This election has gripped my soul and I swing from hope to despair on an almost daily basis.\u00a0 The time has come to move beyond black-and-white, red-or-blue.
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What is the spiritual equivalent of manic depression?\u00a0 Whatever it is, I think I have it.\u00a0 This election has gripped my soul and I swing from hope to despair on an almost daily basis. <\/p>\n
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There has been much to inspire me.\u00a0 Friends and I coordinated to sponsor a van of volunteers from the Bronx who drove out to Ohio during their \u2018Golden Week\u2019 of early voting.\u00a0 The volunteers have come back with tales of working 15-hour days to help people in homeless shelters register and vote. My three-year-old daughter and I baked cupcakes and joined other families in our neighborhood for a Lemonade-for-Obama stand.\u00a0 We raised hundreds of dollars \u2013 some passers-by were reaching into their pockets just to give us what they could for the cause.\u00a0 While making calls for MoveOn.org I got to speak to people I would otherwise never come in contact with \u2013 and the impressions they shared with me seem to echo the polls: more and more people are saying they need a change, and they\u2019ll be voting for Barack Obama. <\/p>\n
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There has been much to dampen my spirits.\u00a0 A friend\u2019s mother-in-law from Kentucky who has always, always voted Democrat, will not be voting for Obama because she thinks he is \u2018too haughty.\u2019\u00a0 A waitress told my husband and me that she was going to vote for Obama even though she was afraid that if he is elected it would give black people the idea that he was \u2018their\u2019 president.\u00a0 I see political ads and hear campaign rhetoric that use lies to increase fear. <\/p>\n
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I have to remind myself that this is a not clear-cut battle between good and evil.\u00a0 There are people who will vote for Senator McCain who are morally responsible individuals, just as there are supporters of Senator Obama whose actions in other areas I might find objectionable.\u00a0 I have to remind myself of this because it is <\/em>tempting to think \"evil\" when I see image after image of all-white crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, when I hear stories of people at Republican rallies saying that Senator Obama is an \"Arab\" and others shouting \"kill him\".\u00a0 It is hard not<\/em> to feel that dark forces are at work after watching a report on Democracy Now<\/em> that predicts millions of poor voters will be disenfranchised on election day. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For so many reasons it is tempting to see the choice that is facing our nation as a black-and-white choice.\u00a0 Choose McCain or Choose Obama. And I\u2019ve now heard more than one friend suggest that the divide between \"blue and red America\" is so stark that we should become two separate countries. Which side to you blame and therefore hate? Which side do you root for and therefore love? Even the candidates\u2019 skin tones seem to echo a choice of binary opposition.\u00a0 But the irony is that we are <\/em>at a cross-roads, we are <\/em>being asked to make a decision that will likely change the course of our national destiny, and the choice is not <\/em>that simple<\/strong>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The choice facing the American people is not an Either-Or decision.\u00a0 It is an opportunity to transcend the black-and-white thinking that says Us=Good\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Them=The Problem.\u00a0 It is an opportunity to reclaim responsibility and place it in dynamic dialogue with our rights. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Collectively, America is being confronted with some of its greatest darkness.\u00a0 This financial crisis has its roots in our<\/em> greed, entitlement and materialism; we are waking to the fact that bit by bit the American Dream has lost its integrity and has become a version of:\u00a0 \"I\u2019m entitled to a whole lot of material comforts.\u00a0 Period.\"\u00a0 Whether the American \"I\" is on Wall Street or on Main Street, whether it\u2019s a corporate entity or a taxpaying family.\u00a0 A democracy is wholly reliant on a delicate balance between rights and responsibilities in order to function.\u00a0 And each of us \u2013 every citizen, elected official, and corporate body \u2013 needs to strike that balance.\u00a0 Rights granted and responsibility taken.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve been asking myself: Which aspects of America still promote that balance? <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n When \"I\u2019m entitled to material comfort\" is the credo that we as a society espouse, we tell our lawmakers, \"Make it easier for us, the individuals, to own what we can\u2019t afford. Make it easier for us, the corporations, to take advantage of individuals in the pursuit of unchecked material profit.\" <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n When \"I\u2019m entitled\" is our motto, we are telling our candidates (of all parties) that responsibility has no currency in the electoral process.\u00a0 We let them know loud and clear that they better tell us what we want to hear:\u00a0 \"Yes, America, you are entitled\u2026 and no, we won\u2019t ask you to take on responsibility commensurate with that entitlement.\" \u00a0A prime example of this dynamic? Just look at how the subject of taxes functions in presidential politics. \u00a0\"He wants to raise your taxes!\"\u00a0 \"No, I want to give you a tax cut!\"\u00a0 And by telling the candidates that they better not make our <\/em>responsibility part of their platform we are also telling them that they do not need to take responsibility either.\u00a0 All the finger-pointing and blaming that we hear \u2018from Washington\u2019 that is making us sick We need to see that as a reflection of the larger American ethos. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It is an unhealthy and false split that has us believing in our own entitlement without acknowledging the responsibility that necessarily comes along with it.\u00a0 This split we\u2019ve set up teaches us to claim the good parts for ourselves and reject the tough bits, projecting them onto someone else.\u00a0 .\u00a0 If we can scapegoat those we see as Other, the problem stays safely Over There where we can point and blame and punish\u00a0 (\"The terrorists!\"\u00a0 \"Wall Street!\"\u00a0 \"Republicans\" \"Washington\" \"Liberals\" and on and on).\u00a0 This creates a dangerous spiral of black-and-white thinking, which in turn spawns some of our nation\u2019s ugliest tendencies. Racism has such deep roots in us because it appeals to the temptation to think in easy black-and-white.\u00a0 The split creates a vague but persistent fear: \u00a0If he looks different, or has an \"other\"-sounding name, isn\u2019t he a Them? If I vote for someone Other, will it threaten my own entitlement in some undefined, menacing way?\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Reflecting on the things that have given me hope these past few weeks, and those which have made me despair, I notice a pattern.\u00a0 I have had greatest hope when I am actively involved in working towards getting Barack Obama elected.\u00a0 But it is not just the potential end-goal that has given my spirits a lift. It is the action of taking on more responsibility.\u00a0 It is the energy of connecting with an array of people \u2013 some of them total strangers \u2013 from a variety of places, socio-economic backgrounds, and ethnicities.\u00a0 It is the opportunity to work collectively towards a common goal that each of us sincerely believes will be better for all. <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The cynic in me understands that as a candidate Senator Obama is wise to continue to play to people\u2019s fears about the economy; \u00a0I understand that he continues to emphasize links between his opponent and George Bush because at this point even Republicans blame Bush, so this will get him more votes; I see that promising tax cuts to the middle class is his flashiest offering to the electorate.\u00a0 But I believe our greatest hope is that when people vote on November 4th<\/sup> we do so out of a sense of personal responsibility for a nation that has lost its way.\u00a0 And I hope that the candidate that wins is willing and able to transcend an Us against Them mentality, willing to reclaim American Responsibility.\u00a0 <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n That<\/em> would be Change We Need. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This election has gripped my soul and I swing from hope to despair on an almost daily basis.\u00a0 The time has come to move beyond black-and-white, red-or-blue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c17-featured-writers"],"yoast_head":"\n