Hour of Maximum Danger
Originally posted by frankwu at Hour of Maximum Danger
What I love about the Democratic National Convention is that it reminds us to take our eyes off the daily grind and think about our ideals, and what we’ve achieved - and how if we take our eyes off the prize, that prize can be stolen back from us.
Back in the sixties, blacks marched in the streets, they were beat up by cops, they were firehosed and assassinated - and the whites who marched beside them were called “nigger lover” and shot in the face. But the blacks eventually won and today you might think we’re done with civil rights. We’re not. There are those will would take back blacks’ voting rights - the most basic of rights upon which all others depend - by dickering with early balloting in Ohio, by purging the voter rolls in Florida, by instituting voter ID laws across the states. These forces are driven to take back that which was so hard-won.
And not just civil rights for blacks. You think Roe v. Wade is a done deal? In Republican statehouses across the nation they are continually thinking of new restrictions and impediments to choice. You think from now on gays will always be able to serve in the military? That insurance companies will never again be able to impose a lifetime cap or bounce you for a pre-existing condition? That your insurance premiums will never again be used solely to give some executive a bonus?
In a blink of an eye, if Republicans keep the House and win the Senate and White House, all that we’ve achieved will be undone. Maybe you're too busy to do anything about this.
Maybe you’re disappointed in Obama. I tell you this: It is philosophically impossible for a Democrat not to be a disappointment.
I’ve been listening to some of the great DNC speeches from the past - Andrew Cuomo’s City on the Hill from 1984, Jesse Jackson’s patchwork blanket speech from 1988. And the issues are still exactly the same as they were back then - fighting for the rights of gays, of unions, of the elderly, of the poor, of the minority. If you go back to 1961, in his inaugural address, JFK talked about many of these same things - fighting against war, fighting for justice and against poverty, invoking the wonders of science rather than its terrors. But he said all of these things will not be achieved in the first 100 days, or the first 1000 days, or even the life of this administration - or even in our own lifetimes. But let us begin.
We Democrats believe in a utopia, an ideal where men can walk down the street and not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. That utopia will never come. The Bible says that there will always be the poor among us, always the elderly, always the minority. And also always the greedy and bigoted. The final victory will never be won, not in my lifetime, not ever. So the question is not if Obama has done everything he’s promised, if he’s achieved this impossible liberal utopia, but if he’s moved in the ball in that direction.
He’s saved the economy, saved the auto industry, ended the Iraq war, got bin Laden, ended Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, implemented his version of the Dream Act and fought for choice. I say he’s taken us a couple steps closer to utopia. Kennedy said that in the long history of this planet, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.
He was speaking of the thousands who bled and died - even his brother - in World War II. But I have to respectfully disagree with JFK on this. Every election truly is special, every day represents maximum danger. Because the forces who want to take away the prize are relentless. They will not stop. I know lots of people who said that if they were alive in the sixties, they would have marched in the streets or fought the Nazis. Well, you can’t go back in time. But you can honor what they fought for, by voting and getting out the vote - by fighting for Obama and the other Democrats this fall.
If we don’t fight, everything that those who came before us fought for and bled for will be for naught.
At this year’s DNC, Julian Castro - the mayor of San Antonio and maybe someday the first Latino President of the United States - said that democracy was not a sprint, it wasn’t a marathon. It’s a relay. Well, the torch has been passed from a previous generation to you. What are you going to do with it?
What I love about the Democratic National Convention is that it reminds us to take our eyes off the daily grind and think about our ideals, and what we’ve achieved - and how if we take our eyes off the prize, that prize can be stolen back from us.
Back in the sixties, blacks marched in the streets, they were beat up by cops, they were firehosed and assassinated - and the whites who marched beside them were called “nigger lover” and shot in the face. But the blacks eventually won and today you might think we’re done with civil rights. We’re not. There are those will would take back blacks’ voting rights - the most basic of rights upon which all others depend - by dickering with early balloting in Ohio, by purging the voter rolls in Florida, by instituting voter ID laws across the states. These forces are driven to take back that which was so hard-won.
And not just civil rights for blacks. You think Roe v. Wade is a done deal? In Republican statehouses across the nation they are continually thinking of new restrictions and impediments to choice. You think from now on gays will always be able to serve in the military? That insurance companies will never again be able to impose a lifetime cap or bounce you for a pre-existing condition? That your insurance premiums will never again be used solely to give some executive a bonus?
In a blink of an eye, if Republicans keep the House and win the Senate and White House, all that we’ve achieved will be undone. Maybe you're too busy to do anything about this.
Maybe you’re disappointed in Obama. I tell you this: It is philosophically impossible for a Democrat not to be a disappointment.
I’ve been listening to some of the great DNC speeches from the past - Andrew Cuomo’s City on the Hill from 1984, Jesse Jackson’s patchwork blanket speech from 1988. And the issues are still exactly the same as they were back then - fighting for the rights of gays, of unions, of the elderly, of the poor, of the minority. If you go back to 1961, in his inaugural address, JFK talked about many of these same things - fighting against war, fighting for justice and against poverty, invoking the wonders of science rather than its terrors. But he said all of these things will not be achieved in the first 100 days, or the first 1000 days, or even the life of this administration - or even in our own lifetimes. But let us begin.
We Democrats believe in a utopia, an ideal where men can walk down the street and not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. That utopia will never come. The Bible says that there will always be the poor among us, always the elderly, always the minority. And also always the greedy and bigoted. The final victory will never be won, not in my lifetime, not ever. So the question is not if Obama has done everything he’s promised, if he’s achieved this impossible liberal utopia, but if he’s moved in the ball in that direction.
He’s saved the economy, saved the auto industry, ended the Iraq war, got bin Laden, ended Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, implemented his version of the Dream Act and fought for choice. I say he’s taken us a couple steps closer to utopia. Kennedy said that in the long history of this planet, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.
He was speaking of the thousands who bled and died - even his brother - in World War II. But I have to respectfully disagree with JFK on this. Every election truly is special, every day represents maximum danger. Because the forces who want to take away the prize are relentless. They will not stop. I know lots of people who said that if they were alive in the sixties, they would have marched in the streets or fought the Nazis. Well, you can’t go back in time. But you can honor what they fought for, by voting and getting out the vote - by fighting for Obama and the other Democrats this fall.
If we don’t fight, everything that those who came before us fought for and bled for will be for naught.
At this year’s DNC, Julian Castro - the mayor of San Antonio and maybe someday the first Latino President of the United States - said that democracy was not a sprint, it wasn’t a marathon. It’s a relay. Well, the torch has been passed from a previous generation to you. What are you going to do with it?