I wrote this on February 21, 2008. Four years later I can see how incredibly naive I was about some things, and rather insightful about others. I have comments on the current political situation, but this gives a little background on where I come from and where I stand.
You don't have to be a news junkie to know that the words 'hope' and 'change' are dominating the Presidential campaign this year, or to know that Barack Obama is the candidate so eloquently stating them.
It's not that I plan on voting for Obama, it's just that I want to understand the cult-like following he has amassed. So I listened to some of Obama's speeches. Or rather I should say, I tried to listen to Obama's speeches. The first was sent to me a couple of weeks ago by a friend in the form of a video. It's titled, "Yes We Can". I didn't get it. The music was cool, as was the idea, but the words just didn't make sense to me. I kept thinking, "What's the point?". I concluded that maybe I was too tired to focus, or maybe I was distracted by the different actors and music. A few days later, and on much more sleep, I tried a different speech. I chose one of Obama speaking without the actors and music to distract me. He's a gifted orator with amazing stage prescence. I heard the words, I understood the meaning of the words, and yet, I didn't get it. I just couldn't wrap my brain around the point of the speech. I concluded that maybe I was distracted by the sound of his voice or even his presence. Maybe I was just trying too hard. Earlier this week, Rush Limbaugh decided to read an Obama speech on the air for his listeners. I was ecstatic. Rush's voice is one I know and love. Surely if he were speaking the words I could grasp them. Again, I just couldn't find the point. That's when I finally understood. There is no point.
Rush Limbaugh has been on a rant for at least a week now avowing the nothingness of Obama's speeches, pointing out that hope and change are not what will move America forward. Frankly, I was getting tired of it. I mean really, it's a campaign slogan. Can't we just move onto the rest of the political news. Conservatives know that Obama is an old-time liberal and a socialist. His mere prescence doesn't revolt us like Hillary's does, but we know what he stands for, and we're not voting for him. Yesterday Rush played a clip from Obama's speech in Houston. I finally understood Rush's frustration. It wasn't when Obama promised nationalized health care, and it wasn't when he promised to make me pay higher taxes so that the poor could pay less. We already know that this is what Obama stands for. It was this line that sent me reeling: "...nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened except somebody, somewhere was willing to hope...". As I was hearing Obama speak the words, my brain was finishing the sentence. I was certain the last words would be "go out and work for it." Yes, I am so naive.
That line made me think of my grandfather. Pat Bouchelle was a man that came from little. He grew up on a sheep ranch in Lampasas, Texas. He was part of the CCC during the depression and built trails in the Redwood Forest. During World War II he built bombers for the war. Most of his life he was a farmer. I imagine that he didn't know a lot about raising cotton when he first came to Collingsworth County, but he did know about work. My grandad took a small piece of rocky land that my grandmother inherited, and turned it into a small empire. He raised cotton and peanuts, and sometimes cattle and sheep.
Grandad always kept a small spiral notebook and a pen in his front pocket. I remember that he would pull it out and jot things onto it. As a child, I had no interest as to what he wrote in his notebook, and to this day, I'm not certain exactly what he put in there. I imagine it could have been a 'to do' list. Plow this field tomorrow, plant that one on Friday, and order more seed on Tuesday. It could have been a farmer's 'grocery list'. New belt for tractor, oil for pickup, dog food. I am certain that my Grandad's notebook wasn't a list of hopes. It was a list of things that would require work: as in action and movement, toil and sweat.
You might think that farming requires a certain amount of hope, but I never saw my Grandad exhibit that. I don't think he 'hoped' for rain, or 'hoped' that a hailstorm would pass over his crops. I never saw him lay awake at night and 'hope' for or worry about anything. He prayed for God to bless his home, family, and crops. The rest he did for himself. He dug wells, and laid irrigation pipe and sprinklers to provide water for his crops. He got up in the middle of the night to change the water to keep those same crops from flooding. If it hailed, then he replanted if it was early enough in the season. If it wasn't, then he just made plans for the next crop. He was a man of faith, not hope. And he didn't put his faith in any other man, and especially not a politician. He put his faith in God and in himself.
Obama's version of 'hope' and 'change' frighten me. The world will change whether we want it to or not. Our faith, our families, and our actions determine how we will change our small part of the world. Obama wants Americans to place our hope in him, not ourselves. As I watch the masses swoon, I realize that thousands in our country have lost hope in themselves, and they are placing it in the government. They are waiting for the government to change their lives, instead of working to change it for themselves.
