More final thoughts...

A few things I heard on the Newshour tonight are worth remembering:

1. A citizen asked about his feelings after the election yesterday mentioned this saying: "Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run." I may have heard that before but it seemed especially poignant today. It describes how interconnected we all are and that each level of progress leads to something else. Obama could never have run for President without the people who came before. None of us can be where we are today without the things in our common and individual past. The computer we use today couldn't have been invented whole cloth without the intermediate steps in between. That's the way of the world.

2. Ellen ?, one of the historians who discussed the election results put it this way: "...[the election] resolved a moral contradiction..." Another way of saying that America is fulfilling its promise. Another way of saying we're showing the world who we are rather than telling the world who we are.

3. Mark Shields likened our political philosophical battles to competing American mythologies: High Noon and Wagon Train. In High Noon one man goes out alone to fight the bad guys. In Wagon Train everyone is in 'it' together. America is both of these things; individualist and communal. Somehow we need to find a way to be both. I think most of us, individually, can create a middle ground - but something happens when we try to formalize it. We end up going too far one way, react negatively, then go too far the other way, react negatively, and go back to where we were before.

4. Mark Shields used an FDR quote I'd never heard, but which easily and succinctly sums up my belief about government: "The measure of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, but whether we provide enough to those who have too little." When I meet people who think its very important to keep every bit of money they say they 'earned' and they'll decide how to give back to their community, I think I'll ask them which is more important - that they have 1% more or that the child down the street has a meal to eat for the next year. Aren't you willing to give up a little bit of your abundance so your fellow American can have a decent meal? And don't tell me you'll make sure you give to the child down the street on your own because if you had been doing that in the last 8 years there wouldn't be a starving child down the street. You've already proven to me that you don't care. So, since you can't be trusted to do the right thing, the government will make sure that child gets a decent meal.
Also, I think people can be judgemental. When it comes to poverty, health, education, and a home, there shouldn't be any ifs ands or buts - everyone gets to live a safe, decent, life. They aren't necessarily going to have fancy clothes and cars and things, but they can have the essentials. That's the least we can do. Remember - whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers that you do unto me.