The election, money and Micah

As I have tried to find space to think and breathe late in this political season I have been thinking about how the electoral system in our country came to degrade into what it is today. When I first came to be cognizant of political campaigns in the early ‘70’s there was some mudslinging (and I daresay there has nearly always been) but ultimately it was usually exposed for what it was, absurd and unfounded accusations. Since the early 80’s this is not the case. Many people are never brought to account for their smears, innuendos and outright lies.

How can this be so? Where is the free and responsible press? How is it that people still believe that Obama is a Muslim, a friend of terrorists, an Arab and a socialist? It’s hard for me to believe that the end is not near for this country. I try, but it’s hard.

I am an Obama supporter. I believe in him and in his policies. I believe that if he is allowed to implement his vision for this country that some of our greatness can be restored. As I listened to his “infomercial” last night I wanted to stand up here in my little apartment and cheer for him. He gets it, he really does.

As I listened to various commentators later, a good number of them conservative, I was struck by a great truth. They kept saying things like: We can’t afford healthcare reform, we can’t afford to improve education, we can’t afford better programs for poor families……… BLAH BLAH BLAH.

And then, my epiphany. We can’t afford the 2 current wars. We can’t afford the Wall Street bailout, we can’t afford all the wounded soldiers coming home, we couldn’t afford the Reagan military build up. But we did those things anyway, because rich and powerful people demanded that they be done.

We, the people, need to take to the streets and demand that the lives of the poor, the homeless, children and the elderly be found to be worthy of the same consideration as wars and Wall Street tycoons. In fact they are worth more. Not being able to afford the programs that raise their standard of living to a minimum level it is not an acceptable answer. Dip into the same pocket where you got the money for the wars and the bailout. We cannot afford NOT to spend this money. The current administration and all of Congress should be ashamed of the condition of the most vulnerable among our citizens. We should all be ashamed. I know that I am.

The prophet Micah tells us: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?.

What our country, which professes to be wholly Christian and God fearing has perpetrated on its poor is neither just, kind nor humble. To use another word from the First Testament: it is an abomination. May the next president and the people of our country have the courage and fortitude to change this. It is our only hope for redemption.

Hoping for strength when it is most needed,

Suzanne

Why Is This True?

So… I just got an email from my best friend. It made me cry. Yesterday I sent her the link to the beautifully written, albeit somewhat partisan, analysis of why we should support Obama in the upcoming election. The piece, for the most part, avoided baseless smears and rhetoric and went carefully over the major decision points which one should look at when deciding who to vote for. It ended with this sentence, which struck me as particularly eloquent:

“At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leader’s name is Barack Obama.”

Her sister responded with a you tube link, a pitiful short film which, in the worst traditions of propaganda, contained mostly film of Obama sound bites (perhaps taken out of context), ominous music and multiple images of bombs, missiles, chanting Muslim extremists and, of course, the twin towers collapsing. There was not ONE real fact in the 5 minute film and it is titled “Obama’s Arrogance Just Became a Nightmare”

Before you dismiss her sister as a right wing ideologue, let me tell you a bit about her. She is a middle aged woman with 2 young daughters, a recent nursing school graduate and a decent, loving and kind person who is struggling to figure out what she thinks in this world. She wants to be responsible, to look at the facts and decide what is best for her family and her country. But she can’t. Because at this place and time in history, those who control our government and (for the most part) our media have a powerful weapon they use in this political shell game and this weapon is fear.

The maker of this film knows her, she is exactly who the film is made for. A decent caring person, neither far right nor far left, who does not have the time or inclination to research every single thing that she might need to know to make an informed decision. A mother, daughter, wife and sister who does not fathom what happens in places like Afghanistan, Palestine, Beirut, Oklahoma City and Iraq. She just wants to know that she and all those she loves are safe. And this film, devoid of facts, analysis or anything else informative, tells her that if Obama is elected, she and those she loves will be unsafe. The filmmaker knows that terrorist attacks and random bombings are her deepest fears and counts on her inattention to detail while the music is playing, the bombs are dropping and the extremists are screaming. They know she will not notice nuances like the fact that Obama is saying he will not fund “unproven” missile defense systems, that Al Qaeda was not in Iraq before we invaded, that Iraq had nothing to do with the events of 9/11 or that the attacks were not a function of a lack of military funding but a profound failure of our intelligence agencies and yes, even those in the White House at the time.

Most of all they play into her desire to believe that we can be made safe, even in the face of all evidence to the contrary. She is a good and decent person being sold a bill of goods because she just wants to live her life in anonymity….. and safety. She is symbolic of the vast numbers of middle class Americans who are repeatedly bamboozled with this exact type of propaganda into voting against their own best interests. By obscuring everything else behind this “curtain of fear”, they have talked her into voting to continue the utterly failed policies of the last 8 years, which have sent us spiraling into debt (which her daughters will bear the cost of), perched us on the brink of financial collapse, reduced our status in the world to that of court jesters and indebted us deeply to several foreign countries, including what may turn out to be the next great superpower, China.

Somehow they are able to keep her off balance, to distract her into believing that none of this is important, look away from that mess they say, look over here, the boogey man is coming and Obama is unlocking the door for him. And this is why I cry. I cry because I am afraid that I cannot fight the weapons that they use very effectively. I fear that I cannot fight deception, propaganda and obfuscation with fact finding and truth telling. It will not stop me from trying, but I no longer know if it is enough.

You see, I am not afraid of terrorists or bombs. They may indeed strike us again and there is nothing we can do to stop them, the world is too interconnected and porous and I do not believe they are the true threat. What I am afraid of are more mundane things that don't make good 5 minute film clips. Fascism, poverty, homelessness, poor health care, crumbling infrastructure and declining educational systems are what will do this country in, not terrorists.

May we awaken before it is too late for us and our children.

Hope, strength and courage for whatever lies ahead,
Suzanne