by ThisIsMyTime
For me, that just about sums it up. "We Got So Many Things Done So Quick, People Forgot!"
Dear Professional Left:
I have read the diaries and comments of some folks in this community who are angry, emotionally charged, divisive, totally disgusted to the point some just hate this administration that has done so much but not good enough to some of you. We seem to call ourselves democrats or progressives, but what is being displayed looks like we have abandoned the hard work that has enabled us to move in the right direction.
The process of change and what we must do is not a huge science.
The Optimism of Uncertainty by Howard Zinn speaks to me that I often go back to read it to get charged up.
We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. Even when we don't win, there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope. An optimist isn't necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.In a pretty world, where there are at least some rational people on the other side of the aisles, I have no doubt that the President would have done a whole lot more than he has already done. Yes, to some of us, not enough change has occurred while I disagree with you. However, the reality of our politicking has a strong hold on how much we can achieve within a political system that will take time to change.
"what we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something."
Yes, what we should have chosen to emphasize today should have been the fact that the POTUS has just signed a bill Democrats helped to pass that will give 300,000 teachers, police and others the ability to work and earn a living preventing layoffs. This story should have been on the top of the rec list because helping 300,000 people to keep their jobs is something that should be talked about to death to show the American People who is on whose side not the self righteous rants of how dare you insult my intelligence. Darn it Mr. President, insult my intelligence fine but just keep making sure to allow people to keep a roof over their head, food to eat and avoid foreclosure. I don't have much pride to listen and to enable us achieve these goals.
Presidents make hard decisions and at times it is not what we would like it to be. They also say things we don't like to hear directly from them or their staff. However, what Presidents do best, at least competent ones, is first manage the impact of their actions to the country by reducing the possibility of unforeseen risk and ensure Democrat keep power in both chambers. To do that, it require managing a lot of risk most of us are not at preview behind close doors. At times, it is not unprecedented to tell your own allies to shape up.
Regardless of our disappointments, if we are going to be fixated with one or two or ten things and not be able to see the 50 or 100 plus things that is being accomplished, it sure will destroys our capacity to do something bigger.
It is my hope that we realize that the fight for change is not about me or you individually, it is about us collectively. A 15.4% unemployment rate in the African American community is dismal to me and should make me furious about equality in the USA when comparing with an unemployment rate of 8.6% for Whites. On the other hand we have passed the Health Care Reform bill that will subsidized many low income African Americans so that they will have access to health care reducing the over 886,000 deaths that could have been prevented from 1991 to 2000 if African Americans had received the same care as whites. That is a change I can believe in while fixing the Job disparity is a change I expect to see achieved in the near future.
I don't know if I will some day become that Professional Left since I am more of a pragmatist thinker but folks like KO or cenk or davidsirota who chastise this POTUS for no productive reason when the wind blows in a set direction as they do to benefit their self promotion on the expense of many who have worked to elect this POTUS and abandon the change we seek as has been displayed in the last 24 hours is foolish and lacks true coalition building spirit.
Those of you who are upset and stepping in lockstep with the leaders of the Professional Left, while I understand you have taken sides, I urge you to have audacity to not just see the worst as it hinders our ability to achieve many thing in the next 2 months, in the next two years and in the next 6 years.
I sometimes think that we need a constant reminder of how much we have come and revise the many accomplishment achieved to date. Who best is there to give us that narrative?
Watch Rachel Maddow's narratives from her shows(the first one is short and a must see) at your leisure. You will indeed agree to the President's saying:
"We Got So Many Things Done So Quick, People Forgot!"
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
