I wrote this four years ago, optimistic about the future.
Dear Mr. Matt Holzer,
Now that the election is over, anyone concerned for the future has his or her own decision to make. Relying on that next Congress, that next President, or that next wave of progress only goes so far. It leaves those already struggling to effect change, both within and outside of official politics, burdened with the heavy weight of your hopes and an obligation to realize them. We therefore cannot relent, no matter the amount of resentment we will face in return, in making every issue a live one. We cannot wait until 2008 to exchange the rattling elegy of gunfire for the harmony of gentle laughter. We cannot wait until 2008 to make honest work equal a humane living wage. We cannot wait until 2008 to assert and fortify every person's equality under the law, and not with disregard for his or her background, but in celebration of it.
Rather than wait, we have to champion ideals and values that spring from hope. When our only tactic is to warn of the worst, not enough people will act until the worst is at our doorstep. Instead, we must offer the best vision, that which includes and reconciles, rather than isolates and agitates. John Kerry, for all his talk of "hunting and killing the terrorists," still placed diplomacy over pre-emptive strikes, as well as a sound environment over the search for more oil wells, and the production of countless new American dreams rather than the mere preservation of old American wealth. His platform represents all that a President could possibly achieve today, and while 51% of the voting electorate seemingly found it undesirable, it does not necessarily have to disappear, or even become diluted. Nonetheless, those aims will only survive if we keep them whole, and even augment them further.
By that augmentation, I mean an acknowledgment that in order to win a substantial portion of the country, Democrats, and others on the left, will have to tackle "the abstractions," with which we can be so uncomfortable. As Alexander described to me on the somber bus ride home, these intangible factors comprise the "moral values" which trumped all other concerns for Bush voters in this election. Such a prospect may alarm many who think that "moral values" only belong to fundamentalist churchgoers or jingoistic neoconservative militants. As it stands, the right-wing political establishment has a rhetorical stronghold on "moral values," but that does not mean we cannot break it. Just as Orrin Hatch can claim that same-sex marriages undermine the moral structure of the American family, we can more loudly and more credibly tout that a child without health care is a truly reprehensible assault on the well-being on society. It requires us to speak to two human sensibilities, often ones that seem conflicting, but ones which we must learn to integrate.
As daunting as things appear from this vantage point, it is not as if we approach the future in a state of frailty. We have the old vanguard, a new, vital advocate (you know him as Barack Obama), and a burgeoning infrastructure that spans all media and stands to grow even further. Ideas and information need to emerge from all corners, relayed and ricocheted between print, radio, television, and internet conduits. That final medium obviously deserves the most emphasis. Though highly proficient in the realm of monopolies, the right-wing establishment cannot lay claim so wholly to the internet as it did to radio and television, and the print media to a lesser extent. With this in mind, we have to all be a part of a constantly enlarging, progressive electronic network, one that depends on journalistic integrity and an abiding concern for all Americans, as opposed to the conservative pundit horde that plays on stereotypes and abhorrent prejudice.
I encouraged my family members and eligible peers to vote this year. Hopefully, you will do something equally affecting both for yourself and others, something that breaches the gaping impasse between people. I think I can confidently say, having seen what it takes to engage a person's conscience, that above all, we need to remember that in fighting for our dream for Americans, that we do so in a way that invites all of them, and not just those who unflinchingly concur with us. That is, I hope, what we will all resolve to do, in order to ultimately, and finally, set things right.
Sincerely,
Julia
Now that the election is over, anyone concerned for the future has his or her own decision to make. Relying on that next Congress, that next President, or that next wave of progress only goes so far. It leaves those already struggling to effect change, both within and outside of official politics, burdened with the heavy weight of your hopes and an obligation to realize them. We therefore cannot relent, no matter the amount of resentment we will face in return, in making every issue a live one. We cannot wait until 2008 to exchange the rattling elegy of gunfire for the harmony of gentle laughter. We cannot wait until 2008 to make honest work equal a humane living wage. We cannot wait until 2008 to assert and fortify every person's equality under the law, and not with disregard for his or her background, but in celebration of it.
Rather than wait, we have to champion ideals and values that spring from hope. When our only tactic is to warn of the worst, not enough people will act until the worst is at our doorstep. Instead, we must offer the best vision, that which includes and reconciles, rather than isolates and agitates. John Kerry, for all his talk of "hunting and killing the terrorists," still placed diplomacy over pre-emptive strikes, as well as a sound environment over the search for more oil wells, and the production of countless new American dreams rather than the mere preservation of old American wealth. His platform represents all that a President could possibly achieve today, and while 51% of the voting electorate seemingly found it undesirable, it does not necessarily have to disappear, or even become diluted. Nonetheless, those aims will only survive if we keep them whole, and even augment them further.
By that augmentation, I mean an acknowledgment that in order to win a substantial portion of the country, Democrats, and others on the left, will have to tackle "the abstractions," with which we can be so uncomfortable. As Alexander described to me on the somber bus ride home, these intangible factors comprise the "moral values" which trumped all other concerns for Bush voters in this election. Such a prospect may alarm many who think that "moral values" only belong to fundamentalist churchgoers or jingoistic neoconservative militants. As it stands, the right-wing political establishment has a rhetorical stronghold on "moral values," but that does not mean we cannot break it. Just as Orrin Hatch can claim that same-sex marriages undermine the moral structure of the American family, we can more loudly and more credibly tout that a child without health care is a truly reprehensible assault on the well-being on society. It requires us to speak to two human sensibilities, often ones that seem conflicting, but ones which we must learn to integrate.
As daunting as things appear from this vantage point, it is not as if we approach the future in a state of frailty. We have the old vanguard, a new, vital advocate (you know him as Barack Obama), and a burgeoning infrastructure that spans all media and stands to grow even further. Ideas and information need to emerge from all corners, relayed and ricocheted between print, radio, television, and internet conduits. That final medium obviously deserves the most emphasis. Though highly proficient in the realm of monopolies, the right-wing establishment cannot lay claim so wholly to the internet as it did to radio and television, and the print media to a lesser extent. With this in mind, we have to all be a part of a constantly enlarging, progressive electronic network, one that depends on journalistic integrity and an abiding concern for all Americans, as opposed to the conservative pundit horde that plays on stereotypes and abhorrent prejudice.
I encouraged my family members and eligible peers to vote this year. Hopefully, you will do something equally affecting both for yourself and others, something that breaches the gaping impasse between people. I think I can confidently say, having seen what it takes to engage a person's conscience, that above all, we need to remember that in fighting for our dream for Americans, that we do so in a way that invites all of them, and not just those who unflinchingly concur with us. That is, I hope, what we will all resolve to do, in order to ultimately, and finally, set things right.
Sincerely,
Julia