The Weird, The Wacky & The Wonderful

Something's happening in these United States. Some of it's weird (Al Gore out-speechifying Barack Obama in Invesco Field!). Some of it's wacky (one word: Palin). And a lot of it is as wonderful as really BEING the people Henry Cejudo, son of illegal immigrants and U.S. gold medalist, believes we are. Hallelujah.

Something's happening in these United States. Some of it's weird (AlGore out-speechifying Barack Obama in Invesco Field!). Some of it'swacky (one word: Palin). And a lot of it is as wonderful as reallyBEING the people Henry Cejudo, son of illegal immigrants and U.S. goldmedalist, believes we are. Hallelujah.

Let's start with the wonderful:

The youngest American to ever win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling is the son of illegal immigrants. "[Henry] Cejudo was 4 when he last saw his dad. His mom raised six kids and often struggled to make ends meet. The family moved more times than anyone remembers," according to the official USOC website. With an American flag wrapped around him, he cried after he won his gold medal match. All over the U.S., people cried with him. He told interviewer Tommy Hines:

"I'm living the American dream right now. "The United States is the land of opportunity. It's the best country in the world, and I'm just glad to represent it.

Hopefully, HenryCejudo will inspire us to be the nation he believes we are, the one that invites the world to send us their tired and poor, their huddled masses and all who yearn for freedom — not just the ones with PhDs in engineering.

And, speaking of becoming who we are, here's something wacky:

I know that choice-denying, oil-drilling, scandal-ridden, wedge-driving, small-town (never-even-been-out-of-the-U.S.-'till-she-got-elected-governor) living, SarahPalin is crazy scary — but did anybody else grin at the news that a woman on the ticket is suddenly seen as THE ticket to getting elected in this country. Ha! God help us if THIS woman ever makes it to the White House — but, STILL! You gotta love it.

The truth is, I needed something to cheer me up after the Saddleback non-debate debate during which their candidate looked like a trained puppy — who gave all the Right answers, tail wagging excitedly, hoping for a treat — I'm surprised he didn't leave a puddle right there on the floor — while my candidate nodded and winked to the Radical Right — and then the Left — and then the Right — and then the Left. It was like watching Pong: Boring.

Which brings us to weird:

My candidate did a little better on his big night than he did on Rick Warren's home court but, frankly, I think all the joyful tears that were shed at Invesco Field and around the nation on the last night of the DNC convention had little to do with anything he said. Let's be honest, it was mediocre. For starters, we've heard that long wish list before from the do-nothing-even-when-you-hand-us-a-majority Democrats over the past decade. I was hoping and expecting something more that night. Pushed to define the "change" he's promising, hesaid
:

"Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it."

Seriously?? The change he's asking me to believe in has to do with the tax code?? He said some other stuff, too, but nothing anybody will remember a century or a month from now. The truth is, it's kind of bugging me how, the closer we get to November, the more cautious he seems to get. Careful answers to Rick Warren (did he REALLY say that civil rights – at least for gays and lesbians – ought to be a STATE issue?!?). A strategic but utterly uninspired VP pick. A canned DNC speech to close out the convention. Heck, I thought Professor Gore had more interesting things to say that night — even without his power point slides.

And here we are, right back to wonderful, again:

The really remarkable thing is that, at this point in our common history, Barack Obama didn't need to say anything inspiring or memorable on that Thursday night in Denver. All he needed to do was show up, like he did, 45 years to the day after Martin invited us to dream with him. I cried. You cried. We all cried. Why? Because under those bright lights that night we could see ourselves. And, damn, if we don't look good. We look, in fact, a little like the people Henry Cejudo thinks we are.

In the end, that Thursday night at Invesco Field wasn't the big night for Senator Obama I hoped and thought it might be. But it WAS a big night for us. And when he said, "this is about YOU," even Barack seemed to understand that.

Something's happening in these United States, alright: the weird, the wacky, and the wonderful.

Hallelujah.