End of our side versus your side?

I "watched" the President's State of the Union Address this year with friends on Facebook.

I don't watch what passes for television these days but instead get my media fix via the internet. A Facebook friend had posted a link to the yearly address and I opened it in another browser window on my computer monitor. This allowed me to see and hear the speech while commenting to my Facebook friends about salient points. Let me say that I do believe HOPE is a strategy FOX.

In these iffy times in world history we need hope and not doomsayers or sowers of negativity and venom. We need our lawmakers to make good use of their time in office and by that I don't mean in planning for their next run for office but to insure the well being of the nation and its citizens. We need you to put aside the rhetoric and work together. My friends and I discussed the points of the speech openly on Facebook even though we clearly had different stands on some of the initiatives highlighted. During the Bush years I became a closet Democrat for fear of being burned at the stake. That wasn't good for me or the country.

One of the best things about the President's State of the Union, was for me not the speech. It was the bipartisan seating arrangement. There are reasons that college stadiums put the home team fans on one side and the visitors on the other and it isn't the spirit of cooperation. It is to foster an adversarial atmosphere. And the Republicans on one side of the House and the Democrats on the other (a few scattered independents down the center) only made the US vs THEM atmosphere in American politics worse. It even allowed one Republican  in Obama's first State of the Union to feel supported enough to Boo. OMG was that embarrassing.

So while FOX is calling this a ploy or trick I am calling it a first step not unlike our first step by man for mankind on the moon.

Hatched last week by Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., the idea caught fire over the weekend after a poll showed a big majority of the public wanting lawmakers of both parties to sit together at the presidential address. A spirited round of private phone calls and e-mails among lawmakers followed, and by Monday at least five dozen House members and senators had announced they had bipartisan dates for the big dance.

Bravo! Let's make America work again.

We're all in this together?

I came down to earth yesterday from the high of the Inauguration of our 44th President of the United States. Traipsing through CNN videos I saw the horror that was Gaza after the Israeli forces pulled out, read the reports of white phosphorus being used on civilians, and listened to Rush Limbaugh declaring that he hoped Obama failed in his agenda for America.

And later I got out into my conservative Republican community and listened to the people that bought GW Bush's version of his eight years in office. There seem to be some people desperately clinging to the Red State/Blue State assignation of blame game. And I find that sad because we are all in the same boat and blame gets us nowhere. Certainly not ahead. And if Obama fails in the tasks before him then the United States fails. And it can happen. We are damn close to it right now whether it is GW Bush's fault or not.

I am not enough of a economist to know what exactly that would mean in the world scheme of things but I doubt China would be doing very well since we won't be buying their goods. And we could no longer afford to keep troups in Iraq and Afganistan or even bring them home?

I am not even totally sure what the United States failing would look like. I assume something like the collapse of the USSR. Various states would form independent federations for survival. Those with the least population and the largest natural resources would fare best. Those with the largest populations and least resources would try to take over the others. We definitely would no longer be a world power that could rescue other nations in trouble or send aid to the starving.

It would be best if Obama does not fail, Mr. Limbaugh. I doubt you would have a radio station to talk from if he does. And what is to be gained, Israel, from having that many children in a neighboring country hate you? Or putting white phosphorus in the air for your own troops to breathe? I think we ought to all (like the entire world) work together to get this floundering ship to shore before we start pecking holes in it. We are in enough trouble with global warming. No need to heat things up more with bombs. We don't need more negative thinking or more toxic chemicals in the air.

As every school child knows from the playground; enemies are all too easy to make. Time to make friends and foster hope. Time to put our energies into our collective survival.

Free at Last

I have been up and reading blogs from around the world on what today means to people! I thought I was excited before. I have not been so excited about a new president taking office since John F. Kennedy.

And there were a lot of similarities. My mother was Democratic Precinct Chairwoman and we lived in a decidedly Republican neighborhood. All our windows were broken out of our car one night. And it became so uncomfortable to attend Girl Scout meetings I stopped attending. One of my best friends belonged to a church that was afraid that electing a Catholic president would turn our country over to the evil pope. So she ceased to be a best friend because her mother verbally attacked me all the time. If I could have stopped going to school I would have.

It is a shame when the politics of division effect even school children. And that among all the wrongs I can contribute to GW Bush was his worst: He totally divided the United States into Red states and Blue states. For the last eight years I was afraid to even admit I was a Democrat or, heaven forbid, against any of his policies. If you were not with him you were a terrorist or in league with the devil.

So when Barack Obama takes the oath of office I am likely to be shouting: "Free at last, Oh, God we are free at last." To oppress any group of people for whatever reason also oppresses the oppressors. All the energy gets taken up with finding the enemy and keeping them down. I think I have been most uplifted by the crowd scenes with blacks and whites and all races and creeds shoulder to shoulder elated at seeing our 44th President of the United States. I am proud of people freely expressing their opinions at last. By polls that show that regardless of party or religion we are behind our new president.

I am so proud of our country at this moment. Especially since the last eight years were designed to make this moment impossible. We have been bombarded with a campaign of fear and hatred and division. And to ruin the spirit of a people is worse than ruining its safety, its economy, its self worth, its reputation around the world. Because of that I vote GW Bush the worst president this country has ever had. And I am happy to state he has failed.

We are free at last. Free to hope and dream and work toward a common goal.

A Return to Hope

I was channel hopping last night. I was really watching CBS with NCIS but I was also interesting in American Idol in small doses and wanted to catch the results of the Beltway Primaries. In one of my hops I caught part of Barack Obama's speech on hope.

It quite frankly brought tears to my eyes for a whole wealth of complicated reasons. First, it has been entirely too long since I had any hope that the United States could be saved from the path it has been led down. Hope was first fostered in my during the Kennedy years and was totally decimated by his cruel death. Let's face it there was nothing inspiring about Nixon unless you were in league with the dark side.

The Clinton years re-kindled some of that Kennedy era hope but Bush totally trashed it. Bush was not just the death of hope but the death of the middle class dream and our country as a shining example of hope. And it was the death of public speaking; replaced by the five second sound bite generally trashing someone else that does not agree with him.

So when I chanced upon Obama's address last night I lingered. I remembered when I first saw him deliver the nominating speech at the Democratic convention. And I was spell bound by his message of hope for not merely the young people of this country but all of us who have lost hope. I was so enticed with what he was saying that after they cut away to McCain I went to CNN's website and watched Obama there.

Up to this point I really did not have a dog in this hunt. I wanted a Democrat over all else and I really did not care which democrat it was quite frankly. And when it got down to Hilary and Barack I found myself split. Part of me really wanted to vote for a woman for president but she kept failing to totally enfold me into her camp. Just when I thought I could rally around her she would act shrill or peevish or send Bill out to do the dirty work. And while she is capable of public speaking she always seems a bit over rehearsed.

Maybe last night I just wanted to believe in something or someone so bad that I was going to fall for the first image thrust before me but I think not. It was a good speech and quite well delivered. I am thrilled this morning that he leads in delegates. But I am very scared the political machines of Clinton and McCain will again crush this fragile flower of hope. That would be so sad.