My last post prompted several readers to note (and I’m paraphrasing here) that they were surprised to read something from me that wasn’t accompanied by a large black cloud. Damn. While I readily admit that my Scotch glass is often half-empty, I hate being predictable.
To demonstrate that I haven’t always been the curmudgeon that I am today, I thought I’d share a post from a previous incarnation of this blog. I wrote this in early 2008, not long after Barack Obama kicked off a political campaign that would eventually result in his first term as President. I noted at the time that this was written to be given as a speech:
Although the words are mine, I attempted a style compatible with the verbal tone and cadence of Barack Obama — at least to my amateur ear and to the limits of my meager abilities – to honor the prospect of an American President whose command of the language of Shakespeare is superior to my own.
It’s still a speech I’d like to hear.
Posted: Monday, 2/18/08
There are those who would have us believe that we as Americans are defined by our differences. They would have us believe that the choice before us in the upcoming election is young or old, black or white, male or female.
They are mistaken.
Those are choices of the past, divisions of the past, politics of the past.
Those who believe that this election is about age would do well to remember that neither wisdom nor foolishness are bestowed based upon the year of one’s birth.
Those who believe that this election is about race would do well to remember that human eyes were designed by the Almighty to appreciate a full and vibrant spectrum of colors — colors that are themselves mere perceptions of the same light.
Those who believe that this election is about gender would do well to remember that neither man nor woman would survive even one generation without the other.
No. Our choice today is not about gender, race, or age. Neither is the choice today between north and south, east and west, urban and rural, conservative and liberal, nor even Democrat and Republican.
The choice today is between the past and the future.
America is most certainly the product of a grand heritage. We are greatly enriched by our past and we are gratefully indebted to our past. Indeed, there are many good people who sincerely believe that America needs to retreat into its past to find solutions to the problems of its present.
Again, they are mistaken.
We best honor our nation’s proud history not by repeating it, but by learning from it and by applying those lessons to our own unique time.
In the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln promised his America “a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
As our nation struggled through the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt reminded his America that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
And even as the Cold War escalated, John F. Kennedy challenged his America with the words “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
In this place and at this crucial moment in our nation’s history, it is now our time.
It is our time to ask ourselves what each and every one of us can do to build a better America.
It is our time to reject the politics of fear that threaten to paralyze a free and open American society.
It is our time to endow our America with a glorious rebirth of freedom that is worthy of the many sacrifices of those who came before us.
We are not naive. We know that the voices of our better angels can often be lost within a cacophony of old grudges and reflexive responses. But here we need not be bound by our recent history.
We are free to decide that accommodation is not always the equivalent of weakness.
We are free to agree that a compromise solution is often better than the originals.
We are free to creatively debate those with whom we disagree while neither impugning their motivations nor questioning their patriotism.
Change will not be easy; the past is well-entrenched. But our future demands a new beginning. And it is our time.
So let it be declared by all of America’s proud children and let it resonate throughout the world…
That America hereby reclaims its rightful role as the premier model of a fair, free, and inclusive society.
That America will never fear to act, but will also never act out of fear.
That America will be defined no longer by the ideas that divide us but by the ideals that unite us.
It is our time.
It is our time.