America’s Moment

Chastise Man recently had a brief sense of regret that soon his old nemesis George Bush, The Man Who Broke the Country, would soon be gone and there would be no easy outlet for his wrath (which he soon got over). Then Chastise Man remembered a couple weeks ago, watching Keith Olbermann’s “special comment” about Hillary Clinton’s unfortunate reference to the RFK assassination.

While Hillary used the word “assassination” once in her comment, Olbermann kept repeating it, over and over. He was upset, outraged, indignant, but for what? It seemed that he was becoming a bit unhinged in his righteous indignation (unlike many of his previous rants in which he expressed appropriate outrage).

This got Chastise Man to thinking; it’s a fine line between righteous indignation and insanity – simply barking at yourself.

I think we’ve all become so accustomed at being pissed-off, at how the Bush administration has wrecked things, at how Congress can’t get anything done, at how liberals are immoral, unpatriotic, terrorist-loving scoundrels and conservatives are war-mongering, lying, thieving, fear-loving scoundrels.

Since we’re all scoundrels in some form or another it becomes our choice to let it either divide or unite us – at least in a time of crisis. And this is a nation in crisis.

And so we look beyond George Bush and to the possibility of a new presidency and a new start.

There are smart folks that Chastise Man respects who have expressed concern over Barack Obama – rhetoric over substance and inexperience being foremost. These are valid concerns. But after eight years of neither good policy or soaring, inspirational rhetoric, Chastise Man is happy to take the soaring inspirational rhetoric, at least for now.

This country needs inspiration, it needs to be reminded that the American experiment is still, and always will be, a work in progress. It is a country that was founded on change, and if ever there was a time we needed change in America, it is right now.

It remains to be seen of America can overcome her worst tendencies toward fear, hatred, and racism. Right now I choose to believe she can.