An Ode to Tomorrow

In recent months, I've written several editorials examining the challenges we face leading up to and beyond the election. I've expressed more than a little skepticism that any meaningful improvement can come from any candidate from within America's corrosive two-party system. Rather than over-relying on our representatives, I've argued that we the public must view ourselves as a source of wisdom from below, guiding with our mandate the crucial decisions that will be made in the months and years ahead.

Yet, after all the editorializing and with the day of decision upon us, we face a moment that could of course, under the right circumstances, prove to be one of majestic national poetry. Accordingly, though I am no poet, it seems appropriate at this time to express myself more in poetic than editorial terms. So here goes.

* * *

Though today is yet unknowable, let us for a moment imagine that when we wake tomorrow it will be a new day in America.

Let us appreciate the poetry that once upon a time, a one-term congressman from Illinois became President of the United States and freed four million African slaves and, 145 years later, an African American first-term senator from Illinois - borne not of the rapacious legacy of that compulsory migration but rather of a voluntary choice by two adults - should become President of that same land.

Let us imagine that a nation once built on the scarred backs of black Africans could, in arguably her darkest hour since, be rescued by the son of a Kenyan exchange student and a white American woman from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Let us imagine that that man and woman could have met and married amid the sweltering heat of Jim Crow America and, just two weeks before the courageous freedom rides of 1961, produced a child whose very birth would seem a hopeful reminder of America's long-deferred promises - of racial harmony, of social courage, and of the power of love to free us from the shackles of our self-annihilating prejudice.

Let us imagine still that that young child should, through hard work and self-acknowledged providence, have become the figure of serenity, fortitude, vision, and grace who has stood before us for 21 long months and kept his dignity.

Let us imagine that beside that graceful man has walked his true and intrepid partner, co-parent of two confident and glowing children, who likewise has conducted herself with poise, substance, and candor -- cognizant of yet unspoiled by the toxic air of Washington.

Let us imagine that, opposite them, an opportunistic campaign of division, viciousness, and ideological bankruptcy was overcome by one of decency and depth -- that an effort to appeal to our lesser selves, to that in us which is divisible, was defeated by one that appealed to the best in us, to that which is indivisible.

Let us, though, not be fooled.

Let us not allow ourselves to be lulled into false comfort.

Let us go to sleep tonight and luxuriate, yes, in one night of hopeful rest.

And let us in those hours of sleep not plumb the darkness of the cynicism and doubt that have become a national affliction.

Let us sleep not with anger but in peace, secure in the hope that our hope shall endure and even prevail.

Yet let us wake tomorrow more vigilant than ever to ensure that the new day upon us shall not become the elusive phantom of a dream.

Let us commit ourselves - each of us individually and in concert -- to whatever it will take in time, energy, and resources to demand that promises made along the way will be kept and that compromises struck will be weighed against the greater gravity of the challenges we face and, if judged inappropriate to the moment, be replaced by enterprises of greater courage.

Let us not forget that today's triumph can become tomorrow's loss if the battle won dulls our resolve to fight the larger war - a war not of bombs, machines, hubris, corruption, and shortsightedness (we've done all that) but rather one of souls, humanity, decency, justice, and, longevity.

Let us recognize that no single man - no matter how talented or well-intentioned -- can possibly be a substitute for the much-needed chorus of a democracy.

Let us recognize that for that man to fulfill his promise to realize the kind of change we seek -- in the care of our bodies, our minds, our children, our planet, our streets, our livelihoods, and our security -- that we ourselves must be the agents of such change, whose unrelenting commitment to fundamental reform will be needed to give him the fortitude to battle the disfiguring forces of Washington.

Let us not forget

a government not of men but of laws,
a government of separated powers not arrogant ones,
a government of checks and balances honored not suspended,
and finally, a nation that is ever a work-in-progress, at her best when she recognizes and seeks to mend her frailties and at her worst when she denies them.

Let us not forget that, without accountability for the trespasses of recent years - the errors and wrongdoings that have cost tens of thousands of lives and shattered millions more -- there is insufficient motivation for real and systemic change.

But of course, there will be time for all this.

For now, let us join with those around us in jubilation, with family, friend, and stranger alike, and commit ourselves that we shall all meet again -- daily, weekly, in whatever ways our waking moments allow -- to build the community, nation, and world we seek.

Eugene Jarecki's 2006 film Why We Fight won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival as well as a Peabody Award. His new book, The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril has just been released by Simon & Schuster/Free Press.

Comments

[DLSteinhardt]

As a wise man at a Vermont resort said today, as we watched you on The Daily Show on an iPod,

"Eventful day!"

[ld]

Once Sen. Obama has won (hopefully) the fight starts right away again. The right wing corps and main stream media will try to marginalize him the way they did Jimmy Carter. That has to be prevented.

I liked your book - it showed an understanding of Dwight Eisenhower's greatness that has been lost to most commentators.

[FreedomWatch]

continued......
Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.
If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what's at stake. We are faced with the most evil enemy mankind has known in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation.
I challenge all of you here to challenge those who spew forth this venomous ideology (liberalism) by asking for details of thought and explanation of beliefs. Only then will you awaken yourself from the brainwashing that has enveloped you and perhaps help save this blessed country.

[FreedomWatch]

This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."
The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.
We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him.... But we cannot have such reform while our tax policy is engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure.
Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends?

[Defarge]

. . . . Beautiful . . I have tears in my eyes . . .

[Happyexpat]

An exquisite, moving piece of writing and exactly what I needed at this moment. I am printing and saving this to remind myself of what it means to be a real American--never complacent, ever involved and always open to dialogue based on hope. Than you so much for this inspiration.

[bwcyclist]

Everything this guy puts out, I like...his movie...his books...his words...his attitude. Thank you Eugene...

[marymansour]

"....an African American first-term senator from Illinois - borne not of the rapacious legacy of that compulsory migration but rather of a voluntary choice by two adults - should become President of that same land."

This passage is one of the most exquisite descriptions of Obama and his circumstances that I have ever read. I just returned from the polls - an elderly white woman in Alabama. Tears are streaming down my face as I read this blog - tears of hope and joy if Obama is elected. It will indeed me a new day of promise and change in America. Thank you so much for this inspiring piece.

[sclucie]

Thank you, Miss Mary.

[lioness39]

Mr. Jarecki, I am weeping from the beauty of what you wrote.

[munchkins10]

I'm a little worried..when all the dead racist "roll over in their graves" at the same time, won't it case an earthquake?

[Pupadup4oBama]

BRAVO!!! BRAVO!!!
What a beautiful tribute.

[PeppermintPatty08]

Great column. It's a beautiful day in Ohio. It's like the darkness of the last 8 yrs is starting to lift.

[kingmiller]

I didn't cry I swear (sniff). Hey I'm a 40 year old white guy from Dayton, Ohio for Chrissake. We don't cry. But I'm bawling, really. Here's to the beginning of a new day for all of us!

[knowBuddhaU]

word to you, o brother my Brother! my eyes always water like this. ;-]

[Defarge]

It takes a strong man to cry . . . God bless . .

[KATLRS]

I can only disagree with you on one point, Mr. Jarecki - you ARE a poet. Thanks.

[knowBuddhaU]

word! That's what I'm sayin', KATLRS.

The indivisibility of which the author so eloquently speaks is the antidote for wedge issue politics.

This is a poetic expression of what Stephen Jay Gould said almost 8 years ago: reductionism is dead; humans must be explained qua humans, not reduced to machines.

And I I wholeheartedly agree: We are midwifing a new era right here and now. We are more than the sum of our parts, no?

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/19/opinion/19GOUL.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5070&en=8d10fa6185fdca8f&ex=1225947600

From its late 17th century inception in modern form, science has strongly privileged the reductionist mode of thought that breaks overt complexity into constituent parts and then tries to explain the totality by the properties of these parts and simple interactions fully predictable from the parts. ("Analysis" literally means to dissolve into basic parts). The reductionist method works triumphantly for simple systems " predicting eclipses or the motion of planets (but not the histories of their complex surfaces), for example.

But once again " and when will we ever learn? " we fell victim to hubris, as we imagined that, in discovering how to unlock some systems, we had found the key for the conquest of all natural phenomena. Will Parsifal ever learn that only humility (and a plurality of strategies for explanation) can locate the Holy Grail?

Or, as I like to put it:

KNOCK-KNOCK
(who's there?)
AMERICA!
(um, erica who?)
KNOW AMERICA YOU!

[drsimon]

All laudable stuff, but as a Brit I remember May 1997 when we thought Tony Blair and New Labour would turn around our economy, our international standing and our national sense of pride in being British. BIG MISTAKE. We were shafted by the same forces - international bankers, the arms companies and the like - who will do exactly the same to you.

Sorry............. enjoy the party and then really start thinking about how you can change American society for the better

[NetworkGuy]

You are referring to the same Tony Blair that became Bushes lapdog? His decision to align himself with one of the worst leaders we've ever had was not thrust upon you by external forces. No wonder you're disappointed.

[sclucie]

drsimon: Good luck to you too - especially with those immigrants.