Racism is in the eyes of the race-ee?

Sociologists in the 50s came up with the word "homophily". It means like likes like. When Clinton analyses a vote in terms of homophily, he analyses a vote in terms of homophily. But when that analysis is experienced by a person of an analyzed race, it can feel racist. So it is. Bill Clinton and the body of his work is not racist. But if one honestly feels that he is or has done something or failed to do something, then that feeling is an immovable object and Bill Clinton is, according to that feeling, a racist.

Barack Obama and his silver tongue are also caught in racism. If the "typical white" feels being herded into a category by being herded into a category, then that, too is racism. If we live in a racist society we are all racist, so the word is thereby rendered useless. The motives and feelings of another are not knowable. The "typical white man" like Bill Clinton does not feel racist while analyzing voting patterns - but his comments may stir that latent function and it is felt as racism. His motive is to win. The body of his work would not show him as a racist--indeed, just the opposite. But if people are trained to view white men and white words as racist, it will be felt as racism.

Racism is coming from one and only one point of view, based on race, when life and creativity is so much more than that.

The Seven Heavenly Ways

Alright, you two. I mean Hillary and Barack.
So now the playing field is level. Barack is neither a Muslim nor a racist and Hillary is neither a racist nor the wife of a Republican.
Let us now move on to the higher ground that both of you offered us.
Let us talk.
Let us see which one of you can talk better.
Let us see which one of you can answer questions better.
Let us see the wisdom with which you approach specific international boiling spots as they are on various spots of the globe.
Let us see how you will go up against McCain, not just hear the one of you say you will have the words and the other of you say you already have the experience.
What, exactly, does happen on Day One?
What do you do when the Seven Deadly Problems jump up to number 2 spot on the priority list after the #1 problem: War. Let's list all seven:
1. The War. The Occupation. The Withdrawal. Afghanistan. Pakistan. Israel. Palestine. Iran.
2. The Rest of the World: Russia, China, Venezuela, Darfur, Kenya, Kosovo, Mexico.
3. The Economy: The Greening of America Project - infrastructure and greening and jobs - the Vision of The Greening of America. The Health Care system is part of that. Does the IT staff really have the readiness to extend the Congressional system out to us on ... Day 2?
4. Women: immediately recognize women as the route in to solve the domestic and foreign problems. It is the de-valuation of things feminine (joining, creating, softening, nurturing, joining, finding sameness) that is at the foundation of problems East, West, and Middle.
5. Children: education and love. American and Iraqii children first and all children in general. Children's interests have to come before the interests of pharmaceuticals and insurance companies.
6. Immigration: We love our Spanish friends and all the other peoples as well. American always welcomes people and people become very happy and sometimes prosperous living in America. We need to solve this problem with the respect due the United States and the joy and wisdom of the immigrants.
7. Science and art and the future: we want a vision of where we are going.

Barack removed the race card from the deck - but is the sex card still in there?

. . . . Can't say anything about race because it is too subtle to be handled without misunderstanding in a political campaign. So no more race talk. Can we remove sex as well? Obama supporters say that Hillary is where she is because she married Bill.

. . . . Blacks and whites who are for Obama like him because they like him. Hillary people should not call them Obamabots because that implies they have no "reason." Ferraro in the Clinton camp was insensitive to what is perceived as racism: racism, like sexual harrassment, is defined by the person who is harrassed.
. . . . Race remains a topic that our country does not face well or comfortably. Whether by design or with deft use of the Ferraro commentary, Obama has removed the race card from the deck. It cannot be played. When people are told they vote according to their demographic, it seems to drain the passion, integrity, and intelligence for the vote, which is why it is offensive.

. . . . But can we talk about sex? With Spitzer and now Client #6 from England in the news, how can we not see the trickle down effect sexism in nearly everything we do? Some Obama supporters hath wrought Hillary into little more than a Republican wife. And when Obama people say Hillary attracts women 60 and over it feels, to me, dismissive. Half the human race is going to be women 60 and over. Have they no wisdom? We all vote for a person we like because we like him. Or her.
. . . . Dang! See? The man, of any race, sits, even gramatically, in the priviledged position. Otherwise, women enter the picture and mess everything up with this "his or her" pronoun switch. Can we say anything about that? When Geraldine says, "It's the guys sticking together," it is an anti-sexist comment construed into a racist comment. Pundits have not the time to analyze it for anything other than a morsel for the anti-Hillary cauldron, which is part of a bigger, nearly invisible cauldron called sexism.
. . . . Clinton literally slept beside a great U.S. President for eight years. He didn't tell her everything about the sex parts of his day job, but for sure he shared with her, his political pal since college, the intimate details of how a person wrestles with being the most powerful figurehead on earth. It's quite a fly on the wall she has been, and more. Take 10 min to watch her in Ireland; you decide for yourself if her effort was only decorative. If it was, it was decoration that made me cry.
. . . . .She is a woman strong enough in the big ring. He is a man intelligent and powerful enough to there too. Can we learn to talk about race and sex and age, since they are still issues, with intelligence and sensitivity and respect for all so that we can let these remarkable people be judged on the basis of his ... or her ... vision for tomorrow based on their experience of yesterday.
. . . . Move on. There is stuff to talk about to forge the Democratic argument against McCain. Obama has been too busy trying to act like Clinton is McCain. Hillary has been too busy giving her stump speech instead of turning this debate into the debate to come with McCain. Barack knows Hillary is not a racist. Hillary knows that Barack has run a brilliant campaign.
. . . . Move on. Stop talking about the campaigns. Focus less on TV and Radio Show and Celebrity opinion. Talk about the issues. Forge, together, the argument against McCain and the Republicans.
Stop talking about who could forge the better argument against war and destruction and forge it.

We all act “rational” when the entire thing is so “emotional”

Granted, we have many rational reasons to love Hillary and equally as many to doubt Obama, but their camp looks at it just the reverse. They love him and pretend it is rational by stacking up all their facts and reasons, and they hate her and stack up reasons and facts for that. When we paint a totalist picture with facts or theory to idealize or demonize either one of them, it does a disservice to America.

Stick with the facts of how great Hillary is – the patterns of her greatness and the particulars of her greatness. She has been to 80 countries. Obama has been to about 5 and only recently. She had lived six decades and is in the generativity phase of life where she wants to give back. He is still in his Young Adulthood where he is seeking a foothold in getting love. These are the stages through which we all travel in life as established so many decades ago by Psychologist Erik Erikson. Give back is her message: Stay positive and use what Hillary inspires in us. As one blogger said, “Hillary’s already my President.” Share beautiful odes and videos and links to the warmth that is Hillary – and all our reasons and emotions remain with Hillary as the gal we want in the office.

We think we’re being rational, but we are all being emotional too
This leads to demonization
Demonization is negative
Negativity cannot win

What is important is the To Do List for the future, not accusations about the past
Both sides should stick with facts and reasons about the positive details of their candidates, details about past accomplishments and details about particular substantive areas as they appear now and in the future.
n the future of Iraq, not the past – enough with the speeches about a speech
n the future of universal health care and the quickest road to it – let’s just do it, there’s no good excuse for making it not universal unless you want to be particularly hard on women
n the future of green jobs and how to march out a plan rather than go Ken Starr Monster on each other – are her tax returns more important than the two of you again addressing us with particular questions about foreign policy and your respective know-how?
n the future of women’s rights – how is that part of Hillary’s vision of the future and seemingly absent from Barack’s view, although his wife has that as her project, how to be a professional with kids, like she is herself.
n the future of investigations into the various alleged breaches of the constitution by the current administration – and votes like Barack’s to give the telecoms immunity
n the future of small town and little city America – and Hillary’s lessons from New York on how Washington helps
n the future of the President’s democratic connection with those of us she met on the campaign trail through the internet – and her vision of continuing Town Halls throughout her Presidency
n the future of weaving our returning military into as pleasant a life in the United States as possible with the wounded ones first, but forgetting not one of them who went overseas to protect that which is good about America – with a dozen specific stories of how she turned her particular instances of help into legislation
n the future of listening to our elders, and listening to our elders listen to one another, like the two beautiful ladies down in Texas at the Town Hall
n the future of figuring out how not to lose their voices – they speak for themselves.
n the future of working with Bill and Melinda Gates and Oprah Winfry on intervention in Detroit and Philadelphia and New Orleans and Oakland and Jackson and St. Louis instead of primarily in Africa – we also need an injection into the third world of children right here in the US who have been waiting in line for text books and attention so they could pass some NCLB tests rather than sitting at a computer learning how to operate technology for jobs tomorrow.
That’s what we want to hear about. Not accusations, not personal attacks, not against Hillary, and not against him either.

The negativity of spammers can be ‘ignored’ – they are like dog pee on the front door.
Contempt can be ignored.
Icarus can be remembered.
Judgment that was never put to the test is not fact or reason. It was something that did not occur in the past and who knows what would occur in the future.

Hillary is all about positivity. She is all about being smart. We need to take the granularity of her experience, service, wisdom, wit, and love of Hillary and match it to his flash and cash. Stay positive – let him go negative if he wants to.

No need to be angry about him: he can’t take Hillary’s heart, grace, and experience away from her, and all we have to do is keep spreading the message of who she is, person to person.

I say: Hillary is our new Best Friend. Insist on a “Coffee with Hillary” with one or two of your Hillary-averse companions or co-workers. Sit with Hillary over coffee and a 20 minute video or video collage, maybe read together the interview she gave Judy Woodruff. Listen to her for over an hour in New Orleans. Catch her after Togo West and Wesley Clark introduce her. Just say, “I want you to meet my new Best Friend.” Oh! Start with the two Texas ladies in the Town Hall.

As Mother Theresa of Calcutta put it, “Do not wait for leaders to do it. Do it alone, person to person.”

The Grace of Politics

The 3AM ad presents Hillary as the woman to pick up the phone to deal with the world. What a modality change: an efficient and loving mother to handle a crisis. We like it. She didn't say anything bad about Barack; she said something good about herself. Hillary said McCain has a lifetime of experience. Well, unfortunately, he has: 45 or 50 years, which is as old as Barack is. She didn't say that McCain's experience produced nice results or projects a viable future, just that he has a lifetime of experience. With Hillary's grace, we will find the high road out of this. As Hillary says, "The Party will be together" united to defeat the Republicans. Read speech for Hillary

It is more than experience that Clinton has

Mar 1, 2008

~ From experience, she allowed the natural, human generosity and care for the human race to emerge in the forefront of her actions.

~ From experience, she sees the patterns in the detail and the details in the patterns.

~ From experience, she knows the moves between the Executive Branch and Legislative Branches and how to operate with facility and strength in each of them.

~ From experience, she has been given the opportunity, joys and discernment of sitting and speaking personally to world leaders in 40 countries from China to Kosovo, from Africa to South America.

~ From experience, she has developed the muscle to stick to her points of vision in the face of attack.

~ From her experience as a woman, she has learned to endure and move forward in the political arena with grace.

~ From experience, she has dropped her ego and become one with democratic action and the people.

~ From experience, she feels the needs of the people and encourages our wisdom and action in getting the jobs done.

~ From experience, she is oriented to work, and while she’s an intrepid campaigner, the tone of the campaign is always about you, the people, and the work to be done and not about matters tending towards self-glorification.

~ From experience she knows that in her heart it is better to go to the funeral of the young woman in Texas and to visit her friends in New Orleans at the State of the Black Union rather than to abandon them as if to say that family and race questions in America are not of central importance on the agenda of the Presidency. To her, they remain central.

~ From experience, she knew what it was to be the Senator from New York in Washington DC, on the day of and on the day after and in the year after the attack on New York and Washington DC. She was in the position to work towards the defense of the ideals of our country, when we still had ideals, when we still believed in ourselves, as did the world, in a way that Senator Obama will never know because he was still outside Washington.

~ From experience, she saw how that 2002 vote presented one way to her on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee became, one year later, a tool for Bush and Cheney to begin to behave like a cowboys with guns and more guns-- just to throw away like used up toys and leave behind for our enemies to pick up and recover.

~ By the time Barack got to the Senate later, from experience he learned to see himself vote the same way that Senator Clinton did on the ensnarlment of Iraq.

~ From experience, she knows that the pharmaceuticals and insurance companies will slip right through the hole if you stand before them with anything less than a total, 100%, universal plan for them to accept. Give them a hole, and they set the price. You know that from the experience of 15 years of fighting with the big boys.

~ And from our experience we know that if any American allows himself or herself to open for 15 or 30 minutes to a speech or an interview with this great Senator from New York, he or she will begin to recognize how Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton can fill a heart with gratitude, expand knowledge of the fields of action, and fortifies hope and faith.

She's the real thing, and we will do all within our power to allow the whole world to experience her the way we who have allowed her to speak to us do.