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You.
That's right, you.
Because much as I respect many of the people who have served us with integrity and commitment throughout America's history;
And much as I understand the value and the role of leadership in a complex society;
And deeply as I am aware of the power we vest in our elected officials and public servants, not to mention the power we never vested in them but they grabbed anyway;
And concerned as I am about the myriad challenges we face as a nation and a world...
The person I truly believe has the MOST power to serve our nation, exercise leadership, apply power where it's needed, and overcome the challenges before us is still:
You.
Well, me too.
In fact, all of us.
Because all along the rollercoaster of modern history, the most potent, powerful, irresistible force has always been the collective will of the people.
But there's a catch.
It requires two things: One is a willingness, on the part of individuals (that's you-- and yes, me too--) to make their will known, to take risks, to put forth effort, to stand up and be counted, to rise up out of the comfort of Things As They Are and the safety of the Done Thing and put on the funny hat and pick up the sign and be a weirdo.
I love DU because so many of us here are cheerfully eager, nay trampling anyone in our way to do just that.
But it requires another thing: Unity.
And unity requires a willingness to be one of many. To walk together even though we're not walking through all the places each and every one of us wants to walk through. To settle for a hundred tiny, symbolic, ineffectual-seeming moments of progress in the faith that they will eventually add up to a victory we might not even see in our lifetimes, but our children and their children might. To sing together, swapping songs and harmonizing with each other. I don't demand you sing my song. I'll sing your song, and her song and his song, and hope that at some point we'll all enjoy the singing so much that my song will get sung, too.
Unity requires an understanding of the change process, and the perspective to see that the most lasting changes don't necessarily happen overnight, or in one election cycle, or in one Presidential Administration, or in one decade, or even in one generation. It requires the determination to stay in the struggle, to keep showing up for the meetings even when it's just you and that person who always tells the long boring stories about when they were at Berkeley in the Sixties. It's not who shows up, it's not how many, it's not how much press coverage they get that makes the change happen eventually. It's that they JUST. DON'T. STOP. It's that we keep meeting, and keep singing, and keep making our will known.
It's keeping our eyes on the prize of a cleaner, healthier, more equitable, more peaceful world and knowing that the moments keep coming along, and if we stay alert and keep seizing each one, eventually they will add up to something big.
So hang in there.
I'm supporting you.
We need you.
All of you.
I need the Hillbots and the Obamaniacs and the disgruntled 'none of the above'-ers and even, yes, even the Nadernuts because I know that every one of you wants what I want: An America where no one faces a choice between bankruptcy and getting cancer treatments, where our children will have plenty of arable land growing nutritious food that everyone can afford to eat, where we can all breathe freely and all the education we can use is accessible to everyone willing to work a little to take advantage of it. An America that exemplifies the hope of the Bill of Rights in a weary world, and acts with the humility AND nobility our power and resources demand from us.
I need you because I can't make that stuff happen alone. And I'm damn' sure that NO politician, NO elected official, NO individual in office, appointed or elected, can make that stuff happen. They could help us, if they wanted. They can impede us, but not for long-- not if there's enough of us, all focused on the same thing, all with the patience to stand nose-to-nose, staring eyeball-to-eyeball with them for generations, if necessary, demanding what we need.
The most potent way they can impede us, though, is to convince us that our differences over the details, our hope that we can just delegate all the work to someone else, as long as it's the RIGHT person, is worth fighting each other over.
But you're smart.
You can see through that.
You're my candidate.
I'm with ya.
Let's win.
hopefully,
Bright
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