The Audacity of Hope
"I am reading Barack Obama's new book. I borrowed it from the Borders (yay for the Book Loan program!) and I'm thinking of buying it now. The first chapter he talks about Republicans and Democrats. The problems with each party.
I just thought that what he said at the end of the first chapter was so compelling that I went back and re-read it to try to understand the full meaning.
Its sorta long but, its compelling and hard to explain....so read on! (if you wish)
"I imagine the white Southerner who growing up heard his dad talk about niggers this and niggers that but who has struck up a friendship with the black guy at the office and is trying to teach his own son different, who thinks discrimination is wrong but doesn't see why the son of a black doctor should get admitted into law school ahead of his son. Or the former Black Panther who decided to go into real estate, bought a few buildings in the neighborhood, and is tired of the drug dealers in front of his buildings as he is of the bankers who won't give him a loan to expand his business. There is the middle-aged feminist who still mourns her abortion, and the Christian woman who has paid for her teenager's abortion, and the millions of waitresses and temp secretaries and nurse's assistants, and Wal-Mart associates who hold their breath every single month in the hope that they'll have enough money to support the children they did bring into this world.
I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distungish between what can and cannot be compromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point. They don't always understand the arguments between righrt and left, conservative and liberal, but they recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between those things that last and those that are fleeting.
They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them."
I just thought that what he said at the end of the first chapter was so compelling that I went back and re-read it to try to understand the full meaning.
Its sorta long but, its compelling and hard to explain....so read on! (if you wish)
"I imagine the white Southerner who growing up heard his dad talk about niggers this and niggers that but who has struck up a friendship with the black guy at the office and is trying to teach his own son different, who thinks discrimination is wrong but doesn't see why the son of a black doctor should get admitted into law school ahead of his son. Or the former Black Panther who decided to go into real estate, bought a few buildings in the neighborhood, and is tired of the drug dealers in front of his buildings as he is of the bankers who won't give him a loan to expand his business. There is the middle-aged feminist who still mourns her abortion, and the Christian woman who has paid for her teenager's abortion, and the millions of waitresses and temp secretaries and nurse's assistants, and Wal-Mart associates who hold their breath every single month in the hope that they'll have enough money to support the children they did bring into this world.
I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distungish between what can and cannot be compromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point. They don't always understand the arguments between righrt and left, conservative and liberal, but they recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between those things that last and those that are fleeting.
They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them."