Waiting to Exhale. Thoughts on the day before the 2008 Election.

[stephendare]

--I posted this in National Politics, but its not really about politics at all.

And I wanted to share it with the people who can't read it because they arent signed up.--

Tomorrow is the day that the nation goes out and completes a job that has already been in process now for a week in most places.

It will be as memorable, in its own way as the other date whose long dark shadow has defined this brief opening gambit to the millenial era:  911.

And in start contrast to the two black towers whose crumbling, crashing fiery whuump birthed a rough beast in the bethlehem of our remembrances, there will be more edifices pulled down, more tears, more of a sense of the world going through a change so fundamental as to be a work of astronomy rather than merely the progression of one event into the next.

Instead, the towers leveled will be the obsidian guardwalls of the sins of our forefathers, the tears shed will be the warm sunshiny tears of newly remembered hope and the cataclysmic even will not be an Eclipse but rather the planet moving out of shadow.

There was once a common truism oft repeated in half levity, half morosity that when our country, sprawling in its contradictory lush simple bounty and complicated gritty ambition, when that newfound superpower caught the sniffles, the rest of the world caught the cold.

Now we know that the metaphor extends to our spirits as well.  When America trembles, when we lash out in anger, when we doubt the moral foundations of our actions, the world erupts in chaos, and the yellow dogs are set loose.

It has been 7 long years of the great American Darkness.  Almost biblical in its length and just as terrifying in its immensity.

Let us consider ourselves lucky that despite a few burst wounds and some still bleeding cuts, that our great fortune was that we simply looked over the precipice of our schadenfreude, merely peeked into the cracks of our pandora's chirping box.  We never quite jumped, never really opened the box on the demons contained within.

Perhaps it would be better to call it seven years of the American Shadow.

We toyed with the internment camps, we dabbled in the bloodgames, we talked about the midnight roundups, we rattled our own sabers and kept the dogs on a longer leash than safety would have condoned.  But we took no plunge.

The things we didnt do, are still more frightening than the things we did, and for that we should forgive ourselves and the wretches whose role was to trot out the dark temptations to the body politic much.

But we should never forget.

And now we stand here, the long winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of our own sewn together projections who is about to take a dignified and handsomely executed oath of office sometime in the not too distant snows of January.

This is one of those moments where we move through motions made meaningful as much by their symbolism as by their effective reality.  When this young and ultimately fragile man steps onto the podium to take his oath of office, it will be on the moondust of our racial lunar surface, and his one small oath will fulfill a promise made by the dead, kept by the faithful and witnessed by a new generation of the american fabric.

Its a beautiful idea, not just in the poetry of its expression, but in the reality of a billion dreams of justice in a world which never tires of spinning new webs of injustice.

Alot was made of the New Millenium.  Billions were spent in celebrating its mathematical announcement, stars twinkled and drank under the glass forest of Chihulis wildest imagining, fireworks were expended, drunken kisses exchanged, wild bachanalian love made, plans and dreams consecrated considered and dismissed in anticipation of a moment that none of us really felt on the 31st of December, 1999 and which slowly dissipated until that black day in September drove nails through the palms of our idealism and thorns into the brow of our hopes.

But this is that true millenial moment, awaited so long that we have forgotten even its anticipation.

Forgetting for a moments the stooges and agents of darkness and war, letting courts and process and ostracized years of reflection claim their rightful dead, setting aside the tendril of analysis and blame and even reducing Obama down to his true role of National symbol, as all the rightful presidents have been regardless of their work or legacies.

This is finally that moment where we turn our face away from the darkness of the American Psyche, and towards the light of our common purpose and national desitiny as that freest and best of all nations.  Where the weak can make themselves mighty and the opressed can wear even the emperors robes if they desire it and work for it long enough.

This is that Millenial moment at last, where we can see the evidence of old things passed away, and feel the embrace of a thing hoped for.

For Obama, whether or not he executes his office like a titan astride the earth or heals the sick or causes the blind to see, is once again more symbolically important than the effectivenessof his deeds might be.

When he takes the oath of office, in the transubstantiating property of politics and visual shorthand to a people that are once again strong through their diversity and jimcracky ingenuity, the world will be a changed thing forever, and in that moment the heat and intensity which drove the need for the change will dissipate into the laughter of victory.

Was this the hardship that we feared?

The simultaneous end of the American Shadow, and the fulfillment of the promise held sacred to the breast of the civil rights movement.

The Fathers and Mothers of this New American Century would be proud.  Prudent Washington, Canny Franklin, and Liberal Jefferson for staying true to the course and Martin Luther King and dear sweet obdurate Rosa Parks for seeing a thing through.

Whatever your politics, whatever your philosophy, tomorrow is the doorway we will all pass through into a new world.

[chris]

Quite nice Stephen, you do always have a way with words. Great use of alliteration by the way.

Tomorrow will be a day that defines Millenials just as much as 9/11: I will always remember where I was. 

For a generation crafted by fear of terrorists or school shootings, of war or natural disaster, of economic or social collapse...

               Tomorrow will be the first time we will truly experience hope.

And as someone that marched in NYC against the War on 3/23/03, as a veteran political activist and actual taxpayer, as someone who has experienced financial and spiritual crisis over the last several years, it will be nice to finally get a break.

And maybe this site can finally get back to bickering about local urban development rather than national politics. 

[fsujax]

Personally, i cant wait till this is over. I am sick of all the ads. I voted this morning in the heart of Springfield and it was smooth sailing!

[thelakelander]

I can't wait either.  This forum has gone off track with the national politics debating and the problems that stem from them.  We need to get back to being Jacksonville specific.

[fsujax]

Could not agree with you more Lake. Let's get back to Jacksonville issues!

[Driven1]

Could not agree with you more Lake. Let's get back to Jacksonville issues!

i completely agree.  i remember telling our board about a year ago that this was going to be a very divisive election.

glad to see we all agree on moving back to jax issues!

[Basstacular]

Three cheers to that.  Regardless of how this election pans out.  Let the members of this site envoke some much needed change into the leaders of our Downtown and continue the fight to better our City.  I for one am ready and eager to contribute in any way.

[Driven1]

Three cheers to that.  Regardless of how this election pans out.  Let the members of this site envoke some much needed change into the leaders of our Downtown and continue the fight to better our City.  I for one am ready and eager to contribute in any way.

yes and in reality, as I think lake has pointed out before, whoever wins the Natl election has very little bearing on what happens right here in Jax. 

[Joe]

yes and in reality, as I think lake has pointed out before, whoever wins the Natl election has very little bearing on what happens right here in Jax. 

I might have to bump this thread in a couple years. I would respecfully argue that you two are dead wrong about that.

Presumably, Obama will win. But he ran on a very nebulous platform, mostly focused hope, change, and vague policy statements that could be interpreted either way. It was a great strategy, and it seems to be paying off.

Depending on where Obama actually stands on free trade, this election could have a massive impact on Jax (remember, Obama has taken both sides of the issue, so it's hard to predict). If he creates an anti-free trade administration, Jaxport could be in for rough times.

Also, Obama has had some harsh words for major insurance companies. Of course, he's so damn good at walking the fence, it's really hard to predict what policies (if any) he will ever pursue. But if a Democrat majority decides to put the screws to "big insurance" that would obviously have a local impact.

Additionally, Obama has made some very vague statements about urban revitalization. We know that he favors massive spending increases for revitalization in distressed neighborhoods, but he has also (ominously) claimed that he doesn't necessarily want to keep an urban focus. What does any of this mean? Absolutely no one knows yet.  

So I think the jury is still out on what bearing this will specifically have on Jax.

[Driven1]

Joe - I guess I may stand corrected.  My point is that usually the most impactful change to an area starts locally.  If you are right, then hopefully at least some of the negative consequences could be balanced by getting better leaders right here locally. 

[Joe]

^ We can certainly agree on that Driven1

[RiversideGator]

Actually the world will change radically for the good of us here.

[copperfiend]

Anybody vote today? Delays?

[Driven1]

I VOTED...NO DELAYS!!!  WALKED RIGHT IN AND VOTED IMMEDIATELY.  NO LINES, NO WAITS. 

[adamh0903]

no lines, no waits for me either