photo essay 5

Grace

With the morning cup comes the news, protests, basketball, bankruptcies, worries, and endorsements. In the coffee shop, around the breakfast table, and on subway platforms discussions can seem topical, skirting the realities of increasing difficulties in daily life. Barack Obama spoke this week on issues of race and opportunity. He did not skirt the issues. The simple fact that the problems facing this nation are a diluted reflection of the problems facing the average citizen, highlights the need for a unionist approach to the resolution of a problem begun with the signing of the constitution. We are approaching a period in our history that will be judged as heavily as the debate over slavery at the constitutional convention. It is no irony that the upcoming Presidential primary in Pennsylvania may be the determining factor in the selection of the democratic candidate. This race is not about race, it is about opportunity, and opportunity is often determined by race. Poor and disadvantaged members of society have relied on the good graces of those that have giving all that they can, not all that they will. This has been much less than graceful.

Obama's appeal for us all to enter the discussion on race in a way that is honest and meaningful, is recognition of a need for racial reconciliation. It is a call for dialog that does not result in closure, but recognition of generational culpability. It is through the understanding of the results of the top down policy this nation has held in who it will give generational advantage and opportunity to that we as a society can begin to address the gaps in our declaration: Of the people, for the people, by the people. We cannot have a society that is truly for the people if it does not first redefine who the people are.

Obama is asking us to give all we can. He is asking us to recognize advantages provided by our ancestors and the disadvantages our ancestors have willed to others. He is asking, for the sake of future generations that we become a history that reflects the best in humanity, that we propel this nation to a higher ground from the bottom up. Obama is asking that we look into the muddy waters and through honest dialog we begin the process by which the waters can clear, allowing the atrocities of the past to settle out, so that all citizens are included in a government by the people. What I hope for is that we embrace the challenge and can live this history with a little dignity and a little grace.

photo essay IV

speaking out

At what point does the desire to be president usurp the good of the people? I have followed the campaigns closely, and, for disclosure, have volunteered for the Obama campaign more than once. This past Tuesday was a mirage for the Clinton campaign, drinking sand at a false Ohio oasis. The great irony in all of these events is the call by Rush Limbaugh for conservative Republicans to support Hillary Clinton. The differences between these two candidates is far more than the media would like to let anyone believe. At the root is a fundamental philosophical difference towards the presidency and the reason for the existence of government.

Barack Obama has a focus that extends beyond simply becoming president. His desire is to lead a divided nation to unification. We have heard this one before, from the unionist Abraham Lincoln. The presidency is often sought by those who desire more than anything else to become the President without understanding what it actually means to be President. This simply is not enough. Obama’s view of the highest office in the land sees the attainment of the position as the first hurdle in a much larger struggle for the betterment of humanity. His competitor has been fighting to prove she can do the job, and she has done so. Many people could do the job, but so few could be great at the job.

Obama is one of those rare figures in our history who can inspire a people to hope for a better future. Hope is singularly the most important aspect of human existence and development. Without hope we quickly fall into a cycle of self and community destruction. We become isolated and wait for the inevitable. We see no future. Hope widens the vision and raises the possibility of improvement. We hope for a better future for our children, and so work to send them to college. We hope for the luxury of retirement so we save for the future. What we have gotten in the past seven years is the systematic destruction of hope. An increase in debt, defunding of education, collapse of the healthcare system. A sprint towards the inevitable.

Obama believes that the government is of the people, for the people and by the people. So many others believe that the government is separate from the people, operating on the premise that the people do not know what they need. Obama’s more than one million campaign donors have demonstrated a desire to hope for a future and an understanding of what they need. If we are to allow the conservative agenda to champion their own sworn enemy, a sitting President to extinguish the eternal flame of hope, and a party to spiral away from its core value of the people, than we too have been drinking the same sand as Senator Clinton has and will soon choke on our own inability to believe in the future. Supporting Barack Obama is supporting the greater humanity in us all, supporting the unionist idea that we are stronger together than we are divided.