4 posts tagged “politics”

Staring at the blank computer screen as if willing something pithy, something brilliant to appear.

With coffee in hand I walked toward the corner table in St. Arbuck's where Eddie and I usually sit.

That would be Eddie, my disgustingly good-looking, African-American best friend.

He had gotten there ahead of me and had hovered over a nervous guy in Birkenstocks who was just finishing up and taking his sweet time doing it.

You see, tables are a precious commodity in my St. Arbuck's since they remodelled a couple of months ago.

Quite obvious to all us regulars is that we have become less important to the corporate brain trust than tables filled with everything you "need" to fully enjoy the home coffee experience.

What I "need" is a place to sit after I buy my doggone coffee!

Birkenstock Boy finally left, but only after Eddie asked if he could help him carry anything out to his car.

Actually what he said was, "Do you need me to carry you to your car?"

Or something like that.

Anyway, I sat down and said, "Aren't you going to say it?"

"Say what?" he said, brows knitted together quizzicikly.

"What you always say now days when you see me." He still didn't get it so I said, "You know, Obama '08."

"Man," he said tiredly, "I'm really confused."

"You're confused! Think about the McCain supporters having to deal with the fact that their candidate once had serious talks with the Democrats about joining their party or that he was close to being a running mate for John Kerry in 2004. Now THAT'S confusion!"

He smiled wanly and said, "I guess there's a lot of confusion going around in this election."

"So I hear. But what has you confused about Obama? I mean a couple of weeks ago you were ready to acknowledge his deity."

He was thoughtfully silent for a few seconds.

"Isn't there an old saying about a man speaking whatever his heart is full of?"

"Terrible sentence structure," I said, "but, yeah...there is. According to Luke the physician, the actual quote is, 'what you say flows from what's in your heart.'"

"That's the one." he said. "I listen to that former pastor of Obama's and find it hard to hear anything but anger and hatred coming out of him."

"And from that you conclude..."

"That must be what's in his heart."

"And Obama?" I queried.

"Don't hear none of that. All I hear coming from him is hope."

"And yet, you're still confused."

Sighing deeply he nodded his head.

"It's the association thing."

I said, "What do you mean?"

"The man was a member of Rev. Wright's church for twenty years!"

"So you're saying that if anger and hatred are in someone's heart--"

"It's going to come out continually," he said cutting me off. "And by being in close association you will be affected!" He held up his mostly full coffee cup. "This cup is full of coffee. The coffee is brown, but you and I both know it's mainly just heated water that was once clear."

"What's your point?"

"My point is that clear water cannot and will not come out of this cup because it is full of brown liquid. And if I were to slosh some in your direction, that nifty new teeshirt you're sportin' would be colored by it too."

"Are you saying that Obama has been, uh, colored by being in close association with Rev. Wright?"

He slapped the table top with both hands.

"That's what has me so confused! There is no way I can support someone who has an agenda of racial division--someone who is a hate-monger."

"Well," I said carefully, "For what it's worth, I've never sensed anything like that coming from Obama."

"I haven't either!" he said, his voice rising two octaves.

I took a sip of coffee and said, "Someone told me once that when listening to someone speak, you should take the fish and leave the bones."

He nodded slowly, softly repeating what I said over and over.

"Take the fish and leave the bones. I like that. So you suggesting maybe that's what Obama did with Wright?"

"Hard to say, Eddie. That's just something you're going to have to figure out for yourself."

"I knew you'd say that!"

RG...out!

I was sitting in St. Arbuck's with my disgustingly good-looking African-American best friend Eddie watching in a sort of detached wonder as the sleep-deprived fellow at the next table fought a losing battle against slumber's beckoning embrace.

Sleep won, his head hit the table and he started snoring, at which point we lost interest.

Eddie said, "So, you made any hardcore decisions about the election?"

I hate talking about politics.

"The candidates haven't even been chosen," I said in reply, pausing to carefully sip my Über-hot coffee. "It's too early in the race to make a choice. Why, have you?"

"Uh-huh."

"Who?"

"Who you think?"

"Obama? But you're not even a Democrat."

"That's right," he said. "I'm what they call an Obama-can." I raised my eyebrows quizzically and he said, "You know, a Repbulican who's voting for Obama. Besides," he continued, "I gotta' support my people."

I regarded him in silence for a few seconds and said, "So is this, like, a really big deal for you? The fact that he's black?"

He thought about the question for quite a while before answering.

"It's complicated. I mean I'd be lying if I told you that I don't care about the fact that he'd be our first black president, because I do. I truly do. But it's more than that."

"Okay."

"I was talking to this young woman last week and she was all up in my grill about the way I talk."

I said, "What does that mean?"

"She was all, 'How come you talk like a white boy?' and I said I just talk like me--it's not a white thing or a black thing...it's a me thing."

Eddie Washington has the most complex speech patterns of anyone I know. He can flow freely in and out of extreme urban brogue to a quite sophisticated speech unmarked by accent of any kind.

He continued, "And it made me realize that I'm tired of people thinking that African-Americans are stupid."

"I don't think you're stupid."

"I know that," he said dismissively. "But you'd be surprised how many people still do."

"And Obama represents a chance to dispel that?"

"Yeah, he does. But that's not even all of it." He drained the last of his coffee and then said,  "I suppose for me it kind of comes down to this: no disrespect to John McCain, who I consider to be a great American war hero, but the man's just not comfortable in front of the camera."

"And that's a problem because..." I prompted.

"Well, look at Dub-ya. Every time I see him on TV you can see in his eyes that he'd rather be any place on earth except there in front of the camera. Contrast that with Reagan and Clinton, who absolutely loved the camera. Who did people like more, those guys or Dub-ya? John Kennedy or Richard Nixon?"

"Dont' you think that's a rather broad generalization?"

"Look, I heard this guy on some cable news show the other night saying that a president's primary way of making policy is through speeches, and that the president who can make good speeches will be judged as having been a good president. And you can't make good speeches unless you're comfortable in the spotlight." 

"So let me get this straight," I said. "Am I hearing you say that our next president should be elected on the basis of how telegenic he is?"

"No, no, no. That's not it at all."

"Then what?"

"It's not about 'looking good' on camera. It's about what you project while you're on camera, and every time Obama is in front of an audience, even people who don't agree with his policies seem to like him."

I nodded and said, "I have to agree with you there. The man is very likeable. But I think it has as much to do with his message as anything else. It's that hope thing."

"Exactly!" Eddie said, leaning suddenly forward in his seat and stabbing the air with his forefinger. "That's what I'm talking about right there. Did you hear that 'Just words' thing he did the other day?"

"You talking about that speech the Clinton's say he stole from Deval Patrick's speech a couple of years back?"

"Yeah, it's like Hillary was saying, 'Speeches won't feed your family! Which reminds me, I need to loan my campaign another 5 million dollars of my husband's money he earned by giving speeches.'" 

Laughing, I opened the paper to the Op/Ed page and read out loud a quote from Obama, "It’s true I give a good speech. But the ability to motivate people and inspire people is important because the problems we face right now are not technical…..The question is who can bring Democrats, Independents, and Republicans into a working majority to bring about change."

Eddie said, "I have some issues with the man's policies, and that's a fact. But he's the only one talking about hope, and that, my friend, is what this country needs more than anything else."

He was starting to make sense.

"An Obama-can, huh?"

"Look," he said, "Whether Hillary, Obama or McCain gets elected, we're going to have a Democrat in the White House. Might as well be one you like."

Good Lord!

RG...out!