Evening Nocturne

03/23/2008

Paul Munnis


For me one alluring aspect of voting for Hillary Clinton was the All-Star Cast that she could bring to Washington -- an experienced crowd that could hit the ground with their feet running and sweep away our American troubles.

Alas, as more and more of the old guard have endorsed Obama it leaves me with a sense of advantages lost. I am not sure what Hillary brings to Washington anymore. Certainly she brings Bill and he is proving more of a liability than an asset during this campaign. He might be a different matter after the election though when he can exhibit personal diplomacy. I am not anti-Bill, he has accomplished remarkable things.

I am not alone in these thoughts for others have expressed them to me in confidence stating that if McCain stays in the center then they might just vote for him. Yet, I think about the neo-cons and their agenda and the need that McCain has for their support and the price that he must pay for it and all that I can see ahead is trouble with that venue.

Obama is a bit of a scary notion to me. Like it or not he represents a lot of pent-up emotion and anger for generations of black Americans who have a grudge to carry and Obama’s good speech cannot cure that. One look at the number of black males that are in prison is all that’s needed to understand just how deep our social problems run. Then think about those that went before and those now in training. Who is to blame for this -- White America? Yes, to a degree; yet the old line that “The Devil made me do it,” is not a substitute for taking personal responsibility for sin committed against others. That is what prison is – a sin-bin. Yet I have lived among fellow Americans who are black and I have witnessed love, compassion, personal responsibility, and goodness. In fact that is more often the case than not. Then I ask myself what is the real problem and more often than not I am finding that my complaint is over mental illness causing bad behavior and it is regardless of race. The enemy is not race – it’s ignorance, mental illness, and poverty too. Some of what I have witnessed in black communities is not crime as such but street justice administered harshly because it is the only justice to be had.

These problems can be fixed if we are willing to step up to the plate. Then I recall how quickly blacks yell “Jim Crow” when they disagree with one of their own and I am once more left on edge.

I am demanding perfection in the candidates of course and I have no right to demand that. They are human beings and they are susceptible to all of the human emotions and failings that we all possess. Yet I hold them to a higher standard even if I have no right to do so. I also know that the media can slant and distort the facts to suit themselves and often do.

So I am entering this campaign season uncommitted and doubtful. To get me to vote for a candidate this year they are going to have to prove sincerity in their words and actions. I also am reminded of Ronald Reagan’s mention that it is easy to talk about change but it comes very slowly to a nation. Also I realize that change can be temporary or it can be permanent. Even as I hope for permanent change still others are sincerely hoping that the changes are only temporary. Is change really so slow as Ronald Reagan said? It seems that the “No New Taxes,” crowd slipped in on cat paws and suddenly they were just there.

Like most Americans I am sick of the stolen elections, the GOP dirty tricks, and I am deeply suspicious of those who would examine passport data sensing that transgression to be just a small percentage of what is really going on beneath the surface. The Swift-boating and the phone jamming of the 2006 election is still fresh in my mind, the problems with electronic voting machines, the outlaw states like Florida and Michigan who are doing a terrible dis-service to the American people and of course I have long memories going way back to Watergate. I still recall the bad taste left from purple heart band-aids at the 2004 GOP convention and I have vowed not to watch them this year even though they are being held just up the road in the Twin Cities. I wish that the GOP Convention was being held in another state.

There are days when I think back to this grand experiment that is America and look at the difference between success and failure and I find it is a difference that arises from the soul of the American people. When that soul is real and passionate then we shine; yet when the soul is self-centered, materialistic, and selfish, then we decline.

That is true of the whole human race I guess and Americans are caught up in a vortex of change brought on by us. What actually happens is what we choose to make happen and examining the signs that I see in the economy and government then it looks to me as though this grand experiment is at ever greater risk.

Yet there is something else to be admitted. Humans, above all of the animals on God’s earth are the only ones capable of changing themselves in a flash. One intellectual spark of realization can ignite the soul and thus change mans behavior. It’s electric and catching too. That is the wonder of the human race and that is the hope that carries people through difficult times. We hope for better times and we work towards better outcomes.

So I go on hoping for the best and often I am seeing it materialize. I doubt change can be scheduled to synchronize with elections though. I note that such synchronization failed us in 2004. We woke up far too late to the realities of the man who we elected president only to realize that everything that had been said about his Administration was true. Flag waving, bumper stickers, and lapel pins were no substitute for good government. Now we have had four years to regret our second mandate for the same bad president. Maybe it will be enough to restore our nation, maybe it won’t. I don’t know. But like you, I hope for the best and carry on expecting rescue at any moment.

The prayer is simple enough: “God Bless America.” The wish is simple too: that we avoid greed and materialism and allow all to fully participate in this great American experiment. The tune is haunting and it sounds unlike anything else I have heard.