Quote of the day

In my mind, I keep returning to a part of Obama's acceptance speech last week. This, I think, is what I really, truly want to believe and work for:

America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This, too, is part of America's promise, the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.

I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

You make a big election about small things.

I wonder what would happen if we got rid of all the Ann Coulters and Michael Moores of the world and focused on finding solutions to problems, rather than just making every issue into an Us vs. Them fight with no winners.

I know some die hard Republicans who are good, honest, intelligent people. And I also know some Democrats who are good, honest, intelligent people. And I even know some third party nuts who are good, honest, intelligent people. I think most everyone has some good in them, and I wish we could all try to remember that.

May I quote from Saul's namesake?

If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.

-Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird

So there. That's my happy-crappy idealism for the day. Now I will return to my normal cynical misanthropy.