Show Boat...
there is a series on PBS about the birth and growth of Broadway as we know it now.
One of the turning points was the Ziegfeld presentation of Show Boat. The combination of Kern and Hammerstein music and Edna Ferber's epic novel captured the growth spurts of the US as our country came to deal with slavery and redemption and sin and sinners.
It was an overtly political story that disguised itself as a floating follies.
Why I bring it up tonight is I am thinking about how far our country has come. I can think of no other country in the world that took in anyone from anywhere and threw it all together and came up with a mess of this from Europe, some of that from Africa, a lot from the orient but most of all, it came from people who have defined who we are.
There is a lot to hate but there is so much more to love. On our worst days we are still a shining hope to people who are stuck in societies that are stratified and closed for the most part.
Our traditions are made as we go
And yet, we have come to this turning point for our country. It really is that important. Do we want to follow a path set out for the future or do we want to turn our back on what happened just four years ago? This is what I would call a defining moment for our nation.
The fact that the polls are so close tells me a lot of people are scared out there, scared that the only way to maintain their grip on their position on the totem pole is to look back and try to put some of this change that is coming at them fast and furiously and damp it down.
The problem with all this is the people who are calling to retrace our tracks are willing to push a whole bunch of people under the bus just so they can hold onto their little corner of our country.
On this show about Broadway, they commented that there was only polite applause from the audience on the opening night of Show Boat, they thought they had guessed wrong about the willingness of America to accept change. Well, I think there are a lot of people out there who embraced the change that happened in 2008 and don't know how to deal with it.
Which brings me to my point, thanks for making it this far...
The point is President Obama and the Democrats have to sell this message of hope and change for the future because change can be frightening to some who are scared of what could happen. What we have to do is convince people that staying where we are is not the way to embrace the 21st century. If we don't lead, the worst of the worst can come at us and I for one do not want to see those forces unleashed again. They almost destroyed the 20th century, we need not live that over again.
Vote for the future and not the past, vote for Obama and Biden in 2012...
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