The Dawn of the Phoenix

[_dynamicdems]

"Life is like a shooting star
it don't matter who you are
if you only run for cover, it's just a waste of time
We are lost 'til we are found
this phoenix rises up from the ground
and all these wars are over"
- LIVE


There is a general feeling in this country that our political system being such that it is that the most qualified person (to be President) can never elected. This has been true for a long time: if we are lucky we get fair to middling. If we are not: we get Bush. John Kerry was the first truly qualified individual to come as close as he did to being President in a long time. And he's bucked the odds: he's come back stronger and smarter than ever. It is amazing. Senator Kerry is amazing.

We can analyze and calculate the odds on just about anything. This is what people do, especially where politics is involved. A true leader; however, transcends the conventional wisdom and transcends the machinations of the political process. John Kerry is that leader. He works both within the system and outside of the system (cutting his own path through the jungle).

For me, it was his concession speech that made me realize what a great man Senator Kerry truly is. It was a sad day, to be sure. But there was a message there, a subtext beneath the words and emotions that day, one that maybe even the senator did not realize at the time. It was something intangible, something that spoke not in words but on a subliminal level. I knew at that moment that what I was witnessing was not an end: it was a beginning, a birth of something that history will chronicle long after we all are gone to dust. 2004 was the baptism by fire. Our hopes went down in flames, but our leader has risen from the ashes like a Phoenix in all its glory. Senator Kerry did not lie down in defeat. He rose and he's pulling us up with him. The Dawn of the Phoenix is about to begin.


:hangover: Just my rainy Sat. afternoon ramblings...

[fedupinBushcountry]

1. That was beautiful

Your analysis is spot on.. My emotions are running again. :cry:

[_dynamicdems]

2. Thanks. I guess mine are running again too. Rainy day. ::sigh:: n/t

[jenndar]

3. That was great to read. I feel like that all the time.

It always sounds so negative to say "We can't do any better than Kerry," but the truth is, I say it all the time because we really can't. You're right - he's amazing. :loveya:

[_dynamicdems]

7. Yup. Pretty damn amazing. : ) It's good to believe in heroes again. n/t

[karendc]

4. DD, that is why...

...we began the Democracy Cell Project. Dick came back from Boston, having heard JK's speech, and said, "We are not giving up. John is not giving up."

I had a page open to real estate in Nova Scotia.

[_dynamicdems]

5. Wow! That's pretty cool. It is really good to be inspired instead of

hanging our heads. In 2000, it was crushing because there was nowhere to turn.

Now we have someone in there fighting for us and inspiring us to fight for ourselves, which is pretty damn amazing. I don't know how Senator Kerry musters the strength to do what he does day after day, but it certainly humbles me. If this man can work this hard for us, the least we can do is stand up for ourselves.

[globalvillage]

6. Amen, DD.

It takes an amazing person to do what the Senator has done with his life of service to this country. And his comeback after '04 is, IMO, a truly stunning testimony to his character.
It takes someone very special.

Thanks for your post.

[_dynamicdems]

9. That is a wondeful way of putting it: "A stunning testimony to his

character."

It is sad that there are people out there who don't see this as clearly as we do.


“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt

[TayTay]

8. I agree. And thanks for the post DD!

I had liked Sen. Kerry for a while. I really, really liked him because of what he did in '94 back in Mass. I hope you guys will forgive me another local story, but it fits.

We have a dying fishing industry in Massachusetts. It has been slowly dying for decades now. The problem is that in that area there are too many fishermen chasing dwindling stocks of fish. We cannot support a tradition and way of life anymore that goes back centuries. (There were fishing expeditions along the coast of New England before there were ever colonies here. This industry predates actual European settlement here.) There is almost nothing that can be done to reverse this trend. The ocean is exhausted and it can only support so many boats.

The fishermen know this. They have known it for a long time. There have been people who pretended that if you gave out loans so that fishermen could buy bigger boats with better sonar tracking systems so that you could trace out where the fish are going that it would solve the problem and everyone could keep going the way they have been. It didn't work out. The SBA loans went out, the new boats were outfitted and the fish stocks kept dwindling.

I grew up very near Gloucester Mass, and this whole decline was frontpage news in that area for many years on and near Cape Ann. I grew up with people whose fathers fished for a living. I roughly knew when the season began and ended and so forth. And I could go to Gloucester Town Hall and see the 10,000 names of 'Those Who Went Down to the Sea in Ships' that is the Fisherman's Memorial. (10,000 since the early 1600's.) It's a dangerous job and how much money you make depends on so many things that people have no control over.

It is exceptionally hard to go to people and tell them that you really can't do anything to help them out and that, eventually, they are going to have to find a new way to make a living. Sen. Kerry did that with the fishermen. He went to a Town Hall with these folks and told them that no electronic gadget or new boat or loan or anything was going to restore the Grand Banks fishing stocks. He stood up at that meeting and didn't blow smoke up their butts and he told them the truth. It could not have been easy. It could not have been easy to hear either. That was in 1994. I also know he went to New Bedford and told the folks there the same thing. The Federal Government can't help you. I can't help you. It's a dying industry.

In 1996, Sen. Kerry had that tough, tough re-election fight with then sitting Gov. Bill Weld. When the returns came in, Gloucester and New Bedford cast their votes for Kerry, the guy who came and told them the truth. (And a very unpleasant truth at that.)
Vote in '96
Town/Kerry/Weld
GLOUCESTER 6,435 5,613
NEW BEDFORD 22,095 7,390

That's why I'm still here. (That's why I was there before in those other elections.) I like people who are straight with you and tell the truth and tell you when things are possible and when they are not. Apparently, I wasn't alone in this.

[_dynamicdems]

10. That is a wonderful story.

Can you imagine any other pol doing that?

Local story or no, THAT is a story I'd like to see in GD. You should post it.

[TayTay]

11. I'd have to think of an 'overall' theme for it in GD.

It doesn't stand alone.

My father was a salesman. Gloucester was on his route. He would often get samples of stuff and he would trade with some of the local shops in that town for other stuff. There were 8 kids in my family and this is how we got new rain/cold weather coats. My father went to the guy who owned the store and 'traded' his sample stock for the good raincoats. Gloucester was a great town. It still is, but it's changing. The Condos will replace the shacks by the sea. Norman's Woe will only be visible to those with beach front property soon. It's very sad. The good Senator tried to help (and he is still trying. That's why I actually do watch the Fisheries hearings, all joking aside. I know people to whom it really matters.) I remember that way of life. It will be missed.

[MonteLukast]

12. That's so beautiful. Thank you so much. (n/t)