As I've suggested previously, this project has been a long time coming. It's not for no reason that I've finally gotten the inspiration to begin it. There were many factors involved: I'm going back to school to get my Associate's before enrolling at CSU, I'm going to be living with my parents and so am going to be trying as hard as I can to make friends and to keep myself busy when I get bored, I feel like I've got a solid core of friends...it seems like now is the time for change in my own life.
But there's one factor that stands out further than any: the presidential election. For years, I've been of a political viewpoint that was not shared by the man in charge. For years, all I could do was stare in agonized horror as our country steadily became more and more hated because of a man elected through a (clearly broken) system. The whole world did what they could to stop him, but alas. I was ashamed.
And I honestly feel that these feelings are not just strictly related to anyone's political affiliation. It's just the utter disregard for any opposing argument. It's the abuse. It's the dirty dealings and the under-the-table transactions. A Democrat as entrenched in the underbelly of the oil business and with as many sketchy associates as Bush did would make me feel the same way. Especially if he decided to wage a premature, open-ended, unwinnable war on top of all that.
This is all why I am so happy we've elected Barack Hussein Obama as our president. I fully believe in his desire to "reach across the aisle," as he so often put it, in an attempt to decrease the partisanship that keeps our government from functioning with any level of efficiency. I think it's an extreme gesture of bi-ness. I think the idea that almost half of Americans, during any given year, are not having their voices truly heard simply because they don't affiliate with the party in charge should be absolutely sickening to anyone who thinks about it. Do we honestly believe that half this nation is so different from us that their opinions don't matter until the year is divisible by four?
It seems a lot of people feel this way; I know I used to. I used to bash Republicans, praise Clinton, and argue lividly against the death penalty for fun. I was a textbook Liberal, through and through. I'm still pretty left-leaning, but time has taught me a lot of things since before I could vote. I realize that "the right" is not the enemy. They deserve their rights just as much as the rest of us. And they also deserve to have their voices heard.
Now, it is true that the balance has shifted this election, and my opinions are now in the majority, both of the populace and of the people wielding power. It's easy to talk about unifying people from such a position. But now, more than ever, I feel I need to make my voice heard. Now that we have a president whose mantra is "Yes, we can," who is pledging to at least try to unite the parties, we need to hold him to his word. We can't let the standards we hold our figures of authority to be compromised. He will enter the White House with a lot of damage to fix, but with perhaps more power than even Bush and Cheney were able to amass as they caused the damage.
So can we all pledge to work together? I know there are some issues on which certain people and groups simply will not budge, but I believe there are fewer of those than there are issues we agree on, or are at least capable of discussing and compromising and sacrificing for. All of you out there who I would consider peers, all you late-teens and 20-somethings, the coming four years could easily be our time to shine.
In my pre-election time at Grinnell College (in the Iowan city of the same name) there were signs all over the campus stating simply: "Our parents had the sixties. This is our time. Vote November 4th." I think it's pretty damn true! It's time we as one people, as one American cultural experience, tried our damndest to band together and make humanity better than it's ever been before. We can do it. We have the power.
The way I've decided to use my power is what you see before you. I'm spreading the word of bi-ness, Benny Appleseed style, in the hopes that the climate and conditions are just perfect to nurture great forests of knowledge. New knowledge. Old knowledge. Hard knowledge and happy knowledge. You and me and humanity knowledge.
But do you know what would make it all much more effective? If all of you were to contribute what you can. Simply participate. Leave your thoughts, donate your time, and maybe we'll soon find ourselves in a world that is more more tolerant of the middle ground.
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