Through the Glass Darkly

I don't write much in the way of opinion on politics or religion here. Partly because I have a sick need for everyone to like me (OR EVERYBODY DIES). And partly because we live in a time of such polarity, a stated opinion tends to assign people to one camp or the other, and I think my humanity and yours transcends that. I want people with many points of view to always feel welcome here. God forbid I should ever occupy a space, on or offline, where my only discourse is with people who think and believe as I do. Don't even get me started on Olberman, Kos, Fox News or "Christian" talk radio.

But believe me, I do have opinions. And in my opinion, if Jesus of Galilee were to run for office in this election, Sarah Palin would be standing at the podium with a hammer in one hand and a box of nails in the other, ranting about every traitorous tax collector, radical and prostitute he ever broke bread with.

(No, I'm not comparing Barack Obama to Jesus. In such a vacuum of leadership, both sides need to be on guard against messianic craving. I just think people who live by the sword of religious self-righteousness should be prepared to fall on it.)

Earlier in the primaries, I took comfort in believing that even my personal worst case scenario, a McCain presidency, would be okay. I don't believe that anymore. I believe Senator McCain crossed over to the dark side of ambition and power when he chose his running mate. Every new, desperate day of his waning campaign only deepens my disappointment, and strengthens my conviction that Barack Obama is the man for this precipitous moment in the history of this great country, a country that is a little more than two hundred years old, an adolescent in the life of nations.

America, it's time to lose the swagger, and come of age. Barack Obama is not and can never be, the end-all, be-all. But in him, I believe we have both the substance and the symbol to bring us — a moment late, a little breathless, but finally — into the new millennium.

I sat in my car yesterday, listening to undecided voters on the radio voice their fears about Obama. So much fear. Fear of retribution for the racial sins of the nation. Fear of losing a foothold on the middle class. Fear of annihilation. Fear of everything new, uncertain and unknown. I was literally moved to tears. My mothering heart went out to these frightened people. I wished I could sit with them and tell them all I have learned — and have had to learn over and over —about making decisions from a place of fear. What a dark and shrinking place it is from which to live, how once you consign your world view to that small and airless room, you find all the windows face out to your worst fears.

I think Sarah Palin and John McCain are trying to herd as many people into that bunker as possible. And I'm still not going to tell anyone how they must vote. But please don't cast your ballot—for anyone—from in there.