[Reader-list] a politics beyond periodic extravaganzas?

Vivek Narayanan vivek at sarai.net
Thu Nov 6 19:56:12 IST 2008


Some of you on the foil list will have already read this wonderful and universally relevant (to the discussion at hand) piece, posted by Sayan Bhattacharya--

Vivek

"Let Us Shed Tears of Gratitude for This Moment of Grace.  It Will Be Brief."

by Mike Ferner

<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/ferner051108.html>

My friend, Lucy Bohne, an English professor at a state college near
Erie, Pennsylvania, wrote to her daughter today about Barack Obama's
victory.  Lucy did a fine job describing how many people feel the day
after the Senator's historic victory.

    "Thank you for calling last night.  It sounded like NYC had gone
mad with joy! . . .  I have spent the night in a roller coaster of
amazement, shadowed by despair, counting the days between your birth
and MLK's murder.  Twelve, to be more or less exact.  That was the joy
-- to think that 40 years later your generation would hand the White
House over to the leadership of a black American.  That is an amazing
thing! . . .  The shadows -- well, you know them.  This amazing thing
that happened in America -- that only we, as Americans, can understand
and share -- won't make a difference to the world, to the children in
Baghdad, Beirut, Gaza, and Teheran, and all the other places in the
crosshairs of our guns -- unless we make that difference.  Might as
well be brave and strong and admit that there is work to be done,
struggles to embrace, disappointments to endure.

    But, for the moment, let us shed tears of gratitude for this
moment of grace.  It will be brief.

    Mom"

Considering that race is always the subplot to the American story,
many of us surely will "shed tears of gratitude for this moment of
grace," no matter how brief.

As we move beyond today's fleeting joys, I will recall how often
during this presidential campaign people asked if I thought an Obama
administration would by and large be a good thing.  My response was
always this: the best thing about an Obama victory would not be his
policies -- he's shown too often they differ little from the status
quo.  The best thing his campaign and election offers is the way it
has inspired millions of people to become active, to expect more, to
work hard with many people towards something larger than themselves --
in short, to gain a sense of purpose.

Then, if Obama's inspired grassroots campaigners discover in their
hearts that citizen vigilance and organizing are just as important as
elections; that creating democracy from the bottom up is more
important than our quadrennial extravaganzas; that investments of time
and energy commensurate with their newly-raised expectations must be
made -- only then will we see change significant enough to make
Obama's election more than a historical footnote.

Who knows today what forces the hopes and dreams of this campaign may
have unleashed?  Who can say what historical events may be about to
unfold, or how far they may go if we make conditions right for their
growth?

More importantly, when our "moment of grace" is indeed found to be
brief and we must regroup over and over again, will these new, hopeful
campaigners be savvy enough to overcome the American appetite for
instant gratification that today is found only in shopping malls?

That, I believe, is the challenge faced by all those who want schools
and healthcare not empire and warfare; who want to ". . .make a
difference to the world, to the children in Baghdad, Beirut, Gaza, and
Teheran, and all the other places in the crosshairs of our guns."

It is a tall challenge indeed.  But if we are not up to it, who is?

----
Mike Ferner is a writer and activist from Ohio.
Contact him at <mike.ferner at sbcglobal.net>.



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