“Hope is a good thing… maybe the best of things… and no good thing ever dies.” – “Andy” from The Shawshank Redemption
At a local restaurant the other day, I asked the young college student waiter if he was following the presidential race. He responded, “You bet. I’m for Obama!” I asked why. He said, “He gives me something to hope for.”
My son JJ (age 49, and living in
He starts by commenting on his admiration for Bobby Kennedy:
“Bobby gave us hope, and an understanding of the obligations of freedom, which was so desperately needed by the nation at that time (1968). But those hopes all died with him the morning he was assassinated. Bobby was a youthful 42 years of age, and had served only a brief time in the Senate. He had distinguished himself as attorney general and as special counsel, yet his political wisdom came not from the experience of years, nor did it come from a privilege of association or a manipulation of people and power. It came from the wisdom of his heart and mind, from a deep-felt dedication to
I distinctly recall the empty feeling – the void in my heart – when my time to participate in our most precious of freedoms came. What was absent? Each election I’d vote, but without enthusiasm – indeed, with a great deal of cynicism. What had happened to the dream? Had we really lost all that Bobby and Martin and John stood for? Did hope truly die in 1968? Were we doomed to watch our ever-eroding freedoms slip away in favor of corporate control of our politics and the puppets they place in our highest offices? Must our dream of equity and truth finally give way under the weight of paranoia, radical fundamentalism, fear mongering and the contemporary resurgence of that same hatred and injustice and greed and war – no longer hidden in the jungle camouflage of protecting democracy, but concealed in the desert fatigues of a secure
2008 brings another election cycle, and for the first time in 40 years, and maybe for the last chance of my lifetime, I feel moved by a candidate. His opponent is correct – he doesn’t have the same years of experience – but that may make him less guilty than those who’ve played an active role in helping us stumble to the cliff’s edge we now find ourselves facing – whether by their action or lack of it. She is also right, in that what he says are after all, just words. But, what words. Words that inspire hope, deliver pride, cause enthusiasm and drive Americans to participate in their freedom. Those sound like the right words, like words I remember hearing Bobby Kennedy speak, like words I’ve waited 40 years to hear again.
But his opponent fails to tell the whole story. His words are also full of substance and detail, full of fact and truth, courage and risk – and when we need to hear it, he may be the only candidate with the nerve to tell us that we need to sacrifice.
John asked us what we can do for our country. Martin asked us to look in our hearts and find the dream. Bobby asked us to remember who we are, and to become once again brothers and countrymen. We are at a time when we will again need to be asked to do all of these things, and more. For the first time in 40 years, there may be a leader we can follow.
Obama ‘08. It’s time for a change.”
It is definitely time for a change
I understand full well that there are those who feel just as strongly for Hillary Clinton or John McCain as my son does regarding Barack Obama. But if you believe, as two-thirds of Americans do, that our country has been on a very destructive and dangerous course in recent years, we can certainly agree that it is definitely time for a major change in direction.
In my lifetime, I don’t recall a time when the world faced such dangers. The triple threats of terrorism, nuclear proliferation and global warming are potentially catastrophic dangers.
In 1993, the eminent scholar and international leader Dr. Harland Cleveland published his book, The Birth of a
Certainly the situation of the ultimate world peril that now exists has not happened before. So one can hope the historic moment that
Hopefully so.
Kadlecek has lived in