A Bridge To Somewhere

Personally, I am hoping that John McCain willwake up tomorrow morning and remember who he is.

In a blatant and desperate attempt to build Obama his own bridge-to-nowhere, John McCain has been accusing the senator from Illinois with asking for $3 million in federal funds to buy an"overhead projector" for "a planetarium" in "Chicago."He did this again during the so-called "town hall" on Tuesday night. The way McCain said it was so drenched in mockery and disdain, he made me wonder:

Am I supposed to bedisgusted by:

1.     A planetarium (darn those scientists and all their science-y ideas!)?

2.     People who live in Chicago? (We’re all corrupt you know – or wild-eyed terrorists who want to blow up America – or dangerous black people and their unpatriotic pastors)

3.     The fact that an "overhead projector" (see the photo of this particular item inthis Chicago Tribune article) might actually cost $3 million?

4.     A senator who works on behalf of the people who elected him to make science education accessible to everyone – including generations of area school children, yours truly among them? (Actually, both Illinois senators and 6 Chicago-area congressmen – 3 of whom were Republicans – all worked together to bring this request before Congress.) And a senator who works to advance scientific research? (You know, the planetarium’s not just a silly tourist attraction, John — they actually do SCIENCE STUFF there.)

In the end, the folks at the Adler Planetarium here in Chicago are going to have to find another way to buy their new "overhead projector," unlike thefolks at the New York and L.A. planetariums, both of which received government grants to replace their aging projection systems. Chicago’s is 40-years old and the manufacturer no longer makes replacement parts.

Now, granted, a 40-year old anything might seem "green behind the ears" to Senator McCain. I mean, at 40 you don’t really even "understand" anything and you have, like, zero experience that matters.

But, come on now.

My 16-year old son, who has been pretty excited about this political season, took a pass on the debate last night.

"I’m getting kind of sick of it," he said.

Me, too.

I’m not sick, exactly, of the mocking, sneering, snarling, disrespectful,who-gives-a-damn-about-the-truth, us-vs-them, fear-mongering, hate-swilling, mob-action campaign the Republicans have been waging. I’m not even sick,exactly, that the McCain-Palin campaign has people so riled up that they’re yelling "terrorist!" and "kill him!" during the duo’s stump speeches. Unfortunately, this is the kind of thing I’ve come to expect.

What I am sick about is how willing they are to openly talk about how this is their strategy.

Check out this video from CNN, for example. Reporter Melissa Long confronts McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds about something McCain has been saying on the campaign trail. When asked by a supporter, "When are you going to let the gloves come off?!?"

McCain said, "How about Tuesday?"

Long pushed hard when Bounds tried to duck the question until finally he admitted that McCain was going to do his best to help Americans "see who Barack Obama really is" and concluded that Americans have a right to know more about Obama’s "relationship with an unrepentant terrorist." Questions still remain, Bounds said, "about how close he is with this guy."

[Nevermindthat Bill Ayers is on the faculty of the University of IL at Chicago and received a Citizen of the Year Award from the city of Chicago in 1997 and that Mayor Daley has called him a valued member of the community. You know how Chicago is. (See above.)]

The conservative commentators I heard debriefing the debate – Pat Buchanan, Bill Bennett, Sean Hannity, etc. – actually bemoaned the fact that McCain didn’t come out harder and nastier against Obama. They brushed off McCain’s "that one"remark; it wasn’t even a little nasty, they said. McCain, they said, needed to talk about Bill Ayers the terrorist and Jeremiah Wright the black preacher and show Americans just how scary this young whipper snapper is. McCain didn’t do that, they said. He was too restrained. Not mean enough. And so, they agreed, he probably lost the debate.

They’re hoping he gets his mojo back before the last debate next week.

I think they think the only way to win this thing is to get enough people frothing at the mouth at thethought of President Barack HusseinObama: scary, black, overhead-projector buying, terrorist who wants to teach your kindergartners about sex and kill your unborn baby and marry your sister off to my sister.

And while that strategy is mostly sad. And probably not even necessary. It is also sickening.

Personally, I am hoping that John McCain will wake up tomorrow morning and remember who he is. And that he’ll spend these last important weeks talking about the issues that matter. I don’t happen to agree with his position on a lot of issues — the war in Iraq, tax policy, the intervention of the federal government in my personal life and yours, just for starters. But I know he does have positions. And I know that a lot of people would agree with him. And I think they are valid positions worthy of discussion and respect. And I believe a lively, honest debate would do us all a lot of good.

But for that to happen we’re going to have to trust each other. We’re going to have to see each other as fellow Americans and,  just maybe even, children of the same heavenly Father. We’re going to have to at least be willing to shake hands with each other. We’re going to need to build some kind of bridge to bring us – black & white, men & women, conservatives & liberals, science guys & the rest of us, Alaskans & the gritty citizens of Chicago, us & them – together.

And so I have a proposal.

According to the Associated Press, the original bridge to nowhere – which would have been nearly as long as the Golden Gate and as high as the Brooklyn and which would have connected an island of 50 people to themainland – would have cost almost $400 million. 

Governor "Maverick" Palin supported it.

And Alaska got the money. Well, a lot of it, anyway. They just had to use it for other things.

I’d like to suggest that the great state of Alaska use just a tiny bit of the great gift they received from the U.S. taxpayer to make a small contribution to my favorite planetarium. Say, $3 million.

It’d go a long way towards building the kind of bridge we really need in this country. The kind that brings people together, rather than dicing and slicing us apart. 

You know, from outer space, we all look pretty much the same.

At least that’s what those wacky science guys at the Adler Planetarium tell us.