Two Weeks After Election 2008: Thoughts of an Artist

With an idealism remembered fondly from my youth, I want Barack Obama to be the great one, the man of the moment, the man chosen by destiny, and all those clichés one associates with the greatest American presidents; George Washington (the one whose Surname was Washington), Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and I am sure there are others who I should name to that august pantheon. However, enough is enough. The point is that we need a leader today who is capable of uniting the nation as the second Roosevelt did with his fireside chats, the ethereal symbol of the visible nationwide organizations that gave real people jobs, the working people that were the reality of his leadership in lifting us out of the Great Depression. I hesitate to use Abraham Lincoln as an example because we look at him through the lens of assassination, and I want Barack Obama to be remembered as a great president because of the important things he does to bring us together as a people, as well as those great and important things he does after leaving office. For example, I think of Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity as well as The William J. Clinton Foundation that had taken on climate change at a time the sitting president had refused to recognize the problem, worldwide HIV/AIDS and malaria as well as childhood obesity among other problems. Yes, I want Barrack Obama to be the man, the great man of the moment!

And, it seems, so do many others. The pundits are already talking about an 8-week to two-year window for him to achieve enough of his proposed projects to keep public opinion on his side. The Republicans are talking about the same window of opportunity before they can pounce and take the country back. Damn!

This recession/depression - the result in part of 8 years of an oil oligarchy Republican administration, has gone unrecognized for at least one year as it gathered momentum until the extremely visible crash two months ago - won’t have bottomed out for another two years minimum, and they want Obama to have solved our problems before that. What idiocy! No wonder our nation is in trouble.

Oh, I do so want this man to be the great one and transcend all the short sightedness.

Here’s my little bit of hope sent out into the universe as a prayer.

And, I plan to stay positive even though my show opens in less than 4 weeks at a time when Art is the last thing on most people’s minds. I will, however, at the least, get to see most of this body of work hanging in the Town Center Council Chamber. That will be “awesome!”