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So I went to see General Clark speak today. He spoke at SC State in Orangeburg, South Carolina, 45 miles from where I live. This is the second time I've seen the general speak in two weeks in SC.
I met his SC campaign staff last week (they are ex-Graham people). I will give them the benefit of the doubt at this point, but they lose points for giving poor directions in the email they sent me. Getting to the college, as I found out upon leaving, would have been as simply as 'take exit 145B south on Russell st. Go 1 mile to College Terrence and turn right.' What I got instead was much more circuitous than necessary, and included a left turn that should have been a right turn. Hmm....
I didn't think there would be many people at first; there were just a handful when I arrived. Boy, was I wrong! I'm guessing there were close to 500 people there!!! It was a fairly big room (recital hall), that was so full they had to break out folding chairs and alert the people to keep some semblance of an aisle way!!! The crowd was made up of I'm guessing 3/4 students, and was about 3/4 African-American (SC State is a historically black college). One of the Tuskeegee airmen sat near me. For real. There were about a dozen tv cameras. The local stations were there. I heard that CNN was there. Who else I don't know.
This was interesting, seeing the general give a prepared speech, versus the much less structured "discussion" he gave a week earlier. I must say, he is much better off the cuff. But I understand that this speech, as it was intended to document his foreign policy positions (specifically Iraq), must necessarily be a rather dry affair. The main purpose of this speech was to get his positions on record.
There was very little campaigning in the speech, which ran close to an hour, I think (I didn't actually time it). General Clark first outlined how we came to war. We at DU have heard all of this before. He also talked about how we've screwed it up, and about how he would fix it. I don't have a phonographic memory; forgive me if I'm more than a bit vague. We've all heard most of what he offered. I won't try to repeat it here. A couple of things that I do remember that were new to me: He mentioned that he would work with Iraq's neighbors to help maintain order in the region, offering not just sticks but carrots as well. I guess we'd need to worry about other countries taking over Iraq should we leave. Another thing he mentioned was that he would develope a sort of exchange program that would bring Iraqi people to the US (presumably that's a two way street) to foment understanding between the cultures.
As I said it was a fairly dry speech, still there were a couple of standing ovations in response to various points. But it was at the end of the speech where he really won the audience over. He had covered his main points and sought to emphasize why it was important by telling the story of how he was wounded. I've heard this a couple of times before, but this time he followed it by talking about how he had missed the birth of his son because of Viet Nam, and then a few words about the men who didn't come home. He became visibly glassy-eyed at this point. And I'm sure he wasn't the only one tearing up. It was very moving. He went on a bit more, repeating the line "...force only as a last resort" several times before closing and walking off to another standing ovation.
There was wingnut old cow (not a reference to weight) sitting within arms length of me who said angrily as everyone started to file out "I guess 3000 dead is not a last resort," whatever that means, refering to 9/11 obviously. Everyone within earshot turned and gave her the evil eye. Had she not been an old woman ... who knows. The general had just talked about how we screwed up by going to Iraq instead of finishing the job concerning Al quada (jeez, I have no idea how to spell that). As far as I could tell she was the only pug in the place.
It really pissed me off, what this woman did. Everybody was feeling so inspired, when this waste of protoplasm pissed on the parade (like that aliteration?).
I think that, generally, about 10-20 percent of people are intelligent. I believe this applies to all cultures, North, South, East, and West of this country, as well as the rest of the world. I really need to meet an intelligent Southern woman, because I swear I don't think I know a single one that I could describe that way. I'm really coming to hate the sound of the Southern female voice. Of course, I gave up on the males long ago (though I do know some smart Southern guys). I know there has got to be a smart Southern woman out there somewhere that can restore my faith in this segment of my culture.
Anywho....
So that's it. Catch the general if you can. He's a rare human being. And should be our next president.
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