When I was born Roosevelt was president, when I was in 1’st or 2’nd grade we had the Dewey/Truman election, we voted in our classroom, I voted for Dewey, I hoped I was right in that vote cause our family was Republican and I knew I would be quizzed when I got home. Sure enough I was and got lots of praise for voting the right way…everyone was positive Dewey would win and what an upset that was.
I was alive when Truman dropped the bomb on Japan, I wondered what was so great about all of that, (there was a big picture in the paper of the mushroom cloud and everyone oohed and ahhed over that, everyone said it was good so I believed them..Later on I came to understand it was not good, no matter the US rationale for same.
I was in grade school when we got under our desks at school for the survive the bomb blast drill. Try growing up with that threat hanging over your head every day. We lived in fear and dread to hear that siren go off, when it was drill day. We all lived in dread and tried to be happy, but it was hard and we mostly thought we didn’t have long to live.
I was just 20 or so when Kennedy was president, he brought with him the dreams and we loved him for that and we had hope for a little while till the Cuba thing. Then he was murdered, I just starting out in my life when his was ended, it was the darkest day I’ve ever seen in America, up to and including the present. The nation was in dark morning for weeks and months.
Then came Bobby, MLK and many, many others, they came, they rose up and they were gone, in an instant and we were left with their words and their dreams, and we dreamed the dreams, we still try to, we still try to hold onto them, but they seem always to be fading.
I was taught how great this country was and then I grew up to find out more about slavery, about the Native American, the Hawaii takeover,Mexico, and more and more and more and more and more, all the way up to Gitmo and Abu Ghraib and of course Bush.
Now I can hardly muster an ‘I love this country’.
But yet I do not want to see it fail although there is a part of me that thinks (like AG) it needs to all fall down before it can be built up again.
There is knowledge in living through history, that can not be found in merely reading it. I haven’t lived too long in the grand scope of things, but the 65 years that I have, have been quite something and some would say the most exciting of all the years of this country.
I have to say that this election, far out excites any of the elections I have been alive to witness, it is simply stunning.
We have our hopes and dreams again, we think we might have a chance, some think with Hillary,some think with Obama, I think we need both of them. I know it will be a hard thing to decide, it will take a long time and I think we need exactly that, we need to take a long time to figure this one out and no one should begrudge the time it takes.
I can remember conventions when the nominee was fought out there and were they ever exciting, even for a 17 year old, even for a 21 year old or whatever exact age I was.
Lately they all have been cheerleading competitions, not very interesting at all.
So I guess I just want to say, I’ve seen a bit of history in my life and I say just wait, you are gonna see a grand thing play out here.
The blog bitterness does not spill over into the real life so much, most folks are not tainted by what we see on the blogs, so it will be worked out, maybe not to the liking of this site, but it will for the most part be the will of the people, not withstanding some of the people will have more pull than other of the people.
Now if it’s true as AG say, we got no say, then why are we arguing anyway…I still think we do if the machines work, I still think we have a chance, one last chance before it all falls down.
And I especially think we have a chance, just like AG says, with Hillary and Obama on the same ticket, I so wish we could have co-presidents right now, but absent that I’m not sure which way I would run the ticket..
In my measure of the past in the nomination area, this one isn’t so bad at all. Scorched Earth, please.
I just wish the bitterness would subside, let them fight it out, lets worry about McCain for a bit.
I think I am channeling AG as I started this as a comment on his diary and it got way too long.
Let me end this by say, dear God, please Bless America, we need it.
And best wishes to all of you.