The Smell of Hope in the Morning

It really is a new day in America, and I just can't believe we pulled it off.  WE!  I feel the pull of history and am swirling in the enthusiasm of an uplifted people.  But mostly I feel a weight on my heart--to do something better, be something better, bring something better to every interaction I have.  Surely that's part of the change we wrought.  Amen, and amen and amen.

Goodbye Moral Code, Goodbye Manners

It's official: we don't have any standards of right or wrong in this country. Honesty or lies. Moral or amoral. Good or bad. Decent or reprehensible. These and other nominal forms of character, of organizing tenets, of guiding principles--they all get thrown out the window when losing an election may be the cost of guarding and upholding and exhibiting right, honest, good and decent behaviour. It's sickening, really, and yet people are lying down with the dogs right now, smearing shit on the opponents in the most degrading fashion. Is this meant to make us feel good? To somehow convince us that the presidential candidate with the most blood (or shit) on his hands at the end of the day is the guy who can right the economic ship? The meanest dude, the one with the most poisonous arrows in his quiver, is he the one we can count on to end the disastrous war and restore our place among nations? Really? Because as far as I'm concerned, the guy who throws the most shit at the end of this race will just end up smelling like it too. I'm not looking forward to holding my nose for the next four years.