Cause I come from California, but your Swear-In I shall see!
I am headed off to Washington DC come January 19th 2009 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day AND Inauguration Day! My sisters and bro are coming too! I know this is my band blog, and you may think this has nothing to do with music, or Coal B, but I know differently! I am a fan of music and politics mixing HEAVILY if that's what the time and place call for. It is my favorite kind of art, art that rocks the boat and is fierce and courageous. Such messages to the world are the only reason I have EVER written music. Even if the messages are subtle, or indirect, I so appreciate fellow musicians who do the same. I have been waiting so long for a victory like this, and like Sasha commented on previous blog, I too had come to a loss of hope and a fear to even begin to hope. But I just felt such a golden feeling that night before Election Day. Oh happy day! Oh music with soul! Through some extremely quick thinking-processes and some serious internet research I got a hostel and some superduper cheap plane and train tickets into one of the most historical moments ever! Even if I don't get to shake his hand ( I mean, hug him)....at least I will be one tiny fragment of the most GIANT inauguration celebration ever. And in doing that, I have contributed to Obama knowing how dearly he is loved and needed here in this country. At this time and place. My optimism has sailed me far! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Tuesday ruled.
Some thoughts from last Wednesday: the morning after.
Well the good old US of A has gone and done something revolutionary for maybe the first time in my voting life. Not only did we pick a President that will finally make many of us proud to be living here, but we picked someone that the entire globe admires. We picked a man that I am sure people in France would want for their own, that young people in the UK would want for their own, that people in Japan might want for their own. What I mean is....we went from having the most hated President ever (even on a global level) to having the most beloved (even on a global level). Now that's what progression is truly about.
Not that Barack can solve all these problems himself, with his dashing good looks, with his inspiring speeches, with his motivating life force.....but that he can give us the slap on our asses we need to get out and be the change! Perhaps, we as a people will have enough to inspire us now that we can actually start believing that we as individuals can make a difference on even a global level. We can look at the face of Barack Hussein Obama (which I think is a revolutionary and beautiful name for the new President of our country) and perhaps we will see our own inspiration coming from being excited WITH him on a new direction for the United States. I encourage everyone to start becoming more and more active in issues where you may want more change to come. If that means volunteering....then do it. If that means the simplest of things....like dropping cans of food in a bucket for a food drive, like rallying with civil rights activists, like smiling to passerbys on the street, like going to senior homes and talking with the elderly, like writing songs with messages of change (i know i know) or maybe not so simple things like venturing to other countries with a mission not religious, but a mission of hope and health and donating your energy and time to work with the people there helpfully and on THEIR agenda. To just be a helping hand and to not force one's own beliefs, but to help where is needed.....
I love what is happening. I may be older than I hoped to be when such a kind of revolution begins, but (as I told Art this morning over our giant homemade breakfast burrites) at least when I have my first child our Presidency will be a Presidency that I will be gleaming about. (OK peeps, I am talking a few YEARS in the future still! Not now!) I know Obama and the Democratic House and Senate WILL make things like HEALTH CARE FOR ALL CHILDREN available in the US, and probably soon. I know that certain health programs in general will get more encouragement, that schools will probably have healthier choices for food, that teachers will probably get higher pay, and that certain military focuses will have changed. I also believe the pharmaceutical companies will lose some of their ridiculous profit-reaping ground and western medicine will start to focus more on prevention rather than pill popping. i know these things won't happen overnight, I KNOW they will take years, but at least now I also know that our country's administration is not going to promote the massive infectious fear of Terrorism and Evil and Hate and Doubt any longer, for these are not Obama's tactic and by gosh they never will be! I know it might sound odd or offputting, but honestly I will be so glad to start a family in a time when such a great leader and his own A-freaking DORABLE family live in the White House. I know such things shouldn't matter, but for some reason, these things give me hope. They make me a little more OK with bringing a child into this crazy world in the first place. They make me a little more OK with what things might be like in 2020.
Dear God. I do believe in you. Maybe you are a giant mass of spirit, maybe you are like a giant human spirit, maybe you are a great ghost, maybe you are the great Grand Father or the great Grand Mother, maybe you are in everything- speaking through DNA and molecules, maybe you are life force itself, BUT WHATEVER YOU ARE- and I am cool with words like Lord and Great Spirit and Heavens and Universe -Thank You for letting hope pull through this time. Thanks for it being Barack Obama, a global presence, a man of many places and a man of goodness. I believe in the highest intelligence that is God- and I believe that there are reasons for everything. In fact, I do know it.
We are so very lucky kids! For the first time ever, I would actually like to go to DC and meet the President of the United States. Wouldn't that be awesome?
Best to everyone.
Sorry about Prop 8. But those things shall change too.
Adie
Me finding out that Barack Obama is the 44th President. I cried for a long, long time after, like.....alot. A lot of emotion came out I didn't even know was built up in there. I had to go outside and sob.
Some pretty pictures. This one in beautiful Kenya-with his g-ma.
oh handsome devil, Barack's papa.
Him and the g-parents.
Kid sis and whiteypants momma and gramps.
oh happy day again!
