Voices and dreams

October 31, 2008 in Politics | 7 comments

Say Hear is page that patches together voice messages from people who want to say why they’ve voting for whom. Interesting to click around.

I just wrote in my vote for Obama. Somewhere back early this year I explained why I favored Obama. I liked what I said then, but can’t find it now.

What Colin Powell said about Obama being a “transformative figure” comes close.

What Martin Luther King said in his I Have a Dream speech comes closer, and perhaps says all that needs to be said. This is the line:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

If Obama wins on Tuesday, that dream will have come true.

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7 comments

  1. Terry Heaton’s avatar

    Terry Heaton on October 31, 2008 at 6:15 pm

    I agree, Doc. The question then is what will the former civil rights movement, now institutionalized, do with a fulfilled dream? Not good for business, methinks.

  2. vanderleun’s avatar

    vanderleun on October 31, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    The business of racial extortion works fine for Jesse Jackson. Has for years. From dream to scam. Get ready for it to be nationalized.

  3. Russell Nelson’s avatar

    Russell Nelson on November 1, 2008 at 12:42 am

    I thought you had to be descended from a slave to be black in America?

  4. Doc Searls’s avatar

    Doc Searls on November 1, 2008 at 1:38 am

    I don’t believe the civil rights movement has been institutionalized. I also think Jesse Jackson is a grandstanding gasbag.

    My point about King’s speech is a simple one: a milestone has been passed. What matters about Obama is the content of his character. It’s not more complicated than that.

  5. Lisa Gates’s avatar

    Lisa Gates on November 1, 2008 at 3:58 am

    Ho to that, Doc.
    Take leave of cynicism for a second.
    Stop placing responsibility with “them” and fall in. Fall in with how you’re going to hold Obama AND yourself accountable for what you say yes to on Tuesday.

  6. Doc Searls’s avatar

    Doc Searls on November 1, 2008 at 6:15 am

    Lisa, where’s the cynicism — at least in this case? Or “them?”

    How I’ll hold Obama and myself accountable is how I’ve done the same most of my life: through speech and action.

    I’m concerned about what his administration will do, just as I’m be concerned about what McCain’s will do. And I’ll respond accordingly if either goes off in a direction I don’t like.

    But that’s not what this post is about. For me, at least.

  7. RBM’s avatar

    RBM on November 1, 2008 at 8:31 pm

    Doc, maybe the dream will be true for Obama, assuming he wins, but it will be symbolic for the country at large.

    Wasn’t it 1984 in which it was eye color by which ‘the other’ was defined ?

    I really think ‘the other’ is the bane of the species. Maybe in the year 2525 …

    Irony alert – I just stumbled on the Wiki link since the song has been running through my head the last few days – Lincoln NE is home !

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