Paradigm shift, part one, on the national scene has just happened. Last night, Chris Matthews likened it to the moon landing. I think it’s more like when the Catholic Church finally had to come out and say that the earth revolved around the sun, and not the other way around, after they spent years killing people who said otherwise. Obama didn’t take one side over another. He transcended the argument and brought us all to another level of responsibility entirely. This is what paradigm shifts are made from.
The tears in my own eyes last night were because what seemed once to be impossible is very possibly NOT. Perhaps it happened too slowly, but this win is personal for me. It makes me feel like I didn’t waste my words on my ignorant, under-educated, small minded family members and friends for years when I was still too young to vote. Obama’s victory makes me right, makes my life “right”…for once. While that is not the point, it makes me realize that we have all had a part in the victory, as he said last night. My own personal belief system has become an issue of national scope. I played a part in the change, as did so many of my friends and colleagues. The way I see it – victim hood, war mongering, false superiority, false marketing, blind and childlike patriotism lost the election last night, not John McCain. It may be short-lived, but it happened. And if it happened once, we can make it happen all over the place.
Our problems are complex and greed can buy any man or woman; any color at all can be turned into a selfish pile of “haves and have mores”. While Obama’s victory can give everyone a chance to imagine new possibilities, it also creates responsibility on my own shoulders, and on the shoulders of each one of us, across the color line. But I like that. I don’t think Obama will “cure” the depth of political corruption in my country, or fix all the injustices that women, children, people of color or gay people have suffered here, and still continue to suffer. I’m not naive. But it was crucial to hear Obama thank so many people last night. He brought responsibility to all of us and no matter what he does or what happens, that realization is the most productive thing that’s happened in American politics in my lifetime. I was 6 years old when John Kennedy was elected…it was much harder for me to feel connected to a larger world back in first grade, to see the crucial role each of us plays in the bigger picture.
Injustice is run on color, religion, gender preference, and our “elite”, the guys behind the power in this country (and they are guys) love it. To keep their game going, we need to remain apart, we need to feel like we are truly on opposite ends of the game board. We need to feign superiority or become victims of the system to keep the game in place. We have to keep our minds small, our thoughts limited and continue to be distracted, and keep looking to someone else to tell us what to do. I think last night proved that something else may also be going on. It was an overwhelming majority that put Obama in; he did not squeak by. The details and political considerations are complex, but perhaps this means we are growing up as a nation, even in some small way.
I have worked for and at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in NY for over 10 years now; a multicultural non-profit arts organization that has managed to make room for all kinds of people in their 35 year history. Thousands of organizations like this, across America, have been silently plodding along, making quiet differences in the way we learn from each other, the way we interact and “live together” on our streets and homes. White females may be a minority at the Nuyorican, but this has never held me back from participating, from providing input and having us all realize the larger artistic goal that transcends appearance and background. Organizations like this have made a difference, and I think this win proves it. How we think affects who we are and how we treat others.
I don’t need to look to a leader for direction, but I’m glad many more Americans have someone that might provide a better example of leadership than we are used to. If Obama’s election means more people will think differently, if it even gives the slightest chance of that, who knows what we can do?
I’m up for the challenge and pretty happy that something else has been set into motion after a lifetime of feeling like my actions and feelings didn’t really mean much in the bigger picture.
It does seem natural, even to one who is no Kennedy expert, to compare Obama to him. There is this feeling of rejuvenation, mass participation. Most importantly, I think, is the idea that this massive pool of Americans out there who have all the pent up rage and shame toward their government can be proud Americans again. Not the flag-waving, blind support of whatever military campaign the powers that be tell us is necessary, not even the kind that means we’re any better than anyone else. The kind that simply says we are all Americans, and if we ARE going to be a respectable, even, dare I say, a great country, then we all have to be ready to do something to bring that about…a justifiable pride in being involved in positive change. If we want this country to live up to its creeds, to give people the freedom of opportunity that allows us to thrive, then we have to force our will, we the people’s will, back onto government.
But here is where my fears come in, and why I needed to disclaimer my knowledge of Kennedy: Kennedy didn’t work out so well. There are those among us who buy his sincerity, but think the powers that be were able to blamelessly take him out of the game.
“Kennedy apparently reasoned that by returning to the Constitution, which states that only Congress shall coin and regulate money, the soaring national debt could be reduced by not paying interest to the bankers of the Federal Reserve System, who print paper money then loan it to the government at interest.” – Jim Marrs, Rule By Secrecy, (p. 129)
“The answer to the Kennedy assassination is with the Federal Reserve Bank. Don’t underestimate that. It’s wrong to blame it on [CIA official James] Angleton and the CIA per se only. This is only one finger of the same hand. The people who supply the money are above the CIA….The danger of the truth not being known, will destroy this nation, actually.” -Marina Oswald (widow of Lee Harvey).
Kennedy realized that the Federal Reserve was not federal at all (nor, now, do they have any real reserves to speak of), but rather a cartel of internation bankers that were given the power to print money (blatantly violating the Constitution) just so they could print it up at will and loan it to the federal government with interest. Abolish the Fed and you could begin to reduce the national debt by merely obliterating the interest payments. Further, Kennedy’s disagreements with the CIA (et al.) came when he realized there were a slew of foreign operations that the President was not expected to interfere with. It, they, were bigger than he was; bigger than than the president, and bigger than elected government with its tip-of-the-hat to oversight. A secret arm of government then began to try and trick the President into doing what they wanted. He didn’t. And some of us believe he was assassinated because of it.
Now, I’m not predicting the same of our President-elect. We now live in a different time. But perhaps there are more sophisticated means of convincing a President he damn well better go along with the gag or else. Or else what? I don’t know. 9-11 comes to mind as an example, at least for some of us, that they are capable of doing whatever needs to be done to force their agenda. Sure, there were a mixed bag of nutcases in power then, but not so in Kennedy’s case and they kept at it. When he had a problem with it, well…
But enter Brzezinski. I won’t attempt to spell his first name, but I’m proud to be able to nail his last. The guy co-founded the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller, and was Carter’s foreign policy advisor. His book, The Grand Chessboard , written some years ago, scared the living shit out of me. It talks very openly about how the US can and should dominate the globe in purely military/economic terms: ie, neoconservatism. Though as of late he has somewhat changed his tune, even being critical of our government’s “efforts” in Iraq. His criticism, for what I can make of it, basically comes from the fact that the Iraqis were less than thrilled to adopt our agenda. So this plan of global domination is going to be harder than he thought, certainly he thought it when writing the Grand Chessboard. So now, he talks of “inspiring people in the region”. Who knows, maybe he has learned that when people are inspired (ie the possibility or beginnings of positive change) they might just play the game. So now, his global domination is much more, more, feel-good. There are rumours that this guy has been tapped to advise Obama, who he endorsed by the way. So now I’m wondering, will Obama play the game? At least when it comes to foreign policy. I mean, the government certainly did some reprehensible shit under Carter…not that it was really all in his hands or anything. I believe he was sincere, I believe domestically he had a hand in some things and tried his best to better the lives of Americans (bla bla bla, sorry); but he didn’t exactly take on the whole web of shadow government agencies and policies the way Kennedy did. In fact I think Carter left the shadow government alone, not tackling it like Kennedy was ready to. And not so incidentally, Robert Gates cut his teeth under Brzezinski as his special assistant on the National Security Council. Then Gates went on to head the CIA, and now he heads the military as the Sec. of Defense. I wonder of Obama will keep him on.
But it’s a new time, and our problems seem to be serious enough to need serious solutions. So what if Obama realizes the Federal Reserve is an unconstitutional banking cartel that has a complete stranglehold on our economy, that prints up money for our country and loans it back to us with interest? It is this same agency who wants us to go into debt, just like a credit card company loves it when you go into debt. With shadow linkages to the CIA, well, there’s NOTHING in this world that will drive up debt more than a war…which they tricked us into starting while some of us were trying from the beginning to say the whole “intelligence” justification was cooked, and that they’ve been saying publicly they wanted to do this for quite some time (of course it is more complicated than just debt-generation).
And although I think Cheney is busy burning all incriminating evidence he can right now, what if Obama realized the whole 9-11 “terrorist attack” was orchestrated by a shadow government that in large part resides here, in the US? Then, I fear for the life of our President elect. What would he do? I fear he will either be defamed at best, or allow the secret agenda to continue. I think of Nixon in China. If a Democrat tried that, half the country would be screaming “Holy shit! We’re going Commy!” But Nixon could get away with it. He was the anti-Communist (for better or worse to be sure) and everyone knew it. So he could do it. I see the same playing out with Obama and the Persian Gulf, Caspian-Stan, all those places Brzezinski said so long ago would, SHOULD, become more and more important for the US militarily. So now we’ll have the liberal guy in office, and though he has been outspoken in his criticism of the Iraq war, he has maintained his dedication to “fighting terrorism”. But that’s where I’m lost. Building 7 World Train was not brought down by jets. Who’s he going to fight then? The shadow government? Also, I talk alot.