I spend my mornings with people accused of committing crimes and my afternoons with a baby who has already been found guilty. Of being ridiculously adorable.
(He’s also a convicted tickle monster.)
Each week, I spend approximately 30 hours alone with Bodhi. That’s a lot of time to spend with someone who doesn’t even talk. It can get pretty isolating, but everyday we add to our repertoire of fun and fruitful activities.
We started off walking to downtown Berkeley to run errands and deposit checks. Soon, we were hiking in the East Bay hills, touching redwoods and smelling bay leaves. We walk to neighborhood parks, lay on grass and look at trees. And today, we went swimming at the Y.
While he’s probably too young for the weight room, we can always practice at home.
Yesterday, we were laying in the grass on the shores of Lake Temescal. It had been about eight hours since I had last spoken to an adult. Bodhi had cried pretty hard on the car ride over and I was feeling rather sad.
Holding Bodhi above me, his head eclipsed the bright, warm sun. Its rays encircled and illuminated his smiling face. Immediately, I realized how lucky, blessed and privileged I am to have this moment, with my baby, at 3:23 p.m., on a Monday afternoon. So much better than any adult conversation I could possibly have.
For all those out there who come here for a healthy dose of drool, diapers and unabashed cuteness, I am sorry to report that this is another post on politics. I wouldn’t be a responsible liberal blogger if I didn’t do my part to burst Palin’s bubble with the McCain campaign’s greatest enemy: the truth.
To put this in perspective, the only thing Palin has done so far in this campaign is read a series of lies and attacks off a teleprompter. Lies and attacks penned, incidentally, by one of W’s speech writers.
She is ducking every invitation to actually answer substantive questions about her background and experience.
Questions about how she can applaud her daughter’s choice to keep her child, but purport to deny that choice to the rest of American women. Questions about her support for a secessionist party in Alaska. Questions about how she can lambast ear marks, but herself sought out hundreds millions of dollars of pork both as a mayor and governor. Questions about why she believes the unprovoked and illegal invasion of a sovereign country is a “task from god.” Questions about her efforts to ban books from the library. Questions about her belief that humans don’t contribute to global warming. Questions about why she believes the government should force women to carry for nine months the baby of a man who raped her.
To name a few.
Yet she has already been anointed the future of the Republican party and has been credited with reenergizing a campaign struggling to distance itself from, well, everything the campaign stands for. It’s puzzling to me as well.
The truth is that underneath that friendly smile and small town charm, she’s a radical conservative who lies. Hmm…a radical conservative packaged and presented as someone you’d wanna have a beer with…sounds eerily familiar.
Yet somehow they’re actually trying to spin their campaign as a campaign for change.
I’m picking the candidate who will give middle class tax payers the bigger tax break.
The candidate who understands that spending $10 billion dollars a month to occupy someone else’s country will not defeat terrorism and actually makes us less safe while decimating our economy.
The candidate who appreciates nuance and approaches every question, every issue and every problem with thoughtfulness, balance and humility.
Mates of State released their new album a month after Kate released Bodhi. The opening track wastes no time delivering its message:
Forget your politics for a while
Let the color schemes arrive…”
I take the admonishment to heart. I have before me a smiling baby. A glistening rope of drool sways with his irregular movement. He sneezes, then widens his eyes, raises an eyebrow, looks directly at me and calmly exhales. He smiles again, then abruptly bows and shoves a fist in his mouth.
The color schemes have definitely arrived, and they are bright and vivid and beautiful.
The divisive acrimony of contemporary political discourse can only corrupt such moments of divine perfection. Basking in the light of my beautiful boy, I do everything I can to avoid the dark shadows of conflict.
But out of the corner of my eye, I see that something special is happening and I realize that the stakes are too high. There is too much at risk to sit idly in the ivory bumbo of parenthood.
I have a duty to my son to do everything I can to make sure he inherits a sustainable, just and peaceful world. A world where deception and self-interest yield to truth and compassion. Where our country is once again an example of what is possible when diverse cultures and ideologies meet equal opportunity, creativity and innovation.
As unsavory as it once seemed, “talking politics” has actually become a civic and paternal duty.
So after eight of the most devastating years our country has ever seen, the glorious magnificence of term limits bestows upon us a precious opportunity. We have at our disposal a rare leader, brilliant not for his speeches or even his ideas, but for his amazing ability to motivate the masses and inspire hope in millions of people around the world that, if we work together, open our mouths and move our feet, we can actually make the world a better place.
In the upcoming week, we will be hearing arguments that Barack Obama lacks the experience to be the president of the United States. McCain will counter Obama’s call for “change we can believe in” with the assurance that only he is “ready to lead on day one.”
McCain has been a Washington politician for much longer than Obama. He is also a soldier with so much experience, he can actually ”defeat evil“. He is 72 (seventy-two) years old.
Clearly, what this country needs right now is a saber-rattling old man with a temper who has been in Washington for so many years that he is both funded and advised by special interests and lobbyists. Only someone with experience has the sound judgment to preemptively invade an unarmed country. And five years later, with over a hundred thousand dead bodies and a region less secure than ever before, we need someone with the experience to know that continuing a military occupation is the way forward.
As a senator, he has cooperated with Democrats to accomplish good legislation and often held positions contrary to his party’s line. But as a candidate, he has dramatically changed his positions to appeal to the GOP base.
He has embraced the deceptive smear tactics of Karl Rove, disseminating outright lies about his opponent to rouse fear in the electorate.
His experience has not made him a good leader. It has made him a good politician.
In a time when Americans yearn for a government they can trust, experience has made John McCain into a politician who lies to the American people for votes.
When Americans desperately need a leader who puts the interests of everyday Americans above all else, experience has made John McCain into a puppet for special interests.
And in a time when Americans and this world needs a leader to foster unity and understanding through communication and diplomacy, McCain’s vaunted military experience has made him a blustery hot-head, another cowboy on a mission to “defeat evil” with bombs.
Lest we all forget that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were two of the most experienced politicians our nation has ever seen. Without strong character and sound judgment, experience can actually provide the tools for corruption and malfeasance.
In spite of all this, somehow the big money Republican machine of spin and attack seems to be working yet again and John McCain is in a statistical dead heat with Barack Obama. It is early, they are just polls and I remain optimistic.
Yet whatever happens with this race, I am thrilled to see so many people engaging themselves in the political process for the first time. I am thrilled that more Americans watched Barack Obama’s big speech than the opening ceremony of the Olympics. I am reveling in the idealism and empowerment that is sweeping across this country.
And, of course, I am ecstatic to share all this excitement with my fabulous, rapidly growing baby boy, the reason for the season, the one and only Bodhi Von Munchausen.
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The Real McCain
September 9, 2008 · Leave a Comment
The production is pretty cheesy, but the video clips speak for themselves.
Categories: Political and Social Commentarty