May 06, 2008 06:12 pm
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Well, you can’t say it’s boring. I’m talking about the increasingly cantankerous Democrat campaign for the presidency. This is being written for a Sunday deadline, so I have no idea what Hoosiers will do at the polls come Tuesday — yesterday. If the pollsters are accurate, neither Sen. Clinton nor Sen. Obama stand to gain much of an advantage in Indiana and North Carolina contests. We’ll know by the time you read this.
What we do know is that the campaign is likely to rumble on at least until June. By then, hopefully, one of the candidates will have surrendered. After that, we can then look forward to another, higher level of battle between the Democrat and Republican presidential nominees. In other words, keep your hip boots on. The mudslinging is far from over, and major media seems determined to make sure we all get dirtied up.
I was talking to my 84-year old mom about this stuff the other day. She is still sharp as a tack, and keeps up with all the campaign craziness. She asked me what I thought about Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his comments, and I knew it was a trap. If you think I’m opinionated, try talking to my mother. Then you’ll know I came by my opinion habit quite honestly. Anyway, when she asked the question, I knew it was one of her traps.
What my dear mother does is ask a question she has already answered by her intellectual calculus. Then, when you give your answer, the trap is sprung. You’re then caught listening to all the reasons why your answer is either wrong or completely off the mark. You become a child again, no matter how old you are. I guess most mothers are like that. But mine is special.
Anyway, I love it. I love to hear her talk about whatever she wants to talk about and, frankly, she is usually on target. Besides, how many people who have lost mothers would give an arm or a leg just to hear her voice again. Who cares what she says? If she’s still here, that’s the only thing that matters In short, I gladly stepped into mom’s conversation trap.
I told her the truth about my feelings: I don’t care about what Rev. Wright had to say, or even the fact that it has had a negative impact on Barack Obama. Since she is an Obama fan — and a minister — she immediately let me know she thought Rev. Wright was wrong. She talked about his un-minister like sound bites played over and over again in the national news. She offered that Wright was only out for himself and that, out of some kind of jealousy perhaps, he deliberately wronged Sen. Obama.
Well, I said, I don’t know what Rev. Wright’s motivations are, but neither I nor Obama himself can control what he says. I went on to explain my view that the whole thing is rather like a bad storm: not caring about it doesn’t mean that you are unaware of it or that you don’t shut your windows and doors until the storm has passed. The one thing you don’t do is go out and stand in it.
I then told her how much I loved her, and I shared two things that have been some of the most important lessons in my life. One is that everything we see as a curse is not a curse. And everything we see as a blessing is not a blessing. In fact, what at first seems to us a curse, in time, may turn out to be just the opposite. The same is true of perceived blessings.
The second life lesson that many things, like the weather, are not in our hands. To the extent that the outcome of the next presidential election will determine the future of this nation, it is not in Rev. Wright’s hands; it is not in Barack Obama’s hands; it is neither in Sen. Clinton’s or Sen. McCain’s hands, nor the media, or even voters. It is in God’s hands.
Accordingly, it is up to each of us merely to keep the faith and struggle always to do what is right and fair. It is up to us to seek the truth while others go about their business. The truth is our salvation and, as they say, “the truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again!” Guess what? Mama agreed with me.
Have a nice day!
Primus Mootry is an Anderson resident and a high school teacher.
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