I Hope

November 6, 2008June 4, 2017 / J. Thorp / 6 Comments

Chances are I don’t agree with your politics. At least not 100 percent. I voted for candidates in four different parties yesterday. Some will say that’s stupid. I’m alright with that.

But today, like so many others in this country, I hope. I’ve admired Obama since he spoke at the 2000 DNC. I believe he is, at heart, a good man — despite a few deep disagreements on issues important to me, my family and my faith. I agree with much of what he says he would like to accomplish — although I would approach many of the issues in very different ways. But he’s inspired so many people — and if that’s what it takes to mobilize the people of this great nation to demand, not bigger, but better government, then I hope he continues and meets with much success.

I hope that his moderate rhetoric from the campaign matches his actions going forward. I chatted briefly with a friend from Chicago, who knows Obama (via University of Chicago Law School) better than most Americans and supports him, but even he has his concerns; it would be foolish to think that the even-keeled president-elect didn’t learn a little something from the dirty side of Chicago politics. But still I hope — that his better angels will conspire with all of ours to take flight.

So many people have spoken, and will continue to speak, about Obama as the first black president of the United States. Of course this is monumental and moving: I smiled to hear Condoleezza Rice take a moment to make sure the press heard from her about what an historic moment this was, and smiled again to hear the revelers in Chicago today, including a young black man who said that, in addition to his great expectations for Obama, the president-elect has expectations for guys like him, too — among them to “pull our pants up a little higher” and “to start loving each other.”

I hope it’s the beginning of a new day, and an end for racism and discrimination. I hope that the black church that burned in the wee hours of the morning was a fluke coincidence.

But I have another reason to hope — for years now I’ve tried to imagine the first post-Boomer or Gen-X president. I hoped for a president who would look at the ways things have been done and see other possibilities, who would try new things, who would shake up the established order and hierarchy in Washington. My experience growing up in rural Michigan, then going “back East” to school, was that many in my generation don’t care where you come from, how much money you have, what you look like, or even whether you agree with them or not — they care what you stand for and why; they care about your ideas, your gifts, how you can help and how they can help you. That’s the kind of person I wanted to see running things.

I hope our country has elected such a man. I may not agree with him, but I hope. Call me naive, but it feels good.

Summer Vacation, Day 31: Independence Day Stream of Consciousness

July 4, 2008 / J. Thorp / 2 Comments

I was looking for the exact circumstances of a quote by Ben Franklin for today. Coincidentally, the top search return was a speech by Ron Paul on his official House of Representatives Web site. This is interesting to me, because I find myself feeling increasingly libertarian these days, and increasingly convinced that our problems must first be solved in our own backyards.

Here’s the bit, as referenced by Congressman Paul:

At the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 18, 1787, a Mrs. Powel anxiously awaited the results, and as Benjamin Franklin emerged from the long task now finished, asked him directly: “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” “A republic if you can keep it” responded Franklin.

A society as free as ours is bound to raise up various and noxious weeds among our “amber waves of grain” – but I wouldn’t live anywhere else (at least, not permanently), nor would I sacrifice these personal freedoms for a supposedly cleaner or safer society. If we are to secure both our freedoms and a safe and sane society, we must start at home. I’ll work harder at that, starting right now …

Gotta go squeeze the Thorplets – happy Independence Day, my friends!

The Spirit Is Willing …

June 4, 2008 / J. Thorp / 3 Comments

I’ve been stewing on a question for some time now – especially since this post got me to thinking about a conversation several months ago with Jinglebob regarding the war in Iraq. This question, however, can also be applied to political campaigns, labor disputes, and public disagreements of all kinds. The question is this:

At what point do good people make the choice
to fight dirty in order to win?

I remember the point at which, during the 2000 Republican Primary season, McCain started to get dirty, and the Straight Talk Express began to veer. I remember pundits saying, just a few months ago, that Obama needed to “get tough” to combat Clinton’s negative attacks. I’ve worked in communications for more than a decade now, and I’ve seen the daily headline wars won again and again by simplistic, and generally negative, messages – sometimes with little to no basis in fact. And I’ve heard friends and family advocate extreme measures to combat terrorists with no qualms at all about committing the worst sorts of atrocities against innocent people.

When confronted with such an adversary, it seems there is little room for negotiation, nuance, rules or truth. The faithful are often admonished to turn the other cheek – but once both cheeks are battered and bruised … then what?

This is the point at which the idealist in me says, Then you lose on principle. Die with honor.

But the body rebels. The mind justifies. The ego says, No way I’m going out without a fight. The gloves are coming off!

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Jewish psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl touches briefly on the lives of Jewish capos – prisoners who, in many cases, decided to survive the concentration camps by any means necessary. These prisoners acted as camp trustees on behalf of the Nazi SS and, Frankl says, sometimes became more brutal that the Nazi guards in their treatment of fellow prisoners. Frankl argues that these men sacrificed something more precious than life – their personal values. They were accorded special privileges and survived the camps, but many never recovered their humanity.

Public policy is rarely life-and-death, so this comparison is not exact. But the same questions apply to both arenas: Where is the line, and when should we cross?

Sounds Familiar …

May 12, 2008 / J. Thorp / 6 Comments

I’m winding my way through a fascinating history called The Devil’s Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe by James Chambers. The most interesting parts thus far have been the passages describing Mongol horsemanship, as well as the accounts of military tactics and mobility that were unheard of at the time but are still practiced today.

That is, until last night, when I read this passage below. The Mongol army is preparing to invade Syria by first neutralizing the enemy’s neighbors on its eastern flank, the Caliph of Baghdad to the south, who at the time was the spiritual ruler of Islam, and the Ismaili Order of the Assassins to the north, described as “drug-crazed murderers” who were “unsupported by orthodox Moslems” and were hiding in impregnable mountain fortresses. (Al Qaeda- or Taliban-esque?) Here’s the description of Baghdad as the Mongols advanced:

“At last the caliph accepted his generals’ advice and ordered that citizens should be armed and trained and the walls of the city repaired, but his orders were delayed by his vizier and it was not until the day before the Mongols arrived that work on the walls began. In the sectarian quarrels that divided Islam, the caliph supported the Sunnites, but his vizier was a Shiite, and resenting the caliph’s persecution of some of his Shiite brethren, the vizier had been sending secret messages to the Mongols since the beginning of the negotiations, urging them to attack, describing the city’s vulnerability and offering his assistance in the hope that after the city had been taken he might be invited to govern it.”

The year was 1257. So the Sunni and the Shia have been fighting each other for control of Baghdad for at least 750 years. I haven’t finished the chapter to know whether the Khan’s army simply slaughtered the lot, or attempted to rule. The next chapter (the last of the book) is called “The End of an Era.” For Baghdad or the Mongols, I wonder …

The Sixth Finger

April 16, 2008 / J. Thorp / 4 Comments

I’ve found it! The clip I referenced yesterday. The one thing that ties the Obama gaffe, guns and violence, reason, evolution and everything else together! Come. Journey with me to … The Outer Limits!