On the ‘sea change’ of November, 2008
November 5, 2008
An old gospel song kept running through my mind as I was driving home last night:
The long night it is ending,
The long night it is ending,
The long night it is ending,
Day is a-breaking in my soul.
Amid the euphoria, I did detect a cause for concern in the reports that I’ve been hearing and reading: all the analyses of the Republican losses are being couched in strategic and personal terms: will Gov. Palin run in 2012, where are the former Republican moderates, etc. No one, to my knowledge, is saying the obvious: the Republicans lost ground because they have horrible ideas. They cling to a drastically outmoded concept of the world and people, and the last eight years of neo-con domination were (how good it is to use the past tense!) finally brought this out, because they are the ultimate, definitive expression of those ideas of hate and egotism. If he were physically with us, Martin Luther would probably warn us to avoid triumphalism. We should be reaching out to our Republican friends now more than ever, and in a spirit of reconciliation. This was not a ‘victory,’ but a successful change. And an opportunity; and a responsibility. Gandhi would probably say that the second worst thing would be complacency.
Happily, what I’ve been hearing – from about 90% of the individuals or organizations weighing in – is, ‘let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work’! At the Metta Center, we have not been idle! But now we should be finding a more responsive world out there in which our efforts can more fully resonate.
I said long months ago that if Obama became the President of the United States I would weep tears of joy – but I would not have too much hope that this alone would get us to a culture of nonviolence and unfolding human possibility. This is just where I am at.
