Crumpled Notebook

Something interesting happened to me on my recent trip. I had the same or similar conversation with several different people of all backgrounds in three different cities in three different states. Conversations that really solidified my choice for President in November, at least as far as the decision for me goes.

I want to start off by saying this is not meant to be a political topic blog. I don’t care to discuss politics in a blog post, on facebook or myspace. I’ve had several good conversations with people here in person about it, even people with different opinions than me, but online is not the place I want to do that. This post is simply an observation that I saw on my trip.

In San Jose, Seattle, and New York, random people that I came across started talking to me about hope and change. Not in those words necessarily, but those were the themes. A man at the gas station started telling me how excited he was for the election and that he wanted Obama in office. He believed that Obama was the start of changes that needed to be made. He wasn’t the type of man that I would have guessed would get all that excited about politics. Maybe have an opinion, but not campaigning for someone. And he wasn’t campaigning. He was just simply stating his frustrations with the way things are currently. He didn’t seem to be putting all his eggs in the Obama basket, but he had hope and was motivated that things was going to get better.

I had similar conversations in the two other cities as well. Random people coming up to me talking about how hopefully they were. How inspired they were. How much they thought that a difference could be made. They didn’t seem overly optimistic, but they were inspired.

That’s the thing that struck me. People were inspired. My friend Ross has been talking for months about what a great speaker Obama is and how that makes him a good leader. I don’t agree that being a good speaker makes you a good leader, and I wouldn’t vote for Obama based on that alone. However, I have been impressed with how inspired people are becoming. I don’t see that from the McCain camp. I haven’t seen a McCain supporter go around telling me how ready they are for change and how much hope they have. Perhaps they just aren’t as vocal.

I realize I was in cities during these conversations and people in the city tend to lean to the left, so I know that plays into it, but as I was telling one of my McCain supporter friends, the biggest deal for me is that people are inspired to go out and do something. To step up the the plate and say “this doesn’t work anymore. It’s broken and needs to be fixed.”

I don’t agree with everything Obama has planned. I don’t agree with McCain on everything either though. I actually used to like McCain, but I lost respect somewhere along the way. I also lost hope in him and what he could do. But, what I do support is the people of our country getting inspired to put our foot down and do whatever needs to be done to make the changes, no matter what political party you are. That’s what solidified my choice. That is just my personal choice of what I believe is right for me though. Something is broken and for me, it was really inspiring to see that people in our country really care about that and want to do something about it. For me and for them, it happens to be Obama that we want to make the changes with. No false hope. Just normal people getting involved to help the man who has inspired us to do that.

FYI–I won’t respond to any comments on this. I respect opinions and wouldn’t tell anyone they are wrong for voting for John McCain or Bob Barr or anyone else. I’m simply saying that this is what is right for me and my heart and where I want to see our country go.

So, a week or so ago, I made up my mind about who to vote for since it was becoming ever more apparent that my first choice, John Edwards (whom I also supported in the last primary election), wasn’t quiet going to make it. This week, I started questioning the “why” of why I made my decision. Went back to my, “I don’t know” thing. What I really wanted was for John Edwards to make an endorsement of either Hillary of Obama so I didn’t have to make a decision myself. I don’t think that is going to happen. At any rate, after going back and for and back and forth and back and forth, etc… I think I have decided, although I plan to just turn in my mail ballot on Tuesday so I have a few more days to sit with it. Right now, I’m feeling good about it.

I’ll tell you who I (plan to) support after Tuesday. What I do feel good about is that 3 of the 5 (4 major) candidates left, I think I would be okay with. At least more okay than I am now. But, I’d rather be a little more than “just okay” with our next president. For the record, I would be “okay” with Hillary, Obama, or McCain. Huckabee just scares me (although I think he’s falling to the wayside), and after doing some research today, Romney scares me even more.

I know, I rarely do full posts on politics, just the occasional jab. You can even see from my categories that there is no “politics” category. It’s just not my thing to rant about on here usually. Not that this is a rant by any means.

I was reading a TIME article today called “The Last Temptation of Al Gore.” While I was reading it, and looking at the picture gallery of him over the years, I realized how much good this man has actually done for our country and how much courage he has to keep doing it despite his “loss” in the 2000 election. I really like it when people stop caring about what they should be and just be themselves and I feel like that is what Gore has done since the election. I wish this Al Gore was the same Al Gore that ran for president in 2000. I love the fact that since then, he has really fought for what he believes in, and stuff we should all believe in like our environment, he didn’t care to speak out against the war, because what does he have to lose. He has showed much more passion than we ever saw when he was Vice-President or running for President. He has somehow managed to grasp the advantage the President Clinton had over him–personality. A straight-up environment-loving, computer geek with personality. Yeah, so what if he said he “invented the internet” (actually what Gore said was “I took the initiative in creating the Internet”). A wording blunder, yes–complete fabrication, no. At least his blunder didn’t say that “human being and fish can coexist peacefully” (although, I’m sure he would be all for that too).

I guess what impresses me most with him is his quiet dignity. He didn’t sit by during the 2000 election and let things happen, but in the end, he had respect for our system. After that, I think most people would have went on a rampage saying how the process was wrong and it needed to be changed. He didn’t do that. He just did what he’s been doing forever, focusing on his passions, and doing so in such a way that he doesn’t care if people judge him. Why should he? He lost a the popular vote to a complete moron. He challenged it and he still lost. He lost his own state. I think most self-respecting men would have went into hiding for the rest of their life. Gore? He decided to write a couple of books and make a movie which resulted in an Academy Award and a Pulitzer. I don’t think that constitutes as running home with your tail between your legs.

And still, he’s not running for President. At least not right now. He should. I mean, he has the best of some of the Democratic front-runners all rolled into one. He’s “a candidate with the grassroots appeal of Barack Obama—someone with a message that transcends politics, someone who spoke out loud and clear and early against the war in Iraq. But you would also want a candidate with the operational toughness of Hillary Clinton—someone with experience and credibility on the world stage.” I’ll go one step father to that. He would be a candidate who doesn’t care about judgment anymore. A man kind of like John Edwards who took his shot and lost it and came back with this side of him we’ve never seen before. A side of him with personality and charm. He’s a southern. He’s not black (and you know there are still people out there who won’t vote for Obama because of that). He’s not a woman (same thing with Hillary losing votes because of being a woman). And frankly, I think he’s done more for our country during the last 5-6 years than our own President has. He hasn’t been creating legislature, he’s being creating awareness and I think I would argue that that is the most important first step to any kind of change. I’m not convinced he has to run for President to continue to make an impact. In fact, maybe he can accomplish more by not running and maybe that is his reasoning. However, if there is any man, or woman, in this country who should be our President, someone intelligent as well as personable, someone who has the ability to create real change and pull us out of this hole we keep digging deeper and deeper, then that man is Al Gore.

Here’s info on his books and movie: Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century, An Inconvenient Truth, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit

An interesting picture I found on creative commons taken between Mission and Bryant on 24th St in San Francisco.