The Paradox of Vision

...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.













These really do say it all.

Wow. Unbelieveable feelings of relief. After eight looooonnnnggg years, I finally have hope again for my country. In the last weeks before the election, I have been mostly silent, holding my breath and waiting to see if the signs of light at the end of the tunnel were real.

When I think about the possible implications, I am just dumbfounded. The real chance that the wars will end. The real chance that the assault on the environment will end. The real chance that we will regain the respect and admiration of the world. The real chance that our economy can be repaired.

America began as, and will always remain, a fluid and dynamic grand experiment. We are learning, as a country, across generations, how to become better as human beings. It is hard to defy all that evolutionary programming which makes us fear and distrust anyone different from ourselves, but we are slowly moving in a positive direction. Sometimes we take steps back, but they are always followed by a greater number of steps forward. Barack Obama represents the hope that we all hold - for our nation and for our world - the world our children will inherit.

Full text of his acceptance speech here. Yes We Can.

Having said that, as I sit here floating in the post-victory happy place where I've been since last night, I feel obligated to link to a few words from John Scalzi offering a little reality check on things. We're not talking the second coming of Jesus here, folks. This is a man, preparing to run a country in the midst of not one but several epic crises, a man who must govern the Entire United States of America, red states included. He will be forced to concede some things. He will fail at some things.

Nevertheless, I'm going to enjoy this. I want to savor the feeling of an historic moment. It's the same feeling I had in college when I watched the Berlin Wall come down. Hope, simple and pure. We may just be alright.

Yes we can.

For the Record, Here are my voting recommendations:

President - Barack Obama
LA Senator - Mary Landrieu
U.S. Representative, 7th District - Don Cravins, Jr.

Proposed Constitutional Amendments:

#1, Term Limits for Boards - NO
#2, Increased Notice For Special Session - NO
#3, Appointment of Temporary Replacements for Legislators - NO
#4, Increase Parish's share of severence tax - YES
#5, Preserve special assessment for homeowners - YES
#6, Remove right of first refusal for blighted properties - YES
#7, Invest non-pension benefits in stocks - NO

In all cases, folks, vote your conscience, but VOTE. It's a right and a privilege.

For a little while I was trying to be folksy but after a bit, it just came off douchey...

Ron Howard in a funny and surreally (yes I just made that word up) nostalgic call to action in this year's presidential election:

To the Louisiana House of Representatives and Speaker Jim Tucker for removing Rep. John LaBruzzo from his position as vice chairman of the House health care committee. In my opinion he should have been removed from the committee entirely, but at least our lawmakers had the presence of mind to address in some way LaBruzzo's outrageous suggestion that we pay the poor citizens in this state $1000 to be sterilized.

It is precisely people like LaBruzzo and his constituents who give our state its reputation for racism and ignorance. Can you imagine young, educated professionals reading stories like this and deciding Louisiana would be a great place to settle and raise children? Is it no wonder that our best and brightest college graduates decide to move elsewhere after college?

Yes, it is true that Louisiana has an unacceptable number of families on welfare, but the blame lies with our substandard educational system and the lack of a coherent plan to prevent poverty. If we are serious about solving the problems afflicting the poor in this state, we need to stop laying blame on their reproductive choices and start giving everyone access to quality education and job training.

LaBruzzo is an idiot. If anyone should think twice about reproducing, it's him.