So, Lynne Cheney's research reveals that Barack Obama is a distant cousin to Dick Cheney. I love these stories. They bring to light the obvious fact that no matter how much we try to distance ourselves from each other and act like we're all little islands, we're not. We're all related. Go back far enough, and we're all family.
Unfortunately, no one can make us more base, ugly, and bloodthirsty than a brother. Or a parent. Or a dictatorial, megalomaniac distant cousin.
Here's to this more being a "wow-huh" story, and this being a reminder that we're all in this together. And while we need strategy, tactics, and brilliant policy proposals, we also need a whole lot of healing love--the only energy strong enough to detangle the worst of our intractable problems. We're going to need it as we try to convince our neighbors to vote for the right folks and to fight to make positive changes in our communities. We're going to need it to make any sort of peaceful headway with the violent, ultra-selfish and power-obsessed around us.
Just as we need love in our families, we need love in our politics. A love that doesn't give up. A love that tries to connect with what's best in all around us.
For as Martin Luther King Jr. once said: "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend."