Since I can remember, which is all the way back to coming home from morning-session-kindergarten and watching Jimmy Carter being sworn in, I have not been political. For many years I didn't even vote because I felt that I was too ignorant of the issues to make a decision that had the potential to... I dunno, turn "Bushish". I watched, I listened half-heartedly, and I deemed the entire process: full of shit. The voting part changed some years back, but I still find the whole process, and politicians in general: full of shit.
But last night something happened that has never in my personal history happened to me. Obama came out and started into his acceptance speech, (my Texan hubby had, of course, gone to bed) and as I watched this man and listened to him speak, I got goosebumps, tears streamed down my face--slowly at first and as the speech continued, they became unchecked-- and the most remarkable thing of all... I Believed Him. For the consummate political cynic that I am, this was the most amazing thing of all to me. I never believe politicians. They have all been inducted into the highest order of liars, and are simply better than most people at covering it up enough to get elected. That has Always been my view. You can not possibly imagine my surprise at my own reaction.
I guess you can say that I fell a little bit in love with Obama during that speech. I was so glad to know it was not just an indicator that I'd mysteriously contracted a mental disease. I watched and flipped back and forth between the after-shows, and they had all felt it, and had fallen for him too. They were full of glassy-eyed praise and optimism that I haven't seen in news reporters maybe Ever... this was the immediate effect of our collective decision to put this man at the helm and what it would mean to this country. I called out inside my own head, "We are FREE" ... of Bush of course! Of all that Bush stands for; the lazy, greedy, sell-out-your-own-country-to-line-your-pockets, fear-mongering, all-about-me mentality that has pervaded and perverted the outlook, world image and general feeling of the entire population of America--I'll stop myself before I tell you what I really think...
And while I feel this strongly about the double-term-dose of hell that W's administration has inflicted on our country, until last night, I was not overly moved or felt really invested in the outcome of this election. I live in the middle of nowhere. Cows, cornfields and chickens don't give a damn who is in power. The only real effect in my personal day-to-day has been gas and food prices, and a generalized low-level sorrow that had gripped me from the day my son was born when I think about the world he's inheriting. Because fear-mongering, although it may not work directly on cows, cornfields and chickens, does distort the surrounding energies of the universe in the long term, so that even I, in the middle of nowhere, had become fearful of standing on my back porch by myself at night. That is how completely it has taken over and placed a secret stranglehold over our citizenry. After the speech, and the post-speech-shows, that fog of fear felt cleared. I stood out without fear for the first time in a very long time.
It was an unbelievable conclusion to a night that had started with my sis & I giving my Texan hubby a ration of shit for voting McCain. He said he did it because watching the SNL political bash show the night before, when he finally saw the Sarah Palin rap with Amy Pohler shooting the moose... well that was it for him. Ohhh, that reminds me, I need to get hubby out there and have him start teaching our son how to shoot... I mean he is almost two already, so if they don't get on it, the state of Texas will revoke my boy's birth certificate!
Yeah, so my only real disappointment of the night--aside from hubby's voting decision-- was not getting to watch the results come in, and seeing Texas turn BLUE....
OK, I have to go, I just laughed so hard I spit coffee all over my 'puter! Ciao for now, readers... and I hope you realize like I did that it's OK to have hope now, because Yes We Can.
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