Confessions of a Reformed 80’s Radical | Eastern North Carolina Now

     When I woke up this morning, the snow covered ground instantly transported me back into a time in my life that I look at with great fondness and still impacts my way of observing the world today. The gentle and rolling foothills of the Berkshire mountains in western Massachusetts served as a fitting boundary between the ivory towers of academia and the real world of conflicted ideas and adult responsibilities.

     As a student of politics and international relations at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the late 1980’s, I remember leading fellow students in protest against American interventionist policy in Central America. UMASS was known as the “Cal Berkley of the East”. We had a very active student base that would protest any issue on a moments notice. We weren’t called the “Minutemen” for nothing! The only second thought was whether to push for social change within the system as it was, or continue to espouse moralistic views from the septic and unaffected world of academia. In retrospect, my righteous rage and indignation were only rivaled by my profoundly naïve notions about how I thought the world should operate.

     Thank God my parents loved me the way they did. Truly, they were the only ones that could put up with me at that time!

     I now know that none of it-- my views, my outrage, my moralistic angst-- really mattered to anyone other than me. While my studies at UMASS did provide me with the ability to understand how the world works, it was only years later when I found out where I fit in that world that I truly understood one of the truly great lessons of adulthood; “it is, what it is”. What I continue to find out is that my moral outrage does not fold the laundry. Speaking out against the evil capitalist empire does not feed my family or my pets, and raising my fist with a sense of solidarity with the proletariat certainly does not solve the Red Sox dilemma of having a five or six man pitching rotation this season. However, my outrage at oppression has been replaced with a much more comforting understanding that my actions as a provider for my family is something that actually has meaning and something that I have some semblance of control over.

     I say all of this with an eye on the events of last week. Every year the annual State of the Union speech given by the President becomes an opportunity for the sitting commander in chief to pontificate on his accomplishments of the last year, espouse his vision for the coming year, and chastise the naysayer’s of the opposition for their lack of cooperation in the process. This year’s speech was no different. Watching half a chamber of Congress stand up and cheer for their party’s man while the other half sit on their hands and collectively look like they are at a Yanni concert has become predictable and tiresome. Most of what I saw last Wednesday fit into this category. It is political drivel meant only for politicians to do what they do best: congratulate themselves! The whole exercise almost makes QVC a viable viewing option. However, I found myself hoping (naively, I suppose) that, for once, a good speech can be followed up with legitimate action.

     Friday was different. President Obama called the Republican’s bluff not only by showing up at a party conference to take questions from GOP congressional leaders, but he also allowed every minute of it to be broadcast. If you have not seen it, I invite you to go to your computer with a beverage of your choice and watch what I consider to be a really fascinating hour and fifteen minutes of give and take on the issues. There were no teleprompters, no analysts, no spin-doctors, and not one person trying to translate for you what was said. For political honks like me it was pure bliss. There were contentious words and accusations from the President and Republicans alike. At the end of it, I felt entirely vindicated as to why I voted for this President. He has the ability to persuade, as well as the ability to compromise for the sake of the bigger picture of getting things done. Will that combination of traits turn into effective legislation for the benefit of all of us? Who knows? It may all turn into empty rhetoric once again, but I get the sense this President will not stand by and let the status quo exist with either party. That, my friends, will be a very interesting process to watch.
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