Groundswell

In an early debate, Clinton, Edwards, and Obama were asked who MLK would support in the current campaign. While Clinton and Edwards made the case for why they themselves would be the candidate of choice, Obama presciently stated MLK would support none of them, rather be involved in creating a groundswell of pressure on whoever the winning candidate would be.

In his early years, Obama started building on the ground, the footprint of which can be seen in the structure of his campaign "to get elected"! (I wonder if Palin understands now what "community organizing" is? ok. Perhaps not yet. We'll give her four years of folks sitting around kitchen tables strategizing her future campaigns to finally "get it." Then again, maybe not!) His swift rise to the top of the power bubble leaves Obama in a unique position of being closer to the ground than any other president in a long time.... And with an awareness that now he must be pushed by the ebbs and flows, whether they are the forces of multinationals, corporate lobbyists, the Bilderberg Group, or ....the people on the ground.

The body has a way of injecting adrenaline into a wound to numb the body from feeling pain. On June 4, 2008, Obama addressed AIPAC and slashed the first deep wound into my political and humanitarian psyche. Quickly the adrenaline rushed in. Over the course of this campaign, more and more adrenalyn pumped into me through the huge corporate presence and private "blue dog parties" at the democratic national convention, his support of FISA, his rhetoric of aggression and war during the debates, nuclear power, more drilling, "clean" coal (what?!?!), and more recently, support of the bailout bill. Today, Barack Hussein Obama selected Rahm Israel Emanuel to be his Chief of Staff.

OUCH!!! OUCH! ouch. ouch... ok. I'm numb again.

I am happy we have President Obama!! I just can't seem to feel the joy with all this numbing adrenalyn pulsing through my body.

I believe in the realm of his possibility. I believe in the righteousness of his heart. When Obama was on the ground, he built relationships with Palestinian and Arab leaders in his Chicago community. I, too, feel the pressure of Israel and feel at a loss as to how to compromise this pressure with my passion that Israel is an illegitimate state built on the direct genocidal elimination of a people evicted from their homeland. Aaha! ...perhaps now I see the deep bond between Israel and the US!

>breathe<

However, all sides need to come to the table with the heart of forgiveness and allowance to move forward together with justice in peace. Since his days on the ground, since the days of his AIPAC speech, Obama has not visited a mosque, been very careful about images associated around him that may infer anything "moslem," associated himself with more and more staunch advocates of Israel while distancing himself from Palestinian academics and leaders, and continued to engage in the rhetoric of the Israel lobby ...all in response to "pressure." Understandably, all voices deserve to be heard, but at the expense of those who will piss them off if they happen to be powerful? Obama's marginalization of the Arab American community needs to be mended. But we need a GROUNDSWELL of pressure to back him up on this. Here is my first point of groundswell...