Wall Art

more about "Wall Art", posted with vodpod

Happy Saturday

On a superficial note if this is going to be a Saturday morning tradition he’s gotta start off a little lighter, on the upbeat. You know, ease me into the economic maliaise with a little ”how was your week?” “where are you going for brunch?” Because he is harshing my Saturday morning mellow.

Fireside Chat (Revisited)

President-Elect Barack Obama, earnest to hit the ground running, has delivered the first of his weekly Democratic addresses not only in the traditional radio format of FDR’s fireside chats but in an updated YouTube version as well (computer-glow talks perhaps?). Once the radio address is aired on Saturday morning its YouTube counterpart will be posted on Obama’s transition site Change.gov (which has found a comfortable spot on our blogroll) and will also be posted right here.Though the concept is nothing new (apart from its technology) and I don’t think that it inherently makes for a transparent government (its still a controlled message), its level of commitment does connote a continuation of the the proactive engagement and citizen inclusion that exemplified his campaign. 

As an additional attempt to “put a face on government” the transition team will be conducting online Q&A’s, Cabinet selection updates and video interviews from key members. Future proposals have included Google for Government, so people can keep tabs on how their tax dollars are being spent and airing policy deliberations on C-SPAN, (which sounds like it could be either a bore or the next reality TV). The first video below is an update from the transition team co-chairman Valerie Jarret and the second needs no introduction….

 

L.Arnell

On America, Inclusive and Bold

The freshly dilated patriotism of my last post saw a campaign strategy funded by small donors, ran by volunteers, expanded by technology and to 49 states (sorry Alaska) transferring to the governance of this country and buoyantly called this “new America” inclusive. Though the optimism of a transparent government that treats its citizens like adults is still intact and suggests two steps forward, I realize that the word inclusive fails to recognize the passage of California’s Proposition 8 as one step back. The incomparable Keith Olberman tries to appeal to the humanity of it all…

L.Arnell 

President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama

It’s been a week since Barack Obama was elected to be the 44th president of these United States of America. Since the teeth-gnashing disappointment of past elections built a despondent callus, protecting me from potentially misleading polls, Bradley effect, voter disenfranchisement and the same old same old. Since the Get Out The Vote efforts went into overdrive and throngs of anxious voters snaked around city blocks and polling stations. Since the pundits cut from electoral maps and holograms to the rapturous elation of the masses in Chicago’s Grant Park and the revolution was officially televised. It’s been a week since I tearfully celebrated with family and friends then took to the streets to amplify my joy… and yet my euphoria persists.

I continue to cry. I find myself daily grasping for stock footage of how each of the news stations called the election, revisiting triumphant stories and rousing images from across the country and the world, and videos of how neighborhoods erupted with the chorus of spontaneous parades like Harlem’s 125th street and the East Village (yes it is hip to be patriotic). Scrambling for souvenirs I want to encapsulate this emotion. I realize, however, that the gravity of it all will not be culminated in a single night. It will strike me unexpectedly with resurgent waves of pride and inspiration at different times throughout the years to come, on inauguration day, the first state of the union address, the unveiling of change.gov and other innovations of a 21st century president, press conferences (with complete and intelligible sentences), the G8 Summit, etc., etc.

It’s an uncommon excitement for me (I think it’s called patriotism), one I wasn’t fully prepared to experience. Both broadly empathetic and deeply personal, gushing and firmly cerebral, historic and prospective. This election was an overt rejection of our darker days and basest compulsions and a fervent enlistment of our collective talents and hopes. This is a brand new America, inclusive and bold and I’ve never stood taller as an American.

L.Arnell

The True Genius of America

I am so overwhelmed!!!

L.Arnell

It Happened in My Lifetime

I submit my first blog entry on an historic day in this country. I am excited because I believe that we are in the process of electing the first African-American president, not just because he’s black but because I believe in him too. For the first time in the 12 years that I have been eligible to vote, I have been engaged in this process.  

I never gave a shit about politics for most of my life. I never understood why my dad just had to watch the news everyday. I became eligible to vote in time for the ‘96 presidential election. I’m sure I voted for Clinton, but it wasn’t particularly memorable for me. I’ve voted Democratic since, not because I was excited about the candidate, but because the other guy was a douchebag. I began to show some interest in the last election only to have what little faith I had in this country’s democratic process and, to be honest, the American people at large to be washed down the drain on that dark day of John Kerry’s concession speech. It made me realize the liberal bubble in which I live in New York City. Never had I seen such a concerted effort to get one man out of office that I did in 2004 against a Bush re-election. I know Bush supporters did exist, but I had never seen one. Yet somehow amid the several mile long protest of the RNC in Manhattan on the back of the previous four years of some of the worst disasters this country has ever seen and the start of another pointless war, there were still enough people that thought that this guy deserved another shot (and they didn’t even have to steal it that time).  It boggled my mind. I felt an overwhelming depression come over the part of the world opposed to the Bush agenda-a sense of defeat. I thought at least there would be riots or something. I felt we just stuck our tail between our legs and retreated to this corner. At times during any of my travels abroad, I found myself embarrassed to be an American and emphasizing my Canadian roots. 

This time around I know that we cannot standby idly. My complacency was part of the problem. Although, I still believe that electing the right president is only a step in the right direction and ultimately we are the change we need, I know that, in a functioning democracy, unless we are doing something about it we lose our right to complain. So I decided to follow this election process from the beginning, mostly due to the excitement I was seeing from my family. I started watching the countless primary debates, checking out their policies and trying to keep an open mind. I remember thinking when I first heard about Barack Obama in 2004 how interesting it would be if he ran for president. I immediately wrote it off. How can this country go from willfully electing George W. Bush to an African- American? That would nice but please, that’s not going to happen. The dominant psyche is entrenched in racist tendencies. My cynicism wouldn’t allow me to consider the possibility. 

In the beginning, my cynicism still lingered. I’ll admit. I was part of the skeptical black community. It was a skepticism not necessarily about his ability, but one rooted in a history of continued denial of the equality of people of color. I thought, sure we’ve come a long way, but not that far. As I’ve said though, I wanted to keep an open mind. So much so that I wanted to consider all candidates, including Republicans (although it didn’t take me long to rule them out as a choice when I saw how much they embarrassed themselves and their party in the debates). I also was not going to give up my vote just because he was black (even though I really wanted to believe in him). I gave Hillary a chance in my mind. I would’ve felt good about voting for the first woman president, too. Either way, they had to earn my vote.

Like so many African-Americans it took the glimpse of hope that was won in Iowa for me to say, “Oh snap, this might happen.” That combined with the way that Clinton ran her campaign put my vote decidely in Obama’s corner. Since then, the more I learned about him, the better I felt about voting for him and actually volunteering in his campaign to get him elected.

Here it is, the reason why today, Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 around 8:30 am, I cast my vote for Barack Obama!

• Most importantly, his experience as a community organizer. If any change for the better is going to happen at all, it is not going to come from any politician or any government mandate, but from community based leadership. Any amount of progress that this country has made in social justice, whether it be the civil rights movement or women’s suffrage was enacted by the people. The best thing that a leader can do is inspire and empower that leadership in our communities. There is no other candidate that I have ever seen in my lifetime that is better qualified to do just that.  
• His fundamental approach to the issues. What frustrates me the most about our politics is the attitude that says if you’re not with me, you’re against me; that everything is either black or white and there is no grey area. It is probably the main reason for our dismal reputation in other parts of the world. It sparks the rhetoric that says to question the role that Israel plays in their continuing conflict with Palestine automatically makes you anti-Semitic or to claim that if you believe in a woman’s right to choose makes you pro-abortion. I have always been impressed with the way that Obama takes these critical issues out of the usual either-or dichotomy and calls us to think about what is really at the root of the issue. What is more important than whether we call ourselves Pro-Life or Pro-Choice, is what are we doing to reduce the need for abortion in the first place.
• The way that he has run his campaign. From what I have seen in the news and my limited volunteer experience, Obama has run a near perfect campaign. It was consistent, incredibly organized and inspirational. He has truly built a movement that can take back the country. We know that people of color cannot get away with any less than exceptional in order to get what a white person can get with mediocre. So the fact that, he has such a commanding lead speaks directly to the exceptional nature of this campaign.
• Michelle Obama. Shit, I would vote for her for president. The fact that a smart, strong black woman such as Michelle is in his corner further legitimates his candidacy.

Really, I could go on and on. But nothing makes me more proud than the fact that I have participated in this historic election. This is the first time that I have voted for someone that I believed in. Today we have the opportunity to elect potentially the greatest president that this country has ever seen. Not only is he the president that this country needs but he is one of us. Today we will elect the first African-American president of the United States…and it happened in my lifetime. 

KJ

I…Love America?

I have spent 15 years, more than half my life, in the States.  I have never called myself an American.  I have never wanted to call myself one.  I was content being the immigrant, the Muslim, the Indian, the Pakistani, whatever, as long as it wasn’t an American.  This is not to say that I have never cared about this country or its people.  I just always felt like I was an outsider.  I didn’t think that America as a country was really concerned with my experience.

For the first time, in 15 years, I think otherwise.  I realize that I am not alone.  There are other people in this country who have never had a voice either.  Be it poor, black, latino, gay…there are so many who are voiceless.  But we have finally found a reason to care.  

I am not yet a citizen.  I can’t vote.  But still, I feel like I have a personal stake in this election.  Although this government has done everything in its power to deny me the privilege of becoming a citizen, for the first time, I am not bitter.  

I am excited that a man like Barack may, from tomorrow, lead us into an era of community service and responsible living.  Obama asks more of us.  And that’s just it.  He asks us to go beyond our identities and personally transform.  He asks us to care about each other.  He asks us to care about the rest of the world.  

Nothing would make me more proud than to be part of a nation whose leader is someone I can believe in and for whom I would take that extra step.  No, I am not bitter.  I am sad.  I have never been more sad about not being a citizen than in this moment, hours away from the most historic election of my lifetime, simply because I cannot cast my ballot for Barack Obama.  

Toots McGee

Yet More Endorsements

 

Promising early on to remain politically neutral until the last moment when all is said and done, my dogs Thonet and Annie have broken their tight-lipped silence and endorsed Barack Obama for president of the United States of America.

L.Arnell

This Is It!

I don’t know that I have any poignant words for the palpable mixture of anxiety, hope and excitement that seems to hang above the country and the world, I can just plead that everyone who has the unique privilege and historic opportunity to vote in this election does so with care and sober reflection. I can only hope that the silliness and nonsense of our less-than-perfect political process yields to the weight of our challenges and struggles, and I can only pray for a Barack Obama presidency.

L.Arnell