Grassroots creation and politics

[lferion]

On the wall of the Starry Plough in Berkeley is a quote about how when a cause has caught the imagination of the people, the people make songs that draw in more people and express feelings in ways that mere words cannot (this is very much a paraphrase. I would love to find the actual quote.)

It occurred to me, while watching this:

Comments

[reshcat]

Thank you so much for posting this video - Watched it twice for the squeals & giggles. Living as I do in a VERY pro-Obama state where just about everyone I know is voting blue, I'm sometimes caught by surprise when folks I've met on-line say things like, "I'm a feminist so I'm voting for Palin," or comments like those of the friend of the poster above. These are people I really LIKE and I know the ethical thing to do is to respond civilly, try to engage in rational discussion on the points and policies, etc. But I often find myself too wary these days, having been caught in irrational on-line flame-wars in the past.

It's not that I can't be friends with folks whose political views don't match my own. Hey, I've lived in houses with meat-eaters even tho I'm vegetarian (34 years and counting). Lived with smokers when I didn't smoke, drinkers when I didn't drink.

And yet, this time around, it feels so important -- and yet so subtly dangerous. I keep having flashbacks to 1968 and Robert Kennedy and black-&-white pictures from the basement of an L.A. hotel....

I'm glad for the outpouring of creative political expression like this vid, they're inspiring. But the vitriol against Obama is just as frightening. I heard a woman on TV say that she wouldn't vote for him because she knew for a fact he's an Arab and a Muslim and a Communist and that he wasn't even born in America (!). Oh dear...

Let us sing and dance AND pray. I've a feeling we're going to need all three.