Don't Stop Now

Yesterday’s Inauguration was nothing less than incredible! The energy was almost overwhelming, the mass of people with perpetual smiles would have excited even the most sour of souls. Then I met her. A very nice lady of 45 years with tears streaming and the most prideful smile I think I have ever seen. Then it happened. Rev. Rick Warren took center stage.

"Isn’t he that gay evangelical preacher?" She nudged and asked with her smile instantly gone and tears almost flowing backwards.

"Yeah, that’s him. The controversy behind him and his being here is incredible. But I really need to listen to what he has to say." My reply was on the curt side because I was paying particular attention to the reference to "Jesus". (Well that and the fact my aunt would still smack me up side the head if she saw me talking during a prayer)!

The good Rev did a good job in both addressing and side stepping the reference to Jesus. (A story for another time though). I found myself stuck in thought about how that this woman who was so excited about the new president had dried up as soon as she heard this one name. It made me wonder.

Once things were all said and done it was time to address to this middle aged woman who had traveled so far to so proudly support and represent her vote in person. And address her I did. I told her about the controversy surrounding Rev. Warren; about the legal threat for the new president if he referred to Jesus, but not about him being openly gay. (That was her hang up not mine and I have learned the best way to ignite a conversation of this sort is to push the person to words by not lending forth the words they want to hear). And ignite conversation is what it did!

"He’s gay!" She was visibly upset at this point and playing right into my hands!

"He is, that is a big part of the controversy but the good thing about ignorance is the given opportunity to learn better." She did not get it (yet) and that was fine because I was going for the throat (I did not just want to maim her) and getting her worked up enough to really make it count.

"You can not be president and have this fag on your stage!" She was now pissed and I was determined to thoroughly piss her off through her own ignorance.

"I hate to break this to you, but some one has to be the one. Obama was Baptized in the Trinity United Church of Christ. He and this church stand for equal marriage rights for all. They support not only gays but gay marriage rights." I just stare waiting for her warm sea of ignorance to be frozen over by just a touch of icy cold common knowledge.
She took her seat, dropped her head and I smiled as my cousin Lynn stared daggers into the soul of my very being. (She’s fairly mean - I guess it runs in the family). I give this non learned woman time to run through it a bit before taking a seat next to her. She and I talked for a while and I pointed out what was and was not important. Explained that something so superficial should not ruin her excitement and her motivation to support one of our own. She pepped back up and I introduced her to the joint chiefs and few people I knew that were still in arms reach. Again happy but with something to think about.

Now, there are two things here. How did this woman travel so far and support Obama to such degrees and have no clue to the most basic common facts about who she was supporting? (You see, the band wagon disembarks for the simplest of reasons). A woman of such religious convictions should have known such basic things. She instead opted to be blindly led by the wave of emotion that swept the nation during the two year campaign. Ignorance is bliss until you face the facts or (in this case) the facts face you. More importantly is this; what is and is not important? Rev. Warren is gay. So what. What does that have to do with you or I? Nothing. We can argue what is happening to religion but unless you sit in his church every Sunday you are once removed and it is thus of little consequence on such an exact scale. Obama supports equal marriage rights. So what. All that is wrong today and we are going to pick a fight on trivial social issues of moral decline? A person that has just been laid off and is struggling to feed their family could give a rats ass about such issues. These issues are of more importance to some than to others and I see their concerns. The fact that a Reverend is gay and recognized by the church goes against the way I was raised too but I am more concerned with issues that effect our freedoms and our liberties. I am more concerned with issues that effect our financial viability as a country. I am more concerned with the growing religious conquering of the world through terror. Not that a man is okay with same sex marriage. Given the conditions of the world, that is trivial and should neither hinder or accelerate support for anyone other those that are most selfish in their personal agendas.

Alarming though is the idea so many actually know so little about the new president. That scares me. This is a time of change and these people want change but will not take personal steps to enact it. One person wrote yesterday about the new president; "I pray for change. And a change for the better." You don’t pray for change, you become a part of change!!! This is the type of person who wants it to be "better", she just wants some one else to make it "better" for her. Ever wonder if this type of apathetic attitude where we all wait for the next person to do it has gotten us to where we are today? People waiting for some one else to take the lead and turn to cry and whine about the course they have chosen to follow. Blame whom ever you want but it is our collective faults. We are a culture of excess that refuses to do more with less until some one forces us to make change. We sit in the back of the bus wondering where the next stop will be. The time has come to plot your own course and plan your own future, waiting on the other guy does not work. It did not work then, it will not work now and it damn sure won't work tomorrow!

To all of those that supported Obama, your pledged support has just begun. This is not a dropped ballot and walk away situation. To sit idle will get you more of the same; just with blue ink written on it. Lead your life to a better future for yourself and you will bring a better future for all. To those who did not (do not) support Obama. Do so now. Like it or not, we are all in it together. Stand up and be heard (don’t be a little whiny bitch in the corner of the room)! Be active and take control of you and yours. Lead your life to a better future for yourself and you will bring a better future for all. We can all have varying degrees of difference, but if we are all going forward, we will all get ahead.

In Obama’s speech yesterday he made but one quote and it was the one thing I would have changed if I were in his shoes. One more fitting for our time and our current needs; "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." JFK. It is time to move forward and take active position in oder to truly bring forth change.

The time of people bringing change for us and to has long since past. The concept is as old as the geezers sitting in the senate and in congress. Their thought patterns are of generations past, the time to let them go has come. Vote them out, pass your local propositions to force their shaking, liver spotted hands to enact your will. Their minds may still be fairly sharp (arguably) but they are truly that of dinosaurs. Kennedy, Byrd, Specter, Inouye, Bunning, Lautenburg, Akaka (to name but a few). Some have assumed office in the late 50's and early 60's. We have collectively conspired the political demise of Bush in the call for higher expectations of our country's highest elected official but the tools of such politics remain strong in the form of junior elected officials that have spent more than our lifetime enacting the policy that has led us down this road - they remain not only strong but very well intact. They must be next. They were much bigger contributors to what we blamed Bush for than Bush himself. The head of the serpent is gone but the serpent itself persists.

I think we have the right idea as a people but the execution of the ideal is not the best in that it was unifocul. In two years we vote again. Target your state officials and understand that they represent much more than your state. Your state official could be on the sub arms committee supporting and funding a war you do not. (Few think of these things when they vote at the local government levels - if they vote at all). This is how they have survived the test of time; public ignorance. Look for new faces and new ideas and ideals, then LEARN about your candidates. Turn the commercials off and read for yourself. Demonstrate you are no longer the fool they have taken you to be. Because a person has been in office since you were eligible to vote (or even your entire life) does not win them your vote by default, it does not merit them wise to do the job; it proves testament only to our apathy and lack of concern for our future.

You have started something bigger than you can ever imagine! DON’T STOP NOW! Finish cleaning house. I would trust my father to run the country; I would not trust my grand (and in some cases; great) grand father to do it!

-T