'll win some, lose some, but people are crawling out from under their rock, we are ending the reign of fear, terrorists won't decide what we can and cannot say any more. We have real problems and need to figure out real solutions to them, we've had enough slogans, it's time to get together and use our brains.
I'm feeling good about this two thousand nine thing. Happy New Year to everyone!
We watched Dick Clark last night, and I guess the "world's oldest teenager" label doesn't apply any more. He looks good, but he's had a stroke and it's affected his speech. Still, it's cool to see him looking better each year. I noticed something interesting, the younger world's oldest teenagers who had microphones and introduced the pop stars had a certain tone. They all said things like, 2008 was a hard one, but I have the feeling things are going to get better. I heard one guy talking about how there was hope and change in 2009.
America is experiencing a sigh-of-relief moment.
I remember after the 2004 elections, my office was like a mausoleum. People walked down the street with their shoulders slumped, Metro cars were silent, it was pitiful to see that our nation had chosen -- chosen! -- a dangerous ignoramus to lead our country, to represent us to the world and make important decisions. All my life I have felt good about my people, I could go into a store or a bar or a bus stop or whatever and strike up a conversation, but I began thinking, is this somebody who voted for that guy? Nobody I knew would have, but millions of Americans voted to support the destruction of Iraq, torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and who knows where else, warrantless wiretapping, corporate greed, destruction of the environment, millions of Americans chose to believe that we were in constant danger of being attacked by swarthy foreigners who hate our way of life, and that the response to that was raw blustering ignorance. It was heartbreaking.
Okay, that's ended. In a few weeks the core of our urban center will be repopulated. The faith-and-greed crowd will be moving out, the hope-and-change crowd is moving in. According to the polls there are still some people who are sorry to see the current administration go, like maybe a quarter of Americans, well it just goes to show you. Three-fourths of us are breathing a sigh of relief.
Here's where I hope we're going. I think I spelled this out back in 2005, but I will reiterate here. There is room in America for liberal and conservative people. I have taken a position regarding the Rick Warren prayer, I think it's okay to acknowledge that there are conservative people in our country, we might think they're wrong or stupid or even hateful but they're Americans and we're all in this together. We can't do anything without them. I think it's fine if there are people who disagree with me, I will take it as a challenge to persuade them to change their minds but I do not consider mere disagreement to be a crisis. We can argue, make our points as forcefully as we can, go home to our families and come out tomorrow and do it again, that's wonderful, that's how it works.
But we have seen the emergence of a group that wants to shut down the dialogue. We saw it at the national level, there were years where you would be unpatriotic if you asked why we were attacking a country like Iraq that hadn't done anything to us. And they tried to impose silence at the local level, too, they tried to remove any mention of sexual minorities from the Montgomery County Public Schools' sex-ed curriculum. It wasn't just that they wanted a more conservative curriculum, they wanted the discussion to stop, where we needed to talk they reduced the discussion to name-calling, misconstrual, lies, and you ended up having to argue about the lies rather than discuss the details of the curriculum. We claim success, but the curriculum is still ridiculously conservative, kids don't really learn anything about sex. We claim success but we didn't really win. It's not much more than we got from Mr. Holland the shop teacher in the sixties. Big controversial breakthrough: if a student asks, the teacher is permitted to tell the class that homosexuality is not a disease. In the twenty-first century, is that enough? Is that where we stop? No, now we need to start talking about it, in 2009.
This is a time for hope and change, no doubt, the November election was a gigantic weight off our back. Not only does the New Guy make sense, but he can fight a tough fight. He is putting his foot down and making it clear that he really does intend to include everybody in the discussion, not just people who agree with him. Our side is going to have to relax a little, there isn't going to be any "mandate" this time around, we won't automatically get our way on everything, but we will be at the table when the discussion is held. And that has to be the goal. You may have an opinion about any of a hundred things, and you can't expect the government to do everything you like, but now you can expect that they'll talk about it, they'll consider your side. It just might be that the leadership decides to go with the conservative idea sometimes, and we'll have to live with that, at least the logjam is broken.
I know how I feel about things, and I've known a lot of people in my many years and have some idea how ordinary people feel about things. American people are not hateful, they're just people, and they can be manipulated by propaganda, they'll take the easy solution if you can frame it in a way that makes it sound obvious and sensible. They're just people. If we can get to a point where the knee-jerk response is labeled for what it is, where we can consider all sides of a situation and choose the best one, then I'm good with that. We don't have to choose my favorite idea, though I'll argue as hard as I can for it. Mainly I just want to see the dialogue opened up again.
I think that's what 2009 will be for America. It is a year for change and hope. We'll win some, lose some, but people are crawling out from under their rock, we are ending the reign of fear, terrorists won't decide what we can and cannot say any more. We have real problems and need to figure out real solutions to them, we've had enough slogans, it's time to get together and use our brains.
I'm feeling good about this two thousand nine thing. Happy New Year to everyone!
posted by JimK at 12:00 PM
12 Comments:
Happy New Year! Yee Haw! Whoo wee! Youza youza! Hip Hip Hooray!
Happy New Year to you and your family Jim, as well as to the rest of the bloggers here.
Sorry I haven’t written in a while… I’ve been battling what the doctor called “something like the childhood croup.” I don’t think it’s getting better.
Good luck in the new year.
Peace,
Cynthia
Jim writes,
I remember after the 2004 elections, my office was like a mausoleum. People walked down the street with their shoulders slumped, Metro cars were silent, it was pitiful to see that our nation had chosen -- chosen! -- a dangerous ignoramus to lead our country, to represent us to the world and make important decisions.
Jim, Jim, Jim...it is time to MoveOn.Org...ok? Really the choice back in '04 was between a dangerous ignoramus (accepting, of course, your "objective" analysis) and a dishonest ignoramus (Kerry - another candidate that a majority of world citizens approved of). Granted, I decided for the first election to not vote for either of the two major party candidates since I have concluded that "voting for the lesser of two evils" is more a cliche than a voting strategy. I have reason to suspect that the candidate who won and will very soon occupy the White House will find that a cult of personality will only take him so far...here's hoping he has something else.
But we have seen the emergence of a group that wants to shut down the dialogue.
Oh, you mean the minority in California that unleashed all sort of civic ugliness because they lost in their effort to change how marriage is defined? Yes, and the amazing thing is that they continue to attempt to shut down the dialogue everywhere they can by use of epithets like "bigot", "hater" and "homophobe". Yes Jime, that is unfortunate that a few will try to shut down dialogue, or worse still, attempt to intimidate those that participate in that most basic of rights, exercising their vote.
Well, I have to head out the door as I have a date with friends to eat, play Scrabble and drink a little beer. Still, I would like to share a little information a friend passed along to me from the New York Times. A column by John Tierney titled, "For Good Self-Control, Try Getting Religious About It" Check it out...now I suspect some of you fancy yourselves "religious"...ok, but the sort of religion this columnist is writing about is not a religion that advises with milquetoast pablum. No, no...this is Ten Commandments sort of religion, of the sort that favor self-control (you know...like abstinence) over self-indulgence (and no, using a condom does not excuse one from the vice of sexual incontinence). Anyhow, check it out...honestly I was not surprised by what I read, in fact I felt as if someone was reporting the obvious...you know, like that water is wet, or that 2 plus 2 equals 4.
Here's wishing you all good health and happiness in Twenty-O-Nine, and best wishes for success to Pres. Elect Obama.
Few of the people who positions I agree with won and I feel great about 2009. You guys should find something more important to base your sense of well-being on than the government.
Fascinating comment, Anon. My sense of well-being has nothing to do with "the government" and everything to do with how my fellow Americans feel. For some reason the people I love turned into greedy, sadistic brutes, and voted for a regime that practiced the crudest forms of immorality -- torture, greed, bullying, destruction became our national emblems. Over some years of behaving like that, however, it seems that the people I love realized that we were shaming ourselves, and this November they voted for change, for hope, for positivity, kindness, intelligence. My "sense of well-being" is definitely enhanced by knowledge that I live in a society with a conscience.
JimK
Andrea-not anon
Harvey and I are going to Inaugural volunteer training next weekend. Harvey thinks he will be asked to work at an inaugural ball. I think it is more likely we will be asked to direct people from a Metro stop to the Pennsylvania Avenue/Mall area.
"greedy, sadistic brutes, and voted for a regime that practiced the crudest forms of immorality -- torture, greed, bullying, destruction became our national emblems"
I guess hyperbole will always be with us.
"for change, for hope, for positivity, kindness, intelligence"
Yes, always.
Jim, the Obamas are really not that different from the Bushes.
the Obamas are really not that different from the Bushes.
Bulloney!
Bush was born into priviledge, Obama wasn't.
Bush is white, Obama isn't.
Bush is a proud C student, Obama isn't.
Obama invited people from both sides of a divisive issue to share the Inaugural stage with him, Bush didn't.
Bush was first elected President of the USA by a 5-4 vote of the Supreme Court after his actual loss in the popular vote, Obama won by a landslide.
Oh yes Orin and let's not forget those lovely Christians who want to shut down Ford, McDonalds and Campbell Soup for daring to cater to the fact that (gasp) gays buy cars, eat cheeseburgers,soup, and (shudder) have families.
If you ask me, if those epithets fit then they should wear them.
"Bulloney!"
It's kind of appropriate that you would devise a word like this.
"Bush was born into priviledge, Obama wasn't."
Jim's issue were character not circumstances. Obama didn't live in poverty.
"Bush is white, Obama isn't."
Actually is as white as he is black but it really doesn't matter.
"Bush is a proud C student, Obama isn't."
They both went to Ivy League schools.
"Obama invited people from both sides of a divisive issue to share the Inaugural stage with him, Bush didn't."
As we've seen already, at Bush's 2005 inaugural, the invocation was given by a clergyman from a church that supports gay and abortion rights. The bendiction was by a black minister who publicly supported and worked for Obama's election this time. Not exactly a couple of soulmates although the latter was reportedly a close friend of Bush despite their political differences.
Obama may turn out to be different- we don't know because he doesn't have any experience- but liberals, in general, are known for trying to silence any criticism of their positions because they know a rational person would rarley side with them in an even-handed debate. Dems, for example, have for years rejected any speakers from their conventions who support the protection of unborn children.
"Bush was first elected President of the USA by a 5-4 vote of the Supreme Court after his actual loss in the popular vote, Obama won by a landslide."
The 2000 vote was counted many times and came out differently each time. Another count would doubtless have come up with another result.
Obama won a clear victory but not a landslide.
None of this, moreover, makes Bush greedy, sadistic brutes, torturuous, bullying, or destructive nor does it makes Obama hopeful, positive, kind, or intelligent.
Let's see next year how much has changed under Obama. He's already planning to step up military action in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Anon, Google shows that the word "bulloney" appears on 56 different posts at this blog.
JimK
They both went to Ivy League schools.
What a typical half truth from a Bushleaguer. Yes, they both attended Ivy League schools, but Bush was admitted as a legacy student, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him. In contrast, Obama was admitted by the power of his own experiences; earning good grades and working as a community organizer to improve the lives of Americans living in poverty.
Obama excelled in academia while Bush excelled in horseplay. Proud C students don't get selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year, and elected president of the journal in his second year or graduate from Harvard with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude like Obama did.
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