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Guess What America: The Election Isn't About "W" - It's about "U" July 27, 2004
The Democratic Convention started out with a bang. Touché to New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson and the thousands of behind -the- scene operators for a job well done…especially in their choice of opening night speakers. Thank you, Bill Clinton for making us remember what really counts here in America…for reminding us that everyday Americans still count. One Monday morning commentator said, on Tuesday morning, that Bill Clinton's speech reminded Democrats why they loved him…his great speech-giving ability. Boy, some people grossly under-estimate the American people. The truth is that most Democrats who dared look beyond the surface, loved the fact that Bill Clinton saw EVERYBODY when he talked about making America better…but, that's a whole other story. Monday night's Boston party was a stark reminder of something most Americans sorely needed to be reminded of: November 2nd, ain't about the man in the white house, it's about what the man in the white house can do for us. How the new president will address our problems, our losses, and make good on his promise to help us become America, again. The convention planners were smart to give Bill Clinton the forum to say what the Democrats…no, what America needed to hear on Monday night; and, doing it without expending too much eloquence, or shining too bright a light on the resident in the white house. For, in reality, after all the celebrating in Boston, all the speeches, all the fundraising and networking; the most important thing about the next 100 days is what we do on the morning or noon time or evening of November 2nd. The most important thing on that day will be our decision to walk into that election site and pull that lever. Whether America truly has a reason to celebrate will be dictated by that decision; and, the onus of how that decision plays out…is about how we keep our leader accountable, and stay involved for the next four years. Voting is the last vestige of American rights that no party or white house can take away …at least that's what most of us believed before the shadowy 2000 election. My hope is that while we remember that atrocity, we don't cave in under those memories; we don't let those memories distort our responsibilities. My hope is that we don't lose hope in the Democratic process, or the belief that our vote does, indeed, count. It won't be former Presidents Clinton or Carter's speeches…it won't be young Senator Obama's fresh eloquence, or even….in the end, the words of Senator John Kerry, that will change the direction of our world. The change will begin with the very mundane act of waking up on the morning of November 2nd, and saying to ourselves that in spite of the 2000 presidential election, I will exercise my right to vote for the man and the philosophy and the issues that best represent my world. It is the act of walking into a voting booth and pulling that lever…swinging the attention away from the man in the oval office, and back onto the men and women who matter most.
Vote, America…vote with your heart and your head. Vote to help regain the America we've lost.
Janis F. Kearney is a Chicago writer, former journalist and diarist to President Bill Clinton. A Harvard W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow, she is currently completing William Jefferson Clinton from Hope to Harlem; and a personal memoir, Cotton Field of Dreams.
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