It nearly changed when Obama was elected. I hoped tht I was the one who behind the times, that the nightmares I grew up with were no longer the truth, that I was old and fearful and my views were paranoid and it was time to put them aside. I've read the words of JAG or bravenak, and think change has come quietly and out of sight, but it has.
In the days after I quit crying and left my house after Obama was elected, I saw hope in the black faces that surrounded me. They looked at all the white strangers as if they had been validated. It was like a new world. Actually, in my area this has not ended, there is much more solidarity now than there was before. It is all working its way out.
And then it came, wave after wave, the same hatred I knew, but so much worse as people have had time to see that it was wrong and it was pouring down again and again. Until it was a bitter taste in my mouth and my mind. And I'm not even black. I've defended our president against all takers, and not just because of the man that he is or his color, but partly for both. It was for the nation's soul and it best ideals that I was defending. That he believes in.
Looking back over the last half dozen years or so, I cannot say I am unsurprised, so I picked your additional option. We are media sensitive here. It shapes our view of the world, each other and our own selves. And the pattern repeats. Here are a few quotes:
There is no present or future, only the past, happening over and over again, now.
~ Eugene O'Neill
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.
If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
~ Howard Zinn
OTOH, some of the things I've seen posted here such as the hate regarding ProSense, I feel this:
A chat with you and somehow death loses its sting.
~ Black Adder
I hope I am wrong.
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