"Hope"

What a mad race it has been.



Originally, I had reason to suspect that the race would be over by Super Tuesday.



Now, I don’t think either race will be over; that they, God forbid, may wind up going back to the Convention for a brokered convention. .



This hasn’t happened in so long, I can’t remember the last time. Maybe the convention in Chicago with Humphrey, I can’t be sure.



I hope it doesn’t turn out like Chicago in 68 however.



To see the penultimate liberal of his time destroyed by young liberals was almost too much to endure knowing that Nixon was waiting in the wings and spreading disharmony and discord wherever he could.



Much as I disliked him, he was still giant strides ahead of Bush when it came to legacies.



And I can’t remember when we had two major Conventions coming up where both candidates were not either the former president or vice president.



This is unique for our time.



What is absolutely incredulous is the fact that the candidates have made me hope again.



Why?



Not only because of their uplifting messages, both of them, but because they are creating a whole new electorate—a signal that perhaps we are capable of breaching the distrust and misunderstanding that have driven us apart for all the wrong reasons—for too many years!.....



….It almost drives me to proclaim it to the world: “ The young are coming out. THE YOUNG ARE COMING OUT!” After years of shunning politics, they are coming back into the fold to contribute their energy, their ideas, their spirit—and it has helped make me whole again to understand that the wonderful ideas that made this country will go on. They will survive after eight years of misuse and being denied.



We will be able to end secrecy and snooping and torture and all of the other things that just serve to drive us apart.



I’m not a religious man but I say thank God for giving us another chance!



Moreover, the candidates have brought out those minorities who have never voted before.



They have won the hopes and aspirations of Independents and even Republicans who have lost faith in their own party are said to be coming over if not in droves, in significant numbers to be noticeable.



What does that mean?



It means that there is a very real possibility that America can come together in our vision, our ideas, our view of the world; that people can learn to understand each other; that we can work together as a unified people to bring what we can the myriad challenges that confront the world. And what we can offer is without limits. Ideas, technology, new ways of solving the green challenges we face, and we can do it with hope and good will.



What we will need is a Marshall Plan for the World.



A great and sustainable effort to build bridges to the world.



That is the way to deal with mistrust of us and the hatreds that have no basis in truth!



With hope, we can bring the world together and solve all of our problems.



It is a very real possibility this time.



I watched the debate and I could feel the energy through the tube.



It actually buoyed me up and I smiled for the first time in eight years.



Before that, I had succumbed to my own feelings that no one was willing to stop the slide into chaos.



But now I know, watching America’s people of all shades and backgrounds and belief systems coming together once again to rebuild our precious little blue planet…



And never before was I ever so happy to admit I had been wrong!





Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Change