DeLaWho? DeLaWhat? DeLaWhere?

Thank you to Logan's Lurch for all of his hard work during this campaign and for this well-written piece. After reading this, I feel it would better for me to just pass it on....

What to do next... The Spirit of Compassion
If this holds up, and it seems like all of the political machinations have it set up to do so, then we need to look deep into ourselves for something bigger than us. I don't want to talk about the President, his failings and his lack of understanding, they are well documented and we will most likely have him for four more years. I have a sense of dread, but its not for me. I am well educated and will find my way. But I feel for the poor soul without health care, without the ability to avoid the military as their way up the social ladder, without the ability to overcome what the deficit will do to them in terms of interest rates and mortgages... it's going to get worse. I don't know how to make it clear, fear and a belief that Bush is somehow spiritually surperior to his opponent, a belief which is simply conceit, does not make us a better nation. It makes us divided and given that we will be in Iraq for who knows how long, it is this fracture that makes me feel as if the worse could happen and the Left would walk away from the tough questions that only we seem to ask: How to be a better, more tolerant community? How to look into the face of our enemy and see the best rather than the worst? How to live with less so others may simply live?

But the elephant in the house is Iraq. How long can this go on? It is the worst of all worlds and I fear for my friends and sisters children who must grow up in a world where we are loathed and a Middle East where we are mired. It is too difficult to imagine that Bush will begin to do the right things in the world, but I have no faith in him whatsoever. If he is our president, I hope he proves me wrong and that the last four years was simply a four-year campaign.

Of course, this is faith and not compassion. To any of you who voted for Bush, ask yourself if you are willing to do the hard work of fixing Iraq, learning about the Arab world, thinking of what it means to think beyond the United States and will become a citizen of the world. To any of you who voted for Kerry think about where you live and who you know. Do not hate the Bush voter... hate only creates distance no matter how close you stand. Talk if they are willing to listen and listen if they are willing to talk. If I have one dissapointment about this campaign it was the way in which I felt that Bush only invited and listened to his supporters in rallies where dissent was systematically quashed and events designed around the inflammation of the passions. This was not the case at the Kerry rallies... dissenters were there and often protested. To me, compassion begins with listening. We, those who voted for Kerry, are not the terrorists. We may speak ill of the President and we have good reasons. Listen to us and I promise to listen. Without that promise kept we can never be better than we are now. We need to agree, if anything else, to be better than we are today.