From The Miami Herald, Morin
Last night I watched the Obama speech. I was painting my cards, and my room-mate and I listened together as he explained what he’s going to do. Occasionally, I shouted things like “Finally!” And “Ohmygod!” It was kind of like a really long orgasm, now that I think about it. Basically, he said that he’s going to do shit that I’ve always wanted someone to do for our country, and never had the balls to even hope for. I feel… nervous.
What if he doesn’t do it? What if he does it, and it all still falls apart? But I think the fact that he said someone should fix our schools, and that we all should go to college and volunteer in our community and have a savings account, and not have to pay exorbitant medical bills/insurance premiums already fixes things. Saying all of that undoes some of my own guilt over the medical bills I can’t pay or how selfish I felt, when I went back to school and had to depend on the kindness of my friends for food. You know? Saying that that shit is fucked up justifies some of the choices I’ve made. It makes me feel less like I’m an asshole for not making my life work, the way that all the grown-ups before me did.
So, thanks Mr. President, for making me feel like I’m still a good person, and that the system is fucked up, but you’re going to work on the system, so in a little while, it’ll get better, and I can be proud of my country again, because it let me down for a long time, but then it turned around and elected this gorgeous black man, who fixed some of the things that broke my heart. And now I know that it’s all possible. And the bad guys don’t always win, and Big Companies are going to get taxed for taking their factories and their jobs overseas and Insurance Companies aren’t going to make bank over and over again on the illnesses of my friends and families.
And maybe he can’t fix everything. But saying everything is fucked up is good start. Because now it’s in the public arena, and now other politicians are going to have to talk about it, and pretend to try to solve it. And eventually, someone’s going to do something, and our lives will be vastly improved.
The Economy Sucks Cards! A new must-have!
So there’s your dose of gooey optimism for the day. I’m sorry, sometimes it just bursts out of me and I can’t control it. I didn’t mean to spluge it all over you. Here’s a new Snarky Card to balance it all out: