At this hour on my local cable channels there is a variety with an unintentional theme. There is the morning news with stories of the war and the coming election. There is an episode of the original Star Trek. On TMC is a movie - a drama based on a real event.
As my daughter asks me to drive her to school, the subject of the movie gives a moment of thinking my daughters perception of real event. I think of what has changed since I was her age. I think of what has not changed since I was her age.
As a reader, you may know where I'm going. So, let me take a few minutes…indulge me.
Mrs Clinton, Mr Obama are asking me to make my choice as to which will face Mr McCain to decide on the future. When making any choice, one cannot avoid thinking of what has gone before. It is instinctive to want to learn from the past. It is instinctive to not want to repeat mistakes.
Well, I am not sanguine about this nations ability to do learn from the past. While it may be instinctive for the individual to want to learn from the past, the dynamics of the group, the state, the nation some how lacks this characteristic.
What I want to choose for the future of my nation is the course that will give us that ability.
You know what I also want...I don't want to be disappointed. I want reasons to to participate in the political process. This is the measure of the candidates for me. Of the promises made which are the most realistic. Which will be able to draw enough from either side into a center and take us to where we need to go.
Let's take the price of gas. When I was a teenager, we were told that gas prices were rising because there was no more gas to be had. Yet when Katrina struck prices have spiked even more dramatically. My daily commute is causing me to lose money for the the year. My cost of living increases are not keeping up with gas and tolls. The point is not my current situation, that is a subject for another day. The point is that presidential administrations of Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush have not produced a reality that deals with the issue on a substantive basis - hence disappointment - and a reason to give in.
We are no more likely to go back to the moon than we are to resolve the gas issue.
I want to vote for a candidate who will enable the me to discuss politics in a productive manner rather than as a simple list of greviances. We owe it to our fathers of the "Greatest generation" to develop a form of governance that enables and encourages people to "politic" in a fashion that the founding fathers were striving for.
Free association thoughts that are resonanting include JFK's challenge. "...We choose to..." fill in the blank "...in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills"
When I think of my history of votes for Presidents and what has become the realities, I'm left with disappointment and frustration. The country has not filled in the blank and taken on any given challenge. We have simple been made to live in fear. And for this I own a share of responsibility - small because I am but one.
I want Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama to resolve the democratic party nomination process quickly so as to not give the forces that seek to manipulate power the advantage. My share of "We the People" wants the productive sense. The past is to be fondly remembered, perhaps temporarily visited. The past is a building block for the future. The past are logic and reason for our national steps to a wisdom for our futures and the history of our childrens futures.
