Thanks For Everything

Just a quick note about John Edwards dropping out of the presidential race. What a classy & honorable thing to do right now. That's precisely what a real statesman, & NOT just a politician, should do. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for what he brought to the presidential campaigns, & I hope he stays in the national spotlight in some capacity for a long time. We need his voice. Best wishes to him & his family.

Saint Barack

He was already a rock star; now he's been canonized, by no less than the Kennedys. The stunning endorsements by Caroline & Teddy Kennedy have made the Democratic race a crusade now. Caroline comparing Barack to her father is no less than a "come home" call for all Democrats, especially those who were lured into voting Republican during the Reagan era. I completely agree with her assessment of what this country wants & needs: no less than a hero, someone who inspires us to be as good as we can be, to become the kind of country that inspires the world to be as good as we are. We were actually like that once, when we had statesmen & not just politicians, when we were an example of all that was good & fair in the world, & people in other parts of the world aspired to be like us. We can be that America again; we can become the conscience of the world again. If Barack Obama is good enough for the Kennedys, who have given so much to this country, he should be good enough for us.

The Kids Are Not All Right

I recently read a blog whose writer was appalled at the lack of sympathy for Britney Spears, especially from middle aged women. She couldn't understand why these women with daughters Britney's age were so vehement in their criticisms of her. I guess she figured that "there but for the grace of God" were their daughters. However, I think she missed the point; that being that they were critical of her as a mother of very small children, & I can understand that. Although I do believe that Britney has an undiognosed mental illness (probably bi-polar disorder or maybe post-partum depression, or both), even I - who am as sympathetic as anyone in the world concerning this - can't help but wonder how she cannot think of her children first in all circumstances. I believe any good mother would wonder this. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter what your accomplishments are in other areas of your life (& I'm talking about both men & women here): if you fuck up your kids, you're an abject failure (& an asshole).

I know people say this all the time, but there really should be some sort of test everyone needs to take before being allowed to have kids ("Heil" to you, too - I know, I know). It's frightening to me how totally unsuited, unfit & sometimes downright dangerous some people are who have kids. Maybe it's because some people (especially women) still feel that they're viewed as selfish or not normal (or whatever) not to have kids. But I believe that if you don't especially want kids, for whatever reason, the desire to be a good parent isn't really there. Providing for their material needs isn't enough by a longshot. It is just as important to meet their emotional needs.

But back to Britney (I'm sort of obsessed with the subject lately, much to my own chagrin). Coming from the South, where people tend to both get married & have kids (in whichever order) somewhat younger than in other places, perhaps she felt it was expected of her, although I'm not altogether convinced that at least the second kid (if not the first) was expected. Unfortunately, she didn't have a very good role model. Her own mother has always used & exploited both of her daughters shamelessly. Using your own children as a meal ticket is an unforgivable sin, & I honestly believe that Lynne Spears will have to answer to God for that. So Britney already had that strike against her. Complicating things also is that the poor girl just isn't that bright. When she had people looking out for her (even though I'm not sure exactly what that means in her case) she seemed to be able to function, albeit as a robot. Her downward spiral seemed to start when she & Justin Timberlake broke up. Maybe he was sort of her anchor to some kind of reality, 'cause she seemed to lose her grasp on it soon after. Anyway, it's a really sad situation, especially for those adorable children, & I feel bad for all of them & I keep hoping there's someone in Britney's life who finally is able to reach out to her & convince her to get help before it's too late. The somewhat tarnished silver lining in this is that maybe it will make other parents of celebrity children think a little harder about what they're doing to their kids.

Our Long Ride on the Short Bus

Isn't it almost unbelieveable that it's taken EIGHT years for the American people to finally get fed up & be ready for & willing to change? Talk about slow learners. Maybe it's all the new voters since 2000, but I don't think that's the whole story. Maybe we just have to be plunged into absolute despair to be open to hearing about "hope". As I've probably said before, there's just no excuse to have voted for George Bush twice. OK, I'll give you a pass (reluctantly) the first time, but come on, people, even animals learn from their mistakes if the consequences are bad enough. Are we really that stubborn, or egotistic, or (I've got to say it) stupid? Just that alone is enough for the rest of the world to sneer at us; we've become both a bully AND a laughingstock at the same time, it appears.

Well, folks, we now have another chance to redeem ourselves, to show the world we really do give a shit about something other than fearing gay marriage & Muslims. Although I wish that Al Gore would have given us a second chance to do the right thing, I can't blame him at all. I guess there is such a creature as a recovering politician, & God knows he's been through enough crap already. And Hillary has disappointed me terribly, especially on the war. Edwards is right on all the issues, but that bus left the station a while ago, & now he's just taking votes from Barack. So that leaves us with Obama, who I have to admit I used to believe couldn't really be a viable candidate, both because of his relative inexperience & what I suspected was a still insidious racism in this country. To my delight, I've been proven wrong. For really the first time since 1968, it seems as if young people have a candidate they can actually believe in & work for. Barack Obama is a true rock star candidate, & could possibly be the catalyst for real change not only for this country, but for the world. And face it, experience is overrated most of the time. Probably no one has more experience in government than Dick Cheney. Do I really have to say more? I think that Barack has ignited a spark in all of us which does indeed give us hope. I could vote for any one of the three, actually, & in any combination on the ticket, but the only one who inspires true excitement is Obama. Since there's a good chance that it'll all be over by Feb. 5 ("Super Tuesday"), those of us in states that have primaries after that probably can't make history as far as the Democratic nomination, but we can all make history in November, & show the world, as Gerald Ford said after the Nixon resignation, that "our long national nightmare is over". Can we get it right this time?