LET THAT STAR SHINE!

Sometimes from the depths of poverty and despair, there arises an intelligence and ability that is like a flourishing bush arising and blooming in a black and murky swamp. Sometimes in the night sky when the darkness descends over the earth, a bright star shines like a beacon of hope, sending a ray of light toward the shadowed earth.

We are now in the midst of an election season. The televisions are filled with minute details of which candidate said what and when he said it. Bumper stickers are appearing on cars, signs are being placed in from of houses. The Great American November Ruckus has begun and it affects almost every family in our country.

Today, we have a bright and brilliant Candidate running against the old status quo, and it will be interesting to see which one emerges triumphant. We have one man who is enmeshed in the Golden Years, who buddies up to a president who has been less than perfect. We have another who is younger, bolder, gifted and determined. He also happens to be Black.

I had a long conversation with a favorite relative and we boiled his objection to this younger Candidate down to the fact that he is Black. His experiences with Black folks have not been pleasant. "They speak differently, act differently, and they aren't the same as you and me," was his opinion.

I felt that this is unfair, because Barack Obama is no child of the American ghetto. He attended High School in Hawaii, went on to Harvard, and spent 12 years teaching law students. He was offered a position as a tenured professor and turned the job down to continue in politics. He's Black all right, but he is no different than you and me, just a great deal more gifted.

He has a funny name, a Black father, a White mother, and his middle name is Hussein. He spent some time in Indonesia with his Muslim father and I guess, in the eyes of some people, this has tainted him, even though his father was not a dedicated Muslim. Many people believe Obama is Muslim posing as Christian. Some have said he is the "AntiChrist," the same people who believe in Jesus Camps. Many people believe he is too "inexperienced?" In what? Cheating? Getting rich off the backs of the public? Just this week, another revered Republican member of Congress was indicted. He is certainly very "experienced," to the tune of accepting a $250,000 gift from a Corporation which was used to renovate his house.

Time after time, this story has been repeated among our Congressional members, elected to serve the public. If they aren't being indicted, many of them are being investigated. It doesn't seem to matter. The one playing footsie in a Minnesota airport bathroom is still in Congress, serving his public, filling out his term. Tom DeLay, indicted in Texas, is still treated like a political wizard, making television appearances with reverent and courteous reporters who do not even mention the accusations that DeLay is as corrupt as they come.

Is this the kind of "experience" Barack Obama lacks? Or are those who object to him simply unable to get past the fact that his skin is Black? Yesterday, the McCain camp released a new Ad, comparing Obama's "star quality" to that of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. This is sheer envy. This is one of the cardinal sins. John McCain couldn't attract a hundred people in Germany or elsewhere to listen to him speak. His star quality, if he ever had any, has exploded and the dust has fallen to the earth. Obama is electric as a speaker, able to command the attention of a crowd, and his message is always of peace and prosperity, a message of hope. Far better than McCain with his arm around the shoulder of George Bush, who has lied his way to terribly low poll numbers in the esteem of the American people.

If you want more war, more job losses, more catering to Corporations, more hobnobbing with Lobbyists, more secrecy, more imperial behavior, more high prices, more deficit, more soaring National Debt, more chumming with Big Oil, more fracturing of the Constitution, more contempt for Congress, more strutting around flexing muscle, more pain at the pump.....it is obvious that McCain is your man. He is hand in glove with people like Karl Rove, who was helping McCain until he fled the country to avoid a Congressional subpoena that some wise judge just said he has to obey, and who makes his living thinking up nasty phrases and political games. McCain is surrounded by lobbyists and has been known to hand out a favor or two to some of them.

A vote for McCain will mean several more years of Rush Limbaugh, hammering out his hate-filled message that has turned our country into a divided nation. The last time I listened to Limbaugh, which isn't often to avoid the pangs of nausea, he called Obama a "monkey." How dare him, that pudgy little smut peddler! How dare him call any human being by that name?

So, if you want a continuation of this Republican nonsense, the nastiness, the dirty tricks, the hatred....go eat your Freedom Fries, vilify a Dixie Chick, Swiftboat a war hero, and reflect upon the nasty impulses in your nature! For me, it's Obama all the way! I want hope for the future! I want an honest President who will make some needed changes, give us health care and jobs and pay down that stupendous debt. I want Social Security for the Elderly and affordable college tuitions and all that good stuff that Americans enjoyed before the Evangelicals decided to put God in the classrooms and bar him from their hearts! That's what I want! That's what we'll get when Obama is elected! He's a star, all right! Let him shine!