III.
If people really want
to know how Obama
became president, if
anyone opened up a
legitimate opportunity
for a black man to win
significant political
office, they only need
to look to his predecessor,
G, who put Condi and Colin
front and center, more
than anyone else had done
before him.
But G's a martyr more obviously
than his own predecessors,
because he stuck to an unpopular
course as far as he could, even
though just about everyone
by the end said he was dead wrong.
No, he didn't actually pay
the full price, but he might
as well have -- at no other
point in US history has a
president become such a
pariah in his own time, not
Johnson, not even Nixon,
who at least knew a mandate,
but his own paranoia did him in.
No, G's problem developed from Dick,
but it was entirely his own burden,
a course he chose to take because
he knew it was right, despite
what everyone around he grew
to think, no matter how ugly
the world became for him, and
seemingly for his counry.
No, he was never out to make
an empire, just a better world,
do the best he could. Maybe
he wasn't eloquent, or a great
statesman, but he was better
than that, he was a man,
the last man in the room,
who knew principle when
he saw it, and it wasn't
even about his own country,
but about the world around him.
He had been bitten, so he
sought to make sure, no
matter the snake would not
bite again.
He didn't drown, not
even when the levees broke,
but rose above.
Mission accomplished indeed...
Showing posts with label Drowning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drowning. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Drowning
II.
As a historical figure,
it strikes me that
JFK isn't getting his due.
Lincoln's logical successor,
he had a few years to work
on important issues, and
as a man in pivotal times,
he set a bar no one has
approached since.
The 60s, even if he lived
only for three of them,
were still defined by
JFK's work. He was
influential in getting
civil rights codified
for black Americans, one
of several important men
in a time when the nation
became keenly aware of itself,
in the one issue that
united everyone, and
eventually on his side.
As a politician, he achieved
more than anyone else,
with the greatest display
of statesmanship before
or since, at the coldest point
in the Cold War, the Cuban
Missile Crisis; who knows
where he would have ended
up in Vietnam, which started
before him, and ended with
the man he defeated for
the presidency?
He was a troubled man,
and a wounded man, much
like FDR before him,
but he did more than
build toward some
fabled New Frontier
from a storied Camelot,
he spent all his energies,
and for his reward did not
live to see accompished
what he set in motion,
even though his dream
for the moon came so quickly.
Without him, everything
seemed to come apart;
a country set about a road
to disunion, let us say now,
which must be the true fight
today; the space program
is no longer so glamourous,
without real support; true,
a black man sits in the
White House now, but like
all great men, it's
not for the reasons you think.
JFK choked on his own success,
drowned in the sea of turmoil
he strove to calm, and for that
he deserves to be held
in an eternity of respect
and admiration.
As a historical figure,
it strikes me that
JFK isn't getting his due.
Lincoln's logical successor,
he had a few years to work
on important issues, and
as a man in pivotal times,
he set a bar no one has
approached since.
The 60s, even if he lived
only for three of them,
were still defined by
JFK's work. He was
influential in getting
civil rights codified
for black Americans, one
of several important men
in a time when the nation
became keenly aware of itself,
in the one issue that
united everyone, and
eventually on his side.
As a politician, he achieved
more than anyone else,
with the greatest display
of statesmanship before
or since, at the coldest point
in the Cold War, the Cuban
Missile Crisis; who knows
where he would have ended
up in Vietnam, which started
before him, and ended with
the man he defeated for
the presidency?
He was a troubled man,
and a wounded man, much
like FDR before him,
but he did more than
build toward some
fabled New Frontier
from a storied Camelot,
he spent all his energies,
and for his reward did not
live to see accompished
what he set in motion,
even though his dream
for the moon came so quickly.
Without him, everything
seemed to come apart;
a country set about a road
to disunion, let us say now,
which must be the true fight
today; the space program
is no longer so glamourous,
without real support; true,
a black man sits in the
White House now, but like
all great men, it's
not for the reasons you think.
JFK choked on his own success,
drowned in the sea of turmoil
he strove to calm, and for that
he deserves to be held
in an eternity of respect
and admiration.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Drowning
I.
It's strange to think so now,
(especially in a celebratory
year), but Lincoln wasn't
always so popular.
In fact, the thing he's
most regarded for he did
so with reluctance, almost
a measure of last resort.
It was a terrible time
in American life, and
a direct culmination of
circumstances that had
been bubbling since the
second presidential
election. In fact,
Lincoln couldn't even
resolve it himself,
and a later president,
Andrew Johnson, became
the first of the persecuted
chiefs because he tried
to defend Abe's last wishes.
When Lincoln freed the slaves,
he was making a last ditch
effort, an extreme power play
that his Confederate rivals,
for all their bluster,
could never approach, and it
was this final knowledge that
ended a terrible war.
But it was only the beginning.
Great men, and great sacrifices,
always lead toward change,
but the change they seek,
and the course they pursue
will always be divisive,
so that in their wake,
the course floods and
the people find themselves
drowning, not knowing
what to do, even though
the water is, in effect,
exactly the solution.
We trouble ourselves
to find our way.
It's strange to think so now,
(especially in a celebratory
year), but Lincoln wasn't
always so popular.
In fact, the thing he's
most regarded for he did
so with reluctance, almost
a measure of last resort.
It was a terrible time
in American life, and
a direct culmination of
circumstances that had
been bubbling since the
second presidential
election. In fact,
Lincoln couldn't even
resolve it himself,
and a later president,
Andrew Johnson, became
the first of the persecuted
chiefs because he tried
to defend Abe's last wishes.
When Lincoln freed the slaves,
he was making a last ditch
effort, an extreme power play
that his Confederate rivals,
for all their bluster,
could never approach, and it
was this final knowledge that
ended a terrible war.
But it was only the beginning.
Great men, and great sacrifices,
always lead toward change,
but the change they seek,
and the course they pursue
will always be divisive,
so that in their wake,
the course floods and
the people find themselves
drowning, not knowing
what to do, even though
the water is, in effect,
exactly the solution.
We trouble ourselves
to find our way.
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