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By David O. Williams
Headline RSS FeedObama, DNC instill varying measures of hope, inspiration and trepidation
August 29, 2008 —
Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech Thursday at Mile High Stadium capped an exhausting, emotional and thought-provoking week for me at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
The 42-minute laundry list of liberal agenda items was comprehensive and inspiring, and while it’s hard to be too specific given the timeframe, Obama touched on a number of issues he could have safely steered away from: gun control, gay rights, immigration reform.
The setting, the weather, the diverse and energized crowd of 80,000 well-intentioned Dems all instilled in me an inevitable sense of hope for the country and world my three sons will inherit.
Delivered on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Obama’s acceptance in Denver will not go down as the greatest piece of oratory ever written, but it accomplished every goal set by the candidate and his party.
It was a momentous historical occasion in my own backyard, and I left with the feeling that if Obama wins in November and delivers on a fraction of his agenda, historians will look back on Denver as the birthplace of the “New Green Deal” and the restoration of America’s power and promise around the globe.
If he isn’t elected or he is but his agenda becomes mired in legislative bickering and is thwarted by special interests every step of the way over the next four years, then history will look back at Denver as the place where a great opportunity was squandered.
My hope and belief, while still basking in the soft afterglow of an emotional and awe-inspiring day at Mile High, is that he will beat John McCain in November and will then be able to effect the meaningful change so clearly outlined in Denver. It’s hard not to come away with that hope and expectation after a week of listening to some of the most brilliant minds in America genuinely trying to articulate a bold and innovative course of action.
But I also left Denver wanting more, much more. I wanted more specific plans for dealing with the water shortage in the West, for better managing public lands to prevent wildfires but also create healthier national forests, for staving off the growing pressure for domestic oil and natural gas drilling and mitigating the impacts of the extractive industries on public lands. I also wanted a better sense of how the Dems will reform our outdated immigration policies to allow continued economic growth in the mountains but also better cope with the social impacts.
I left feeling these things had been largely glossed over in an endless stream of political platitudes. So much theater; so little reality-based dialogue.
I also came away from Denver with a mounting feeling of unease. It began with the arrest of a group of alleged wannabe assassins with aspirations of taking Obama out at Thursday’s speech. Then Wednesday I spent the day in the trenches of various street protests that vividly illustrated for me the huge gulf between the idealists and crazies and painted a picture of rising extremism.
That night while I was in the Big Tent set aside for bloggers, the police detonated a suspicious package nearby at Union Station, causing me and about 400 other new journalists to jump out of our collective skins. Then my RealVail partner Tom Boyd, who was putting me up for the week at his Denver home, called to say I urgently needed to get in touch the Denver police and tell them I was the owner of my car, which I’d left parked in front of his house.
Turns out his neighbor two houses down had been shot to death and the gunman was still on the loose and they needed to eliminate my car as a suspect vehicle. That night and the following morning were filled with nerve-wracking moments as police and news crews converged on the block.
At Thursday’s incredible day at Mile High I was overly jumping, nervously twitching every time fireworks went off or the crowd stomped their feet and made the stadium rumble. All of this underscored for me just how violent and polarized our country has become.
It’s one of the reasons I live in the mountains, and I realize that’s a bit of a copout and that social problems, crime and violence will make their way into our growing rural communities as well if we’re not vigilant. But that mixture of hope, inspiration and trepidation gave me a curious feeling in the pit of my stomach all week.
I know that as another great Democrat once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (my trip to Washington earlier this month and visit to the FDR memorial was in many ways more inspiring than Denver and the DNC), but it’s tough to live by that when there are so many threats to a peaceful Democratic society in today’s crazed world.
I can only admire and be inspired by Obama’s willingness to take on those challenges at great personal risk and with the possibility of only very limited political rewards. Denver has set him up to be our society’s greatest hero or greatest goat. Only time will tell.
2 Comments on "Obama, DNC instill varying measures of hope, inspiration and trepidation"
Brittanicus — August 29, 2008
THE PEOPLE need to know how Governor Sarah Pain of Alaska, the potential VP of John McCain stands on the illegal immigration plague? Is she a panderer to the Hispanic Caucuses and open border International globalists?
Before the new President even thinks of contemplating any form of guest worker program. He had better realize that their will not be a 'Path to Citizenship' in the package deal. It will be a straight working visa and return home afterwards. If any person wants to apply for legal residents, they had better understand that they must return home first. There must not be any short cuts, because thousands of bona fide immigrants wait patiently for years to enter America.
What do you think as caused the massive budget meltdown and escalating unemployment in California?
Let's face it confronting the huge budget deficit, brought upon the people of California from 'Sanctuary city' policies and allowing illegal aliens access to state, county and city welfare programs has caused a major disaster. Now Arnold and the state morons must look for other means to extract taxes and dollar bills from property owners to keep overcrowded schools running , the free health care (illegal alien) system and make room in the also overburdened prisons.
The assembly is overrun with Latino radicals who reserve the right, to allow the influx of as many illegal third world country cheap labor force that can spirit into the border states. Arnold seems to have lost his way, or been intimidated by the Democratic-Liberal-Socialist makeup in Sacramento's assembly.
Get rid of the open-borders criminals, including the Governors, Mayors , city Administrators and all those who out to appease the illegal immigrant advocates.
80 percent of the American population are NOT easily going to be swayed, by either Obama, McCain to give the 13 to 20 million illegal aliens any kind of Amnesty.? By any name they want to call it? It has to be voted by house, Senate, and THE PEOPLE and that will have major hurdles, if not impossible?
Everybody who doesn't have the right papers, know they are intentionally breaking the law. Their is no malice by the agents; just a duty to the American people and those who came here legally.
The 'Rule of Law" must be observed by every person in the United States. LAUREL, Miss, a manufacturing plant where 600 illegal aliens were arrested this week, shows the abnormality of the problem? The federal agents declined how many agents were involved in the raid, but said they acted on a tip provided by a union worker.
You cannot tell me for one minute, that the CEO, Directors on mahogany row didn't know about the illegal workers? Ice has a Tipline: 1-866-DHS-2ICE for intelligence to locate illegal aliens, or predatory businesses that employ them. If we can only pass the Federal SAVE ACT (H.R.4088) that Democrats are trying to keep away from the public eye.
Its funding will build a massive force of interior ICE agents, including 20.000 border patrol enforcement to root out the culprits. The E-verify data base that is 90.5 percent effective. NUMBERSUSA, CAPSWEB
Jennifer Roback — August 29, 2008
Mr. Williams has very eloquently captured the conflict within those of us who hope for a better America. Obamas speech was not the best ever but it got the job done and I hear people talking about it and him as a real candidate with a real chance. However, we are left wanting more and hoping for more. I hope he is right and that Denver will be marked in the future as where change began!
