Wednesday, February 06, 2008

The Time Is Now.

In the wake of a truly Super Tuesday, the snapshot that is American Politics 2008 is becoming clearer and more focused. While one party finds itself in tatters, torn between Bible thumping conservatives, Neo-cons, Moderates, and Fiscal Republicans...we are presented with a chance to not only make history, but to change history.

As Americans, we are once again given the opportunity to restore this great nation's standing in the world as a beacon of democracy, a shining light set out to guide by example....and not the war machine of the past seven years inspiring only shock, awe and
anger. And all we have to do is get the word out, get the people to the polls and VOTE.The caveat: we're Democrats...we always find a way to blow this thing. Be it Kerry not fighting back when the Swift Boat Veterans "for truth" smeared an American hero and we re-elected a draft dodging coward, or Al Gore not being able to even carry his own home state in 2000. Hell, the first ballot I ever cast for a presidential candidate went to Michael Dukakis in that lost cause of his '88 campaign. Could we do it again? You'd better believe it. Disaster, thy name is Hillary.

Want to motivate and unite a deflated and splintered Republican party? Then nominate Hillary Clinton. Look, I like Hillary and I agree with her on several issues, particularly her ongoing struggle for national health care. She's been trying to fight that battle since her husband's first term and I appreciate her hard work. But this is a woman that is so polarizing, so hated by the conservatives of this country that they will come out in droves just to vote against her. They will hold their noses and cast a ballot for a moderate John McCain just to stop what they believe to be 'Godzillary'. And we as Democrats will once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

But do I really believe that this will happen? No, I most certainly do not. And here's 13 reasons (New Mexico is this close to being 14) why: Alaska... Missouri... Colorado (my home state making me proud!)... Idaho... Minnesota... Connecticut... North Dakota... Utah... Kansas... Alabama... Delaware... Illinois... (and where our family currently hangs our hats) Georgia. Thirteen states on Tuesday that stood up and said that this will NOT be one of those years. This time is different. Hope is real and change is coming to America.

Barack Obama will blaze a new chapter in the book that we, our parents, grandparents and great grandparents have written as Americans, a book that we pass on to our children. Not only by becoming our first black president, but as the president who can and will bring us back together, to heal a hurt and humbled nation on the heels of the some of the most trying times we've faced in our long and sometimes very difficult history. To recover from the long national nightmare that is the Bush administration, we need someone who inspires people to come together to work towards that common goal. We need a president that not only wants to end this unjust war in Iraq, but one who never supported it in the first place. We need leadership that will bring affordable health insurance to all Americans who want it with a realistic and workable plan. He will be the man to (as Barack has stated so eloquently) speak to not just red and blue states, but United States.

Since the voters of Iowa stood up and made their voices heard just over one month ago, a hymn of hope has rung out across this great nation. From the marshes of the South Carolina Lowcountry to the snow capped peaks of the Colorado Rockies, the chorus for change is growing louder. Out on the frozen lakes of Minnesota to the scorched deserts of New Mexico, their voices must be heard. Sweeping from the shores of Connecticut and Delaware across the plains of Kansas and Illinois all the way up the majestic mountains of Alaska...YES WE CAN cry out Americans from every walk of life!

Our time is here. Our time is now.

and these children that you spit on as they try to change their world.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Stronger than bone.

Post Super Bowl and pre Super Tuesday, I wanted to make certain that I take a moment to talk about my Super Scout. We're all thrilled when the 'Big Game' is as close as yesterday's was (well, most of us anyway...boo hoo Pats fans) and Barack Obama appears poised to make significant strides in tomorrow's contests nationwide...but my boy has handled the first real adversity to come his way so extraordinarily, I couldn't be more proud.

A little less than a month ago, Scout broke his femur (the big bone connected to the hip bone) after falling. Poor little guy, right? That cry of pain was unlike any sound I've ever heard. Horrible, horrible day beyond horrible days.

To describe this as a traumatic event for our family does not even begin to do that evening justice. We're still pretty new to this parenting thing and without question learning on the job, but I could have never imagined that pain could hurt so...without getting a scratch myself. Our child's suffering FAR AND AWAY eclipsed any mild discomforts Wendy Lu or I had ever mistaken for real pain in our pasts. While I would have in an instant happily had my legs broken to take that pain away from him, that simply was not to be a choice we would be given.

This is your child, the one thing in this world you value above all others. The largest bone in his body is broken and he hurts...truly hurts...for the first time in his young life.

While this shock to the system for my wife and I came with an abrupt and unwelcome force, I never would have expected how Scout would respond. Aside from his obvious disdain for nurses, a skill he most certainly has honed since his first week protesting the providers of Kiev's Isida Hospital, the kid is just a trooper. Nothing phases him. From the day we brought him back home in the cumbersome cast (which completely limits his mobility by not only immobilizing his left leg, but also riding almost up to his chest and halfway down his right leg) he's apparently been of the mindset, "It's cool. Just keep me engaged." And we have. Moving him around, reading with him, playing with fire truck after fire truck...and he's happy.

For the record, when I say that "We've kept him engaged," Wendy Lu is by and large that 'we'. Thanks to this pesky ongoing need for currency in exchange for goods & services, I'm out of the house for 10 hours a day during the week. But no surprises here on her part, as she's proven time and again that the mantle of 'Mother' is not just given, but earned each and every day.

If it were me laid up in that cast for weeks on end...well, let's just say that I would not be pleasant to be around. Waking a wolverine would be wiser than spending any time at all around me when I'm in a foul mood. And yet, my son is positively perky despite his fiberglass jailer. There's a lesson in that for me.

In just a few short weeks, Scout will be freed of his anchor, free to forget this time as he grows bigger, faster and stronger.
Never remembering just how brave he was and how he taught his father so much at such a young age.

I'll never forget.

i used to fly like peter pan.