Bleak Beauty Blog

This is a wonderful moment to be alive in Amerika. I say this after sixty years or so of watching elections. I recall going to sleep in 1948 after repeating ad nauseum “Doodie on Dewey”, only see my youthful dreams (I was six) come true! Harry Truman was elected President. It was only later in my adult form that I learned that he had no trouble sleeping after ordering the dropping of Little Boy on Hiroshima, obliterating mostly women and children and the elderly. I think he said something like “It was just another weapon in the arsenal.”

Now, many Presidents later, here comes Barack Obama. I met him in a bar in Carbondale when he was running for the nomination for the Senate seat he now holds. He leaned down to politely listen to me. Lincolnesk in Lincoln country. Last year I sent him my civil rights book with the inscription “The hopes and Dreams of tens of thousands rests with you”. I wanted to write “millions” but it seemed to presume too much about other people’s feelings.

Simply put, much of Obama is straight from the civil rights movement I witnessed in the deep south in 1962 and 1963. He is the leader that doesn’t lead (thats Bob Moses). He correctly says “Im not that important”. (Thats from James Forman, SNCC executive secretary.) He truly seems to say that he expects Americans to lead themselves, which they do anyway, and do things themselves, which is the only way change occurs.

Its good to be alive in Obama time.