Truth to Power: On Barack Obama and the art of the possible (Page 1 of 1)

July 10, 2008
By: Don Williams

“Thought I’d find you here,” said my friend in his weathered voice.

I didn’t look around, just kept staring at the trickle of water the drought had made of my once-singing brook, but he didn’t take the hint, just stepped on into the shade of towering maples he’d helped plant 20 years before. He sat beside me on the wood and rusting metal bench. He’d neatly bundled his muscles and flab in black running shorts and his T-shirt that read “Camelot Redux” in green.

Shaking a Winston from his pack, he kicked back and lit up.

“So what do you want?” I asked.

“This ain’t about me, buddy.” He shook the Winstons at me, but I waved them away. “You’ve been derelict.”

“How so?”

No columns slamming Dubya lately, no blogs in days, no e-mails. He laughed, and adopted a high-pitched tone. “You don’t write, you don’t phone. What’s with you?”

“You know as well as I do.”

“I guess I do. You hung it all out there for your latest hero, Barack Hussein Obama, writing how he’s a man of peace and science and harmony and of utmost charisma — thought I’d puke — and about how he’s going to lead us from the desert of despair and corporate politics and into the promised land the new millennium was supposed to be before it got hijacked by a crooked election and Sept. 11 and a really stupid war…. So how does Obama repay you? He does the utterly predictable thing and steps down off the pedestal you put him on, and so you feel all betrayed.”

“And you don’t?”
His snort sent a smoke ring sailing past yellow jewelweed where a hummingbird thrummed. “Betrayed? For what? Supporting our troops on the Fourth of July? Wearing a lapel pin? Trying to get a piece of the faith-based action? Making nice with Billary? In my book that’s all utterly predictable, even commendable because it’s effective. You’ll see come November.”

“Wish I could agree. Barack’s supposed to be different. Now he says he’ll increase the god-blessed defense budget! One that’s already as big as the rest of the world’s added together. He’s come out in support of immunity for corporations that spied on us for Dubya, says he’ll boost faith-based charities, weakening the line between church and state…”

“So what? He’s still different. Or at least will be, after he’s been the same ole same ole long enough to get elected.”

“Yeah right. I expected McCain to flip-flop on torture and so forth, he has to court hard-right Republicans, but I didn’t expect this bait and switch deal from Obama, man. It brings me down.”

“My heart bleeds for you, man. Bleeds, I tell you. Just what species did you think you were dealing with? Sure, McCain and Obama are sleazy politicians. By which I mean, they’re doing what they have to in order to get elected. By which I mean, they’re honorable men. Was it Otto Von Bismarck who said ‘Politics is the art of the possible?’ If you don’t get elected, you don’t do diddly. To quote Kurt Vonnegut, ‘no cat, no cat’s cradle.’”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged. “Look on the bright side. Elect Obama or McCain either one and you wash all the old Bush muck right down the stream of history.”

“Bush muck? Speak English, please.”

“You know what I’m talking about. Water-boarding, attack dogs, ceiling cuffs, electrodes, burst ear drums, orgies at gunpoint at Abu Ghraib, cages at Guantanimo, lies about WMDs, cluster bombs, landmines, secret energy deals, global warming cover-ups, domestic spying, loss of civil liberties, executions of retarded people, emotionally deranged people, outright innocent people —”

“Obama can’t end those.”

“He might if he appoints enough judges. And he just might lessen the number of kids killed by land mines and cluster bombs and aerial drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, maybe even stop the contamination of whole countries by cutting out depleted uranium ammo. Not to mention an end to bleeding ears in whales and dolphins caused by deep sonar off California of all friggin’ places. I predict he’ll end mountaintop removal and water pollution caused by blasting tops off ridges in our Cumberland Mountains.”

“You’re an optimist,” I said, but thunder in the distance stole my words.

“You know what’s wonderful about elections?” He blew another smoke ring. “They change the subject. We can stop wallowing in bad, old news. It’s like if a mighty deluge rushed down this creek bed washing away all the slime and algae and muck. Sure, it’ll bring bad stuff in its wake, but for a while it’ll change what we wade in, swim around in, even get baptized in if’n we want it. And that’s no small blessing.”

(862) Comments

Posted By: i'm the only one reading the doggerel, don on 7/12/08 at 10:19 p.m.

“You know what I’m talking about. Water-boarding, attack dogs, ceiling cuffs, electrodes, burst ear drums, orgies at gunpoint at Abu Ghraib, cages at Guantanimo, lies about WMDs, cluster bombs, landmines, secret energy deals, global warming cover-ups, domestic spying, loss of civil liberties, executions of retarded people, emotionally deranged people, outright innocent people ”

Um, your "friend" forgot "Bush used his hurricane machine to destroy the levees in New Orleans because he hates black people," Don. Looks like that's about the only conspiracy theory you left out. Oh, and that he killed JFK...junior!!! GASP!!!! We're finally speaking truth to power!!!!

Posted By: Almost forgot... on 7/12/08 at 10:22 p.m.

does Knoxville Voice actually <i>pay</i> you for these "Alex Jones"-type "911 was an inside job" posts, or do <i>you</i> have to pay them? Just wondering. If they're paying you, what do you get, like $12 an hour, and how long do you think this gig will last?

Posted By: Donna N. on 7/13/08 at 4:58 a.m.

No, "only one," you're not the only one reading Don's well-researched and documented blog. The outrages perpetrated by Bush and his administration, listed in Don's commentary and quoted in your comment, are all true and have been documented here in earlier blogs. Even mainstream media now acknowledges the truth of these horrific insults to individual victims, humanity at large, the American people, and our Constitution.

Don mentions nothing in his article about "hurricane machines," JFK conspiracies, or "911 was an inside job." You appear to be throwing these completely unrelated issues into your comments in an attempt to distract from the truth. A futile, and I would think a somewhat embarrassing attempt.

You clearly have different views than those represented in this blog, so why not engage in honest debate or discussion backed up by legitimate documentation? You would certainly have a better chance at advancing your cause (which has never really been fully articulated) than you do using the childish tactics you currently employ.

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