Are we ready for the
future?
October 31, 2008
If you are like
me, these last days before the presidential election
are filled with heightened emotions and expectation
as before a birth. Every presidential election is
a crisis point for our nation, since we are making
a virtually irrevocable choice that will determine
our destiny, and define us for the world for the
next four years. It is the end of one evolutionary
cycle and the beginning of the next. This year it is
more momentous than ever, because in the course of
our nation’s life some elections, like this one,
are initiations into a new stage of our collective
consciousness.
Our many current
crises make it feel thus, but in addition we are
also on the brink of a shift in our psychological
development. The choices represented by Obama and
McCain are clearly presenting us with a threshold,
which our choice to cross or not to cross, will determine
if we “graduate” this
election cycle. Our graduation as a nation is to pass
from adolescence to adulthood. Obama appeals to our
budding maturity, while McCain courts us with cues
to evoke our adolescent nature.
To vote for Obama
we have to overcome our self-centeredness; we have
to counsel ourselves to learn from our mistakes without
self-reproach and we have to cultivate our sense
of caring for others. For some it will be a transcending
choice: A “we” choice
instead of a “me” choice — a choice
that also transcends racial, national, materialistic
and religious orthodoxies that have conditioned us
in the past through the mechanism of fear. As we make
adult choices collectively, we become an adult nation,
able to meet our tests together. That is what Obama
is appealing to and that is how he has run his campaign.
He has treated us as adults. Replying to Katie Couric
on CBS news about what would cause him to fire someone
from his campaign staff he replied:
“You know I don't mind people
making mistakes, but I want them to learn from their
mistakes, and, what I won't tolerate are people who
put their own ego or their desire for self-aggrandizement
ahead of the team. … I am a big believer in "there's
no 'I' in team."
CBS
Evening News: Presidential Questions 10-29-2008
McCain has not lived
up to his promise or his own personal values. Like
an adolescent, his desire to have his team win no
matter what has usurped his adult principles. He
has “fought” like
a bully with the tools of fear, divided us into cliques
like we see in the high school cafeteria, used “us
versus them” to build loyalty to his team, and
has framed his tax argument in a way that appeals to
selfishness. He has chosen a “prom queen” as
his running mate, and spread false rumors and gossip
as a way to defeat the opposing team.
To be part of the Obama team we have
to be adults. We have to make some sacrifices of habits
that may prevent us from solving pressing problems,
and we have to have a national vision that is global,
inclusive, and puts human and environmental well-being
at the top of the agenda.
November 5, 2008
I am elated. Today I would
simply like to add my voice to the many, many eloquent
commentaries that have followed this historic night.
Words of optimism, happiness and excitement about
our political process have been absent for so long.
It is also a sober moment as we contemplate what
this election means for the feelings and responsibilities
of our citizens.
With the election of Barack Obama Americans
showed the world and themselves that a democracy means
participation and fulfilling the motto “e pluribus
unum” — “out of many, one.” Apathy
in the elections of 2000 and 2004 got us a government
that trampled our freedoms while hypocritically justifying
war with the rationale of building democracies in other
countries. However, without the negligent, deceptive
and dishonorable government of George W. Bush, a president
Obama may not have been possible.
While for many this election
was a right of passage to a new political culture
reflecting a new psychological maturity, and a new
national identity, we must continue to reach out
to those disaffected and clouded by fear and hate
in our country. The joy on the diverse faces of those
celebrating the election of Barack Obama throughout
our country and the world must not instill us with
a false sense of euphoria. In addition, we must continue
our activism and continue to make our voices heard
in support of the causes that are important for human
and global well-being. We must likewise not let any
falsehoods stand unanswered. If this election was a
graduation from one stage of national being to the
next, it is important to remember the characterization
of a graduation as a “commencement.”
I can not state this better than Obama
did in his
victory speech last night.
For John McCain this must be a moment
of feeling liberated. He can be himself again, instead
of having his message twisted into a divisive weapon
of the Republican culture war. In the last weeks of
his campaign he showed some of the qualities that make
many people like him. His
concession speech was sincere and gracious, and
his appearance on Saturday
Night Live last week showed
an enjoyment of self-deprecating humor seldom seen
during this campaign. He takes responsibility for losing,
and perhaps he understands that with few exceptions
his main failure was letting his campaign be hijacked
by the same people who hijacked our country in 2000
and 2004. That is a grave failure of leadership, resulting
in a replay of past politics that this election has
soundly rejected. Many people who embraced the McCain/Palin
candidacy have not left behind their fears and hate.
Perhaps one of the main tasks of Obama supporters will
be to help them become more confident and hopeful.
© 2008
Richard V. Sidy
