Indian Summer Bounty Originally uploaded by GraceD
This image - bounty from the local farmer's market. Enjoying the white nectarines while they're still in season.
Recently the e-mail linking Barack Obama to Islamic terrorists - the one that you probably received from freaked out relatives that rarely send you emails but forwarded this racist one - showed up again in my inbox. In this go round, I received it from a friend I've known and loved since high school. I was so horrified and angry that it came back into circulation, by an old friend no less, that I pounded out a carefully worded response in a red hot rage. Of course, style and grammar errors flew off the keyboard and onto the monitor but, our old high school English teacher be damned, I didn't care. I clicked 'send' then went outside to water my tomato plants and calm down.
Some months ago, that same friend and I exchanged pleasant, chatty messages about the primary, who we may vote for, that sort of water cooler talk. When I said the Hubs and I were supporting Barack Obama, my friend replied with that alarmist email. I wrote back to my friend saying something to the effect that this had to be a joke, this is not the pal I know from the old days, etc. But, my friend wasn't kidding, not at all.
And to confirm that this was really not a joke, my friend re-sent it again as a group message. This time I fired back with the truth, the full paragraph from Senator Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope", that exposes the lies in that email as propaganda and blatantly out of context.
You know, I can say that my pal should have known better and ask how did such a smart, well informed person turn into a weirdo crackpot, but we're back to the culture wars of the 90s, the dark Newt Gingrich "Contract ON America" days and the rise of conservative ditto head talk radio. Liberals are evil. All Muslims are out to get us. That ugly xenophobia is back again and it looks like my pal drank the right's Kool Aid. But, there is a smug, justification in holding such views and what is clearly weirdo crackpot thinking to us is a party platform for them.
Therefore, while I called out the email's shameless inaccuracies, I have no interest in convincing my friend that Obama is a gifted and effective leader and we desperately need his wisdom to get our country back to a nation of integrity and decency. Rather, I believe that the real work now is to talk to our friends who are undecided and have the willingness to conduct a thoughtful discussion about this critical fork in the road, the 2008 presidential election.
My plan is to continue the dialog with my friends who are Hillary supporters. They are still in pain from the primaries, but they will understand that a vote for McCain could be a vote for the end of reproductive choice (two Supreme Court Justices may be replaced with anti-Roe activists) and that they must hold on to that frightening thought as they walk into the voting booth. The Hubs speaks of his support for Senator Obama in his professional community. His physician and scientist colleagues are Democrats (most are), but he will talk openly about his support for Obama". Certainly, our older kids talk to their friends, but theirs is an easy task - Obama has the Gen X and Y vote down. Finally, my Molly, a well informed feminist and environmentalist, talks to her 18 year old friends with intelligence and passion of her support for Barack Obama.
I know some of you are scared. We could be headed for another four years (if not one hundred years) of war. Republicans are not addressing rising unemployment, foreclosures and the unresolved crisis of the dysfunctional health care system. And, if McCain wins, reproductive rights for women are in grave peril.
I'm scared too. And, as they say, if you're not scared, you're not paying attention.
This is what we must do now - we must channel that fear into action and work hard, very hard for a Democratic victory. We must send in whatever cash donations we can afford, stuff envelopes at the local Obama headquarters, throw a fund raising party and talk, talk, talk clearly, calmly and with conviction with our friends and associates. We must always call out the bullshit and deflect it with the truth. I honestly believe that this is how we must proceed in the next 59 days.
Be brave in these scary times, dollins. Embrace the audacity of hope.
Barack Obama for President
