Hope is a good thing
Posted 3/11/2008 07:52:00 AM
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
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
Labels: 2008 election, Kadlecek columns, Presidential race
8 Comments:
If you're young and conservative you have no heart, if you're old and liberal you have no brain.
AHD
In regard to Obama, it is easy to see that people in the country really want change. It is evident in the President's and Congress' poll numbers. But would Obama really bring change? Or is he just good at talking about it.
At first I thought that maybe a breath of fresh air is what this country needs. Someone young, (and a minority to boot) would fill this description appropriatley. But I heard Sen. Obama speak after his losses in Texas and Ohio, and I was dissapointed. His description of how the want of change was sweeping the country from the "Texas Plains to the Hills of Appalachia," told me nothing about the man's agenda for the country; just only how good he knows US geography.
For Obama to convice people on both sides that he will bring change, he needs to start talking about the issues seriously. In my opinion, his recent speeches have been nothing but rhetoric, almost sermon-like. Dems are eating this up, but when November comes he needs to make sure that he gets to the real issues to have a shot at winning.
I think Mr. Ramirez first statement is correct. it is easy to see that people in the country really want change. It is evident in the President's and Congress' poll numbers. But would Obama really bring change? Or is he just good at talking about it.
Obama can talk a good talk but is he going to walk the walk and I really dont think so!
Dr. Kadlecek writes under the assumption that the country is divided between those who want war and those who want peace. He could not be more mistaken. Everybody wants peace. Some people are willing to fight for it. Others just cross their fingers. That's the difference between policy and hope.
Judging from Dr. Kadlecek's son's age, it strains credulity for Dr. Kadlecek to assert that the problems of today present an unprecedented level of global danger. If Dr. Kadlecek is 70, that means nothing since 1938 has presented a greater danger to the world than the confluence of nuclear proliferation, terrorism and global warming.
Is Dr. Kadlecek serious? Or are his words distinct from their connotations, and he merely means we have never before faced global warming, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism? That's awfully specific, and weird to present in such a foreboding tone. Well, that's cool too - I ate a sandwich earlier today. In my lifetime, never before do I recall the world confronting such deliciousness. Does that mean we've never faced the level of deliciousness? Or is the particular combination that is unprecedented in history? If it's the first, then Dr. Kadlecek is rating the present situation as danger on a scale surpassing Munich, WWII, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, yada, yada, yada. If it's the second, then he's basically saying nothing, but he's saying it in a really scary way to make it sound like it's not nothing. Which is kind of like Obama saying nothing in a really hopeful way, to make it sound like it's something.
Hey, I like Obama too. I voted for him. I just feel a bit embarassed when I hear the reasons other people vote for him, and I feel a bit angry (a lot angry) at the insinuation that those who are willing to fight for peace are bad while those who are willing to really want it badly are good - especially in the context of that 70-year-old event that's not as bad as today: Munich. Dr. Kadlecek would have been so mad at Churchill. I would've loved to have seen the blog post.
Yours,
Ben Glickler
:)
I wonder if the folks
Who disparage Obama
Would do so if he
Looked less like his daddy
And more like his mama.
American PLEASE! This has nothing to do with race dont throw race into this!
voter:
If you say so.
I happen to be in my fifties, successful, and a registered voter who has voted in every single election since I was 18 years old. I also happen to have a Black father and a White mother. By shear chance I look like mom; my brother and sister look like dad. Guess who can get better job offers, better interest rates on loans, better living spaces (btw: we all have the same education and credit scores in the 800's) or go into more places without stares, bad service, rudeness from strangers, suspicion, or down-right contempt?
Therefore, I was not "throwing in race," I was posing a legitimate musing based on personal experience.
You can live in your magic, imaginary world of self-imposed, color-blind indignation if it makes you feel better, but it doesn't make the truth any less true. Actually, I find it rather interesting, and telling, that you stated that you don't think Obama "can walk the walk" yet, you give no rationale for your statement.
Furthmore, I would be more likely to believe it isn't about race, IF the Politicians, Their Minions, Talking and/or Typing Heads weren't separating every single one of the AMERICAN Voters into Black Voters, White Voters, Latino Voters, College-Educated Voters, Blue-Collar Voters, Gay and Lesbian Voters, Women Voters, Men Voters, White Male Voters, White Female Voters, Black Women Voters, Black Male Voters, Young Voters, Senior Voters, Southern Voters, Northern Voters, Catholic, Protestant, Baptist Voters. What's next? Short and Tall Voters?
Those tags may not be racist in your eyes, but they are certainly separatist, which is the father of racism.
Seems to me, we are AMERICAN voters, and the majority of tags put on you and me by others are for reasons which you, nor I, can control. Are you not more than the sum of your sex, age, skin-color, or your religious affliation? I like to believe that all of us are more than those oh, so insignificant parts of a human being.
AHD said: "If you're young and conservative you have no heart, if you're old and liberal you have no brain."
You've got it a little bit wrong:
If you're young and liberal it's because you're using your brain AND your heart, and if you're old and conservative, you've got no heart and have been too lazy or selfis to have gained any wisdom.
And by the way, Obama has brains, talent and God-given gifts that reach right through to people's hearts, and revive our belief that the country we grew up hearing about could really exist--it's NOT about his race.
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