The Obama Project@WindonWater.net

Seriously – it’s going to be a long, unpleasant 4 years if our discourse can’t elevate past “oh look! Obama did something that Bush did and liberals whined about! Let’s go kick some liberals in the teeth” versus “Oh look! obama did something better than Bush did! Let’s go rub it into the faces of the conservatives that Bush lost!”

There are plenty of things worthwhile talking about – and we are all going to have our differing points of view. For instance – I’m not convinced that there’s any way at all for Obama supporters and liberals (not all the same thing) to see eye to eye on the recovery package (conservatives want more tax cuts, liberals want more spending, and depending if they are Obama supporters specifically, or liberals generally, there may be differences on kinds of spending desired). But that’s an ideological difference worth having, without claiming a priori, that anyone doing it differently than how your ideology dictates, is “screwing everything up.” Etc.

As someone who hasn’t been on the liberal side of the fence until Obama became my favorite candidate, this back and forth is wearying, depressing, and really uninviting. Personally – as an Obama supporter, I am genuinely appreciative of the President’s effort to change the tone of dialogue.

Is this what we’ve been reduced to? Years of Clinton/Bush fighting has reduced us to being fundamentally incapable of civil discourse – only able to receive news that suits our own ideas, incapable of even giving real respect to one another? Seems to me the bible spoke about this tendency in people to seek only what they want to hear. I’m sure the Apostle Paul was speaking on more spiritual matters when he said in 2nd Timothy

4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

… but I’m also sure that spiritual conditions affect every other condition. This way we have of dealing with one another is unhealthy, a sickness, no less so than the unhealthy greed and lack of discipline/self-restraint that landed us into this economic mess. If we (liberals/Obama supporters) are angry with Bush for not listening to opposing points of view, how much more should we be doing better? And if we (conservatives) are angry for hypocritical posturing just to pile on to a beleaguered presidency, how much more should we avoid continuing in the same vein? In other words – must we continue this dance? No one seems to be having fun with it – I certainly am not.

Apologies for the judgmental tone of this post, but I mean every word of it, just the same.

QT

Here in the United States, the nation is embroiled in the political season as we gear up for presidential elections on the first Tuesday in November 2008.  We’re winding down on the primary season, and will immediately pivot into the general election campaign thereafter.  It is likely that Barack Obama will be one of the candidates for president.  As a result of the primary campaign, a number of disturbing trends have come to light – these include racism, sexism, religious intolerance, anti-intellectualism, classism, and a complete lack of unity.   The Obama Project is an effort to address this in the spirit of what WindonWater.net is all about… namely producing small ripples to push against the current…

What:  The Obama Project will be a series of posts focussed on presenting factual information about candidate Barack Obama that negates misinformation about him – but with the specific goal of NOT promoting the candidate, but rather, promoting the eradication of racism, sexism, classism, religious intolerance, and anti-intellectualism.  Of course, I hope that focussing on these things will yield more unity in place of divisiveness.

How: The mission statement of WindonWater.net is “conversation for a better world, and a happy soul.”   The idea is that by changing the way we talk about stuff, we turn the tide on cynicism and negativity.  How necessary is THAT these days?

Why: Why Barack Obama?  Well, largely because his candidacy has called all of this stuff to the forefront of public discourse.  With this candidate, we have room to talk about racism, and religious intolerance.  We have room to talk about the meaning of love of country (patriotism).  We have room to talk about classism, and sexism.  And of course, the candidate has given a groundbreaking speech on race, that gives us a starting place.

As a Baha’i, I’ve been hesitant to start this effort.  Baha’is are not supposed to engage in partisan politics, but rather, are supposed to simply vote their consciences.  I’ve fallen short of that mark often this cycle, because of being so very partisanly in support of candidate Barack Obama.  Notwithstanding, I have concluded that this is something that I can do, and even should do, and I do believe it is doable without trending toward partisanship (at least I hope it is).

Anyway – as a woman and as an African-American, I’ve been sucked in to the process because the issues are very real to me.  And I do feel a personal need to have a direct response to these issues, and a need to do so in a way that avoids the persistent negativity that has dominated the blogosphere.  I hope others will join the conversation, and lend thoughts and ideas – especially out of the box, especially with a spiritual perspective, as we work through these tough issues.

My goal is to produce one post a week – that’s ambitious perhaps – that pushes against the wind.  Everyone is welcome to continue the conversation – and of course to start topics of interest throughout the thread.  The front page will be adjusted every week to promote the latest Obama Project post.

We’ll see how it goes!

Finally – since it really is more of a blogging project than a forum effort, I’m blogging here, instead of on my main forum site.  I’ll try to RSS to WindonWater.net, just the same.

QT