Hope is a good thing

By Dr. James “Jim” Kadlecek

“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 Colorado) recently wrote me, explaining his perspective on the presidential election. I’ve asked him if I could share his views with you, the readers of this blog. So, here are excerpts from his letter, which I believe goes a long way toward explaining the reasons many Americans are attracted to Obama as a presidential candidate.

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 America and her people, and from the belief that the ideal of America is greater than the sum of ideas that bred hatred and injustice and greed and war. Bobby didn’t want to be president – he felt he had no choice.

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 America?

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. America and the world need leaders who will move us toward unity and peace, and away from perilous military strategies that only serve to cause more enmity and distrust and that actually exacerbate the problems we face.

In 1993, the eminent scholar and international leader Dr. Harland Cleveland published his book, The Birth of a New World, in which he described our times as “an open moment for international leadership.” Cleveland described with amazing accuracy the circumstances and the dangers facing the post-Cold War world, including the threat of terrorism. He laid out a set of diplomatic, educational, technological and political strategies to deal with the situation. He saw an opportunity then – the “open moment” – for leaders to step forward collaboratively in the interest of world peace and preservation.

Cleveland quoted Thomas Paine in the preface to his book: “We have it in our power to begin the world all over again. A situation similar to the present hath not appeared since the days of Noah until now. The birth of a New World is at hand.”

Certainly the situation of the ultimate world peril that now exists has not happened before. So one can hope the historic moment that Cleveland saw in 1993 can somehow be resurrected by our new president, in cooperation with other world leaders.

Hopefully so.

Kadlecek has lived in Doña Ana County since 1996, served in the Colorado Legislature and holds a doctorate in public administration. He’s the author of the book “Capitol Rape.” His column runs on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month and other times that he gets fired up about something.