A time for change

[Steps on soapbox]

[Realizes that he has never actually seen a soapbox before and now decides to stand on a large mound of Irish Spring 4-packs]

More than anything this blog was started four years ago in response to a bumper sticker I saw in the parking lot of my office. I was working in Kansas at the time for reasons that have never been quite clear. While stumbling my way through the garage in order to spend another soul draining eight hours in a cubicle I saw on a truck the following statement: “Ten out of ten terrorists agree: Vote Democratic.”

To say that this bothered me does not do it justice. If it wasn’t for the fact that I hold the first amendment above all else I probably would have taken out his rear window with a five iron. There is a reason why the founding fathers made the freedom of expression the preeminent right of all citizens. We have the God given right to speak our mind no matter how idiotic those statements may be. And that statement, offhandedly contending that anyone with opposing views is a terrorist, just struck me to my core. My main thought wasn’t that I was upset for finding myself in a red state or that my company was filled with people who I could not on any level agree with. No, reading that bumper sticker made me ashamed to be a human being.

At the time I had hoped that the country would come around to my point of view. To see that intolerance and bigotry and close-mindedness was not the solution. Instead Bush defeated Kerry and immediately after the election I launched this site and named it Battling the Current because one of my main points was that I was battling the current nature of our society. I looked out at what was around me and couldn’t believe that we had all allowed ourselves to live in such a dare I say hostile fashion. My goal has been to document a world gone wrong.

Without a doubt the last four years and more accurately the last eight have been that of a nation on the wrong track. While I could understand a war for oil I could not believe that we would ever fight a war on false pretenses with no concept of what the results might be. I never imagined that my government would condone torture and ignore the tenets of justice that our country was founded out. And I don’t believe that I will ever forgive an administration that allowed the people of New Orleans to suffer helplessly while they stood by and watched. Those were not actions that represented the country I believed in, the country my relatives came to in order to start anew, the country my relatives fought to protect.

This is the main reason why I am supporting Obama for president. I have been watching his career for several years (the benefit of being from Illinois) and what has struck me the most about him is the fact that he has made me proud to be an American. He represents what this country could be. When I watched him make his speech at the Old State Capitol declaring his intent to run for president it was the first time I had ever truly been moved by a political speech. Listening to him talk you are struck by this sense of hope and this feeling that we can have our country back.

Obama is not perfect, of course. He is a politician to be sure. There are flaws with some policies and others would never be practical. But that is true of all politicians. What I want right now is someone who will bring a sense of peace and sensibility to the country. Someone who we can look up to with a sense of pride. I truly feel that Obama is that man.

The election is in nine days. All I ask of anyone is that they vote. I don’t care who you vote for. If you vote for McCain (whose life story does deserve admiration) so be it. If you vote for Nader, well, have a wheatgrass smoothie on me. But this is as important of an election as I have ever seen. A down economy, a country at war abroad and with itself, all of which must be addressed if we are to become the shining city on the hill that we long to be. Vote for the candidate who can bring us closer to that dream.

[Steps off the teetering remains of a malformed hill of lower quality cleansing bars]

Best of 120 Minutes: Given my essay I felt that the only person who can follow it is one of my idols, Joe Strummer. Speak truth to power at all times.



The five random CDs for the week
1) The New Pornographers “Challengers”
2) Various Artists “The Return of the Grievous Angel”
3) Sufjan Stevens “The Avalanche”
4) Jack Johnson “On and On”
5) Jon Dee Graham “Swept Away”