Let it break Upon you: Like a Wave upon the Sand

This last weekend, the Roman Wolf was confined to a single room, taken with the constant affliction of the young voter demographic, stuffy nose and sore throat.

As a result, I was reduced to youtube videos and homework. Between those two stimuli, youtube videos were the strongest draw. In the midst of Pocohantas videos (the inspiration of the title) and other disnified time wasters, I found myself clicking on a Sarah Palin interview.

It shamed me. That anybody could be so horribly misinformed and unenlightened about the broader world is a pitiable reality of America life, but I've always hoped that such people were content to sit on their couches drinking bud light and shouting at America's Next Top Model.

Now, I have very little tolerance for religious extremists. Nor do I like stupid responses and unintelligent answers. But I love moose, I think moose meat is delicious. Plus I am a fan of hockey. I state all these things to say that my dislike of Palin is not based off a dislike of hockey, or of moose, or even of Alaska. Alaska is a nice state. Big, open, but cold. Guess nothing is perfect.

My impression of Palin is that she has no curiousity about the world, no drive to look into issues. If a problem comes, she swipes at it, killing it as thoughtlessly as a person kills the mosquito sucking the blood from their arm. In places like Alaska, perhaps you need to be that way towards mosquitoes, but not even Alaska should be governed by base instincts of pain and defense.

The world is more complex than a mosquito bite. Sometimes you get bitten and need to scratch the itch for days on end. Does that mean you take out the DDT and kill all the eagles? Does that mean that you infest people with DEET to fend off the little buggers?

No.

Sometimes, when something hurts, you are a fool to lash out at it. Sometimes you have to look up from the mosquitoes biting your leg to ensure that your food is properly stowed, that your tent is well staked, and that there is no giant grizzly bear rearing up in front of you, ready to take your head off with its paw.

Sometimes you have to be omniscentally aware. Especially if you have the ship of state under your hand and are in charge of guiding it through the trechery of a hard world. In the next American Administration, I want to see people in charge who are willing to look up, to their left, to their right, behind them, constantly, looking out and seeking new dangers and new opportunity for my home country. That requires a curiousity about the world, and a willingness to overlook preconceptions. Does Palin have that drive? Something tells me she does not.

Roman Wolf

Lipstick on a Pig

Hello Lobolians

So in the midst of energy crises, wars against fear itself (which, after all, is the only thing there is to fear), invasions of Pakistan, a dispirted American public, and the most historic election in ages the best McCain can do against Obama is smear him for saying "if you put lipstick on a pig, its still a pig."

Hm.

Now, if McCain were truly talking straight about why he is upset, why wouldn't he simply say he was jealous that Obama took his line? Its what Obama did after all. McCain uses that line quite often. And Obama stole it. Bad Obama.

But no. McCain refrained from explaining his inner hurt and instead redirected that hurt into a slight against Sarah Palin. Don't do that McCain. If Obama truly offended you, come out in a town hall meeting and explain to the American public that you really like you "lipstick on a pig" slogan and you feel that him taking it from your mouth was a very childish and mean-spirited thing to do. Don't shoot yourself in the foot by throwing dirt all over your line and saying its Sexist. Its funny, not mean.

So McCain, please, grow up a little. You are supposed to be the adult in this campaign, not Obama.

Roman Wolf

The Candidates

A new election to discuss, my Lobolians. A new election for the United States of America.

For the next four years, somebody else is to rule this massive old giant of a nation, a nation barely 200 years old but with the soul of greece and rome and hidden fires stoked through centuries of feudalism.

According to John McCain, the beacon of liberty would be a massive bonfire, surrounded by the mighty soldiers of liberty and defended with the stoic hearts of Americans.

According to Barack Obama, the beacon of liberty is something of a talisman, lighting the way to a union of Kenyans and Kansans and his own birth to his attempt to prove that any little boy (although he kept a little girl from doing the same) could grow up to be president.

Yeah, that parenthesis got you, didn't it? Hillary Clinton was a little girl who could have become president, but a little black boy got the nomination instead. And an old white man who grew up as a little boy hearing that Pearl Harbor was bombed--and to my ears, dang did that age him--also is trying to prove that HE can be president.

And on the streets of St Paul, where protesters rumble with cops and where the Dorothy Day Homeless shelter has been hidden from view by plastic on the fences--a homeless man who was once a boy is also trying to be president of the United States. It is not he who will stand at a podium with cameras blazing. But he is running anyway.

Which of those stories prove the most about America?

Comment please.

Roman Wolf