Important Political Reality Check
As a person who has crawled up from the working class as a woman, who has crawled up from addiction to health, let me ask for something from as many people as possible, and let me ask you to pass this on:
The time for cynicism, and mocking Obama's speeches, and whatever, is over. I'm so tired We all are. I understand that cynicism down to the core of my being. But if those of us who are the truest liberals, who want things to change in the long run, cannot suspend our weariness and cynicism for even a moment of hope, then how can we expect our President to? Can we not hope with him? I have read post after cynical post critiquing his speeches, critiquing his freaking MUSIC for the LOVE of YaHOOda! Let us, for just a moment if that is all you can do, pause, remember the nobility of Dr. King, and connect that nobility, as it should be connected, to this presidential campaign. Because these are dire and dour times, and without the best of us being the best, being hopeful and faithful and loving and with, God help you, a little eensy bit of trust, we are already lost. Stop the micro-picking and just, for once, rest in the hope that Obama has offered. As someone who intimately understands where he comes from as both an academic and a community organizer and a teacher, I have a faith in him that is more grounded than most of yours. He is not an idealist, though he certainly has ideals. He is a liberal realist, who certainly has made mistakes, but know this: without the making of mistakes, the careful reflection upon those mistakes, and the revision of them into plans and practices that actually work, that are actually grounded in reality, all hope is lost. Obama is drenched in the experience of doing exactly that, as am I, although I am only a small percentage aspowerful and important as he will be. Quit being cynical and just hope, if only for a moment, that perhaps, just perhaps, some of what he says is actually going to happen. Because I have faith that it will.
I met a man once who changed my life. Reading his book changed my life. Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. And I was miraculously lucky to meet him in person, right before he died. I even shook his hand, and thanked him, and in response he said "no, thank YOU." And when he sat down to speak to a convention of people who had been contentious and often violently argumentative, something miraculous happened. Waves of love emanated from this man into the room, lifting our spirits into one great pool of wonder and hope. It was like watching the Sermon on the Mount. It made you believe in Jesus. He was as good a soul as a human can be. When we lost him, I cried for a week. I felt transcendance in that room, because here was a man who had changed the lives of millions of the poorest of people in third world countries, changed them through liberal idealistic realism, through pedagogy, that is, through a dialogue with the people that exposed symptoms, analyzed problems, and fixed the problems by addressing where they came from in concert with feedback from the people == no, driven by the people, Freire only helped revise, and inspired through his pure heart. I see such a heart in Barack Obama. Believe. I do. When you see a small man like Freire, just one little man, dressed in only a black robe, so old he can barely talk, take a contentious and pretentious crowd and lift their spirits into awe and hope and renewed realistic energy, you begin to believe that change is possible. I was in that room. My spirit soared. I felt like I was in the presence of the divine. I believe such a spirit lives in Barack Obama. You can see it on his face. Not that Friere never made mistakes. He did, and he often spoke of them and revised them. He was, as Barack Obama was and is, at heart a community organizer. Cut from the same cloth, Obama will do at least some of what he has promised, and the biggest thing I believe with all my heart he will do is to restore hope to the American people, because right now that hope is dead, and nihilism is poison to change. Please, understand I come from the same place as he. I made mistakes too, and saw them reflected in the hurt and anger on the people's faces -- the people I was supposed to help through years of training and experience. but years of academic experience mean little to nothing without practice, and with practice, my ability to help became almost transcendant. I became a gifted teacher. People from all walks of life told me that I was blessed. Did I fall after that? Oh yes, because I placed myself back into an environment where personal ego and idealism without realism is the rule, and you are out on your ass if you don't follow by those rules. I was fired, or almost fired, twice because I didn't go along. My self-diagnosed failure to get tenure in ivory towers by doing what they wanted me to do led me to drug addiction and suicidality. And although I am not the caliber of person that Barack Obama and his historical and contemperary peers are, I am back up again, and I am back at it, outside of the walls of the privileged academy. And if I can do it, someone who isn't even close to as gifted as Obama is, then why can't he? Because once you are called, you never stop. You can't. Your spirit won't let you. Something won't let you -- that thing that protected me through all the years of struggle and abuse and setbacks. Call it God, call it whatever you want, when you are called as I am and as are people hundreds of times as powerful as I: Barack Obama most certainly is, and as are Paulo Freire and Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and Gahndi and Bobby Kennedy and Cesar Chavez and Che and Marley and Ayn and Sojourner and Rosa and Harriet and countless other individuals who changed the world because of their spiritual call. When you are called, you are supported by something divine. Let that support your own hope, and throw away your own cynicism. If I can crawl back from the brink of death to begin anew doing what I was called to do, even after the cruelest of experiences, then you must believe that what I see in Obama is real. The very bones of his face have been softened by kindness and love and nobility. Don't call me a liberal idealist with eyes in the sky because my liberal ideals are faced purely and surely on the ground and on the faces of those I work with and on the furture, as were all those past heroes, as are Barack Obama's. I believe. I believe. I believe. Believe, if only for a monent, with me. Bow your head, open your heart, and believe.
Please feel free to post this elsewhere.
In love and faith,
Dr. Susan Swan, liberal, female, called to action in collaboration with those who are mired in poverty, community organizer, teacher, mother, pragmatic, tattooed head to foot yet accepted by all who I have really worked with (my students, community members, preachers,and other community organizers who at first doubted the tattooed eccentric with the inappropriate humor because I refused to give up hope in them, their cause, and their lives and dreams and the lives and dreams of and for their children, including those who are diametrically opposed to me as they see that I work for the same ideals they do), wife, writer, addict, reflective human being who refuses to be kicked to the curb because I represent hope for the masses and fear to the powerful: I am fearless to admit my mistakes because they are a clear pointer to success, and I am a proud American, and for these and many other reasons, I am a believer and supporter of Barack Obama.
.
The time for cynicism, and mocking Obama's speeches, and whatever, is over. I'm so tired We all are. I understand that cynicism down to the core of my being. But if those of us who are the truest liberals, who want things to change in the long run, cannot suspend our weariness and cynicism for even a moment of hope, then how can we expect our President to? Can we not hope with him? I have read post after cynical post critiquing his speeches, critiquing his freaking MUSIC for the LOVE of YaHOOda! Let us, for just a moment if that is all you can do, pause, remember the nobility of Dr. King, and connect that nobility, as it should be connected, to this presidential campaign. Because these are dire and dour times, and without the best of us being the best, being hopeful and faithful and loving and with, God help you, a little eensy bit of trust, we are already lost. Stop the micro-picking and just, for once, rest in the hope that Obama has offered. As someone who intimately understands where he comes from as both an academic and a community organizer and a teacher, I have a faith in him that is more grounded than most of yours. He is not an idealist, though he certainly has ideals. He is a liberal realist, who certainly has made mistakes, but know this: without the making of mistakes, the careful reflection upon those mistakes, and the revision of them into plans and practices that actually work, that are actually grounded in reality, all hope is lost. Obama is drenched in the experience of doing exactly that, as am I, although I am only a small percentage aspowerful and important as he will be. Quit being cynical and just hope, if only for a moment, that perhaps, just perhaps, some of what he says is actually going to happen. Because I have faith that it will.
I met a man once who changed my life. Reading his book changed my life. Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. And I was miraculously lucky to meet him in person, right before he died. I even shook his hand, and thanked him, and in response he said "no, thank YOU." And when he sat down to speak to a convention of people who had been contentious and often violently argumentative, something miraculous happened. Waves of love emanated from this man into the room, lifting our spirits into one great pool of wonder and hope. It was like watching the Sermon on the Mount. It made you believe in Jesus. He was as good a soul as a human can be. When we lost him, I cried for a week. I felt transcendance in that room, because here was a man who had changed the lives of millions of the poorest of people in third world countries, changed them through liberal idealistic realism, through pedagogy, that is, through a dialogue with the people that exposed symptoms, analyzed problems, and fixed the problems by addressing where they came from in concert with feedback from the people == no, driven by the people, Freire only helped revise, and inspired through his pure heart. I see such a heart in Barack Obama. Believe. I do. When you see a small man like Freire, just one little man, dressed in only a black robe, so old he can barely talk, take a contentious and pretentious crowd and lift their spirits into awe and hope and renewed realistic energy, you begin to believe that change is possible. I was in that room. My spirit soared. I felt like I was in the presence of the divine. I believe such a spirit lives in Barack Obama. You can see it on his face. Not that Friere never made mistakes. He did, and he often spoke of them and revised them. He was, as Barack Obama was and is, at heart a community organizer. Cut from the same cloth, Obama will do at least some of what he has promised, and the biggest thing I believe with all my heart he will do is to restore hope to the American people, because right now that hope is dead, and nihilism is poison to change. Please, understand I come from the same place as he. I made mistakes too, and saw them reflected in the hurt and anger on the people's faces -- the people I was supposed to help through years of training and experience. but years of academic experience mean little to nothing without practice, and with practice, my ability to help became almost transcendant. I became a gifted teacher. People from all walks of life told me that I was blessed. Did I fall after that? Oh yes, because I placed myself back into an environment where personal ego and idealism without realism is the rule, and you are out on your ass if you don't follow by those rules. I was fired, or almost fired, twice because I didn't go along. My self-diagnosed failure to get tenure in ivory towers by doing what they wanted me to do led me to drug addiction and suicidality. And although I am not the caliber of person that Barack Obama and his historical and contemperary peers are, I am back up again, and I am back at it, outside of the walls of the privileged academy. And if I can do it, someone who isn't even close to as gifted as Obama is, then why can't he? Because once you are called, you never stop. You can't. Your spirit won't let you. Something won't let you -- that thing that protected me through all the years of struggle and abuse and setbacks. Call it God, call it whatever you want, when you are called as I am and as are people hundreds of times as powerful as I: Barack Obama most certainly is, and as are Paulo Freire and Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and Gahndi and Bobby Kennedy and Cesar Chavez and Che and Marley and Ayn and Sojourner and Rosa and Harriet and countless other individuals who changed the world because of their spiritual call. When you are called, you are supported by something divine. Let that support your own hope, and throw away your own cynicism. If I can crawl back from the brink of death to begin anew doing what I was called to do, even after the cruelest of experiences, then you must believe that what I see in Obama is real. The very bones of his face have been softened by kindness and love and nobility. Don't call me a liberal idealist with eyes in the sky because my liberal ideals are faced purely and surely on the ground and on the faces of those I work with and on the furture, as were all those past heroes, as are Barack Obama's. I believe. I believe. I believe. Believe, if only for a monent, with me. Bow your head, open your heart, and believe.
Please feel free to post this elsewhere.
In love and faith,
Dr. Susan Swan, liberal, female, called to action in collaboration with those who are mired in poverty, community organizer, teacher, mother, pragmatic, tattooed head to foot yet accepted by all who I have really worked with (my students, community members, preachers,and other community organizers who at first doubted the tattooed eccentric with the inappropriate humor because I refused to give up hope in them, their cause, and their lives and dreams and the lives and dreams of and for their children, including those who are diametrically opposed to me as they see that I work for the same ideals they do), wife, writer, addict, reflective human being who refuses to be kicked to the curb because I represent hope for the masses and fear to the powerful: I am fearless to admit my mistakes because they are a clear pointer to success, and I am a proud American, and for these and many other reasons, I am a believer and supporter of Barack Obama.
.