The Audacity of Hope

 The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
2007
Weight: 9.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating

If I had not already been a fan of Barack Obama, I would have become one after reading his memoirs.  I cannot begin to tell you how much I miss having a competent, collected, savvy leader.  I know there are many people out there that can empathize.  His memoirs were great.  They were interesting and inspiring. He showed you some flaws, many of his strengths, his passion for helping people, and his sense of community.  The love story of Barack and Michelle was fun to read about.  He had a perfect past to set him up for leadership.  He had spent ample time in other countries, which broadened his mind, no doubt, but he had a clear love for America and was an established American (since that was such a big issue to the birthers, like Trump himself).  His work as a community organizer, his upbringing, his family, his being young and doing what young people do--all of it made him a real person that so many of us could connect with/see ourselves reflected in for so many different reasons and in different ways.

Obama really did give me hope and made me expect more and want better.  I did not feel like the things I had heard growing up about politicians held true anymore, not to me.  I was able to break out of the mindset that "all politicians are corrupt" and that "both parties are the same."  The idea that the government does not exist for the people.  I began to really think about just how hard of a job it would be to be the President of the United States of America.  I can tell you, even if it were on the table, I would turn that job down!  It takes a special person, and Obama was uniquely special.

I would not have wanted him to serve more than 8 years because I appreciate our democracy and the rules that are in place to stop us from having a dictatorship.  That being said, it is hard to imagine how different 2020 would have looked with a leader like Obama.  It is painful anyway, because the last four years have been so trying and overwhelming.  I wake up every morning expecting there to be another massive news event or emergency and, most of the time, there is.  I think of Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, and I see it happening all around me.  It is terrifying.  

We are really in a mess now and, while I am grateful to Biden for stepping up, I do not envy him.  Can you imagine being the leader of this ship?  

To this day, I am soothed by Obama's words when he speaks publicly.  His voice is reassuring and his composure helps me regain mine.  I dream of having another leader like him.  What a difference we could make in America.  Also, and I never quite realized how much this meant to me before Trump, what are all the great American things that we could preserve.  This has been a scary time for our democracy, and I am worried about how much damage has been done, though I hope this is just the chaos of old ideas dying off.  The rallying cry of people who no longer have a footing in a new, more progressive world.  I want to hope that we are on the precipice of something we can all be proud of creating, even as it looks like we are losing ourselves to global warming, violence, and individualism.  Thank you, Obama, for helping me know that dreaming big is not being unrealistic.  It is important and necessary.  We have to dream big to make big changes, and the changes we make (for better or worse) will be felt for generations to come.

Christmas in Plains: Memories

Christmas in Plains: Memories
2004
Weight: 5 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating

I am surprised so many people love this book!  It is simple and uninspired.  The effort to write about race could have been good, but it was so basic and unemotional that it bordered on being offensive.  The picture that gets painted if of a nice, white, upper class guy who loves his wife, kids, and Jesus.  He also loves his old home, Plains, and is nostalgic about the days of cutting down his own Christmas trees, playing with the black children he grew up with (partly kids of the parents that worked for his family), and good ol' traditional American Christian fun in a small town.  He talks a little bit about being the President and that it was painful when he was not reelected.  His joke about the world praying for him to have relief from his hemorrhoids fell flat, but I am glad he got relief.  Strange bits like that really popped out of the idyllic world he was presenting, but there was nothing truly moving, sad, dark, or honest that came out.  All joy, all the time.  Even when surrounded by racist/sexist institutions he recognizes as such.  At least he seems to know how lucky he was. 

I like the Carters just fine, and I appreciate a lot of the good they have done in the world.  I am just not a fan of this book.

Volume 17, Number 4

Tin House: Summer 2016
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Donating

Have you ever experienced night paralysis?  There is this moment of awareness before the visions start.  You feel that your body is heavy and unmovable, and there is this dread that overcomes you.  Will you be able to wake yourself up in time or is it too late?  If you give in completely you will be overcome by horror and completely incapable of escaping it.

That is the gloom I have been living in since November 8th.  Some days I wake up and can almost forget that we are on the verge of collapse--that my whole life could possibly change.  That a lot of lives could change in ways most Americans would struggle to imagine.  I don't think this is dramatic.  My worst nightmare is the collective leadership of Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Ben Carson, Mike Pence, Rudolph Giuliani, and now Steve Bannon.  It is like a really bad SNL skit and my deepest darkest nightmare combined.  It is so impossible I do not know how to wrap my brain around the fact that it IS possible.

What will happen to us?

McCain Paper Dolls

McCain Paper Dolls  tom Tierney
2008
Weight: 1.6 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving in a Box in Decatur

Did I mention Obama won?  Did I mention he won again?  Yaaaaaahhhhhhooooo!  This was passed onto me and the only reason I still have it is because I kept thinking it might be fun to play with a paper doll again, turn it into some sort of "art project," or more likely write letters on the back of the dolls.  I have faced the facts.  Never gonna happen.  And it may be suprising when some unsuspecting person stumbles across it after all this time.

OBAMA!

 

I would love to hear from some of you.  What are you doing to help your community?  What does progress look like now?  How can we get the best out of this presidency?  Give me some inspiration to go with my ever increasing urge to fight and move forward!