My Blog of the Days of Obama in America: John Brantley
January 17, 2009 The Office of President.
Don't get me wrong. I wish I were on the train to Washington. I don't guess it will roll through the southern states, as that might be out of the way or wasted time or simply not on the agenda. All my life I have been such avid advocate for the least, the last, and the lost. Having run for president myself with a twist of serious dreams of such a lofty goal, I am hardened to believe that the ordinary person has not hope of holding the office. Which is as it should be. It is not an office for the ordinary person. It is not the position for the ordinary leader. It is not the goal of the ordinary passionate servant of the community. For goodness sakes, it is the President of the United States, the patriotic trophy of the greatest-super-power-on-the-face-of-the-earth.
Why would mere mortal want to assume that the ordinary plumber, average attorney, or especially a cleric, pastor, or priest of any religious order dare approach the oval cocoon of authority and audacity?
January 1, 2009 Historic Inauguration?
Is the inauguration of the 44th president the one and only history Inauguration in the history of our sacred union? What makes it historic? It must be historic because we have elected the first Arab-America president in the midst of the war on terror with Arab extremist and while Hamas rockets and Israeli air raids pummel the Gaza strip? It must be historic because we have elected another male to lead a country that is 52% female? It must be historic because we wanted change and have a cabinet of leaders who are nearly identical to prior administration's leadership, (not saying good or bad decision) but i can't call it a change.
It must be historic because we selected
a leader who called for change without feasible plans to make changes
in an economic recession falling toward countless bailouts? I know it
must be historic because it is the same number as Hank Arron who had
his historic record broken by someone who was alleged to be chronically pumped on
steroids, who wouldn't be tested to exonerate himself, who all three
happen to represent the African-American community.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to attend the inauguration and yes, I would gladly do the invocation. But it may be more historic for a person who actually gave blood, sweat, and tears -along with friends, neighbors, and family- to the cause of civil rights in our great country, I am a only a privileged ivy-league- educated liberal who ran for president and lost. Hey, I lived in Chicago in the sixties and it didn't corrupt me? I didn't get invited. I don't live near a railroad that the freedom train will pass right by. As close as I will get to history will be the internet and the television. And if I did go, it would be a day of walking, standing, screening, waiting, freezing, and hearing what I can hear more clearly on my screen in the warmth of my own home. I think I will make history there.
December 2008 More than For or Against
Simply because you are against the war does not make you an enemy of the state.
You
are for us or against us, what crap! I did not vote for the winner of
the election. For the past three elections my candidate has not won. In
fact of all the times I have exercised my privileged duty to choose who
would be the leader-of-the-free-world and my commander-and-chief, I
have more often voted for the candidate who did not win. Why is it
that, this time, someone called me a racist because I voted for the
white man? I did not vote for McCain because he was white. I voted for
him because I have more confidence in him leading the country through
this time of economic turmoil, the war in Iraq, and in over-turning the
policies and life-time-assumptions-of-power who stifle how we view, use
and develop our resources for fuel and progress. I have more confidence
in the skills, choice, and vision I have seen with McCain than Obama.
I am now hopeful that Obama will be willing to let the rhetoric of
election become mute and the actions of his call for change, transform
the foundation, not simply the whims of the middle class or the hopes
of the poor.