Something Howard Dean Once Said To Me

[peacetheonlyway]

I first met Howard Dean in Georgia at a Gay Atlanta Executive Network meeting. He was there trolling for cash as he just figured out he wanted to run for the pres. 2004 election and new that he needed to tap big investors early to have a snowball's chance in hell of getting into the race. He came to Georgia's Gay Community. And we rolled out the red carpet for Vermont's Governor who helped see the first Civil Unions bill passed.

*** I met Dean personally, and asked him a serious question. "What about the patriot act, and many other serious reversals our our citizen rights?"

*** Dean ,in his unscripted wisdom, said we should look at politics in 20 year cycles. That justice, however slowly will eventually come around, to remember we ultimately have a fair and democratic system at work for us.He pointed to the Civil Rights act in 60's and how that took decades to come to fruition of African American activism and persistence.

*** I almost cried. in a few sentences this man restored my faith in democracy and living in the US, a once free and democratic republic.

I am now realizing the wisdom of his words. It's only a matter of time:

#1 Democratic president gets elected
#2 Gonzales brought up on obstruction of justice charges
#3 Condi Rice , Rumsfeld, Cheney brought before the war crimes tribunal
#4 Bush, is put in US jail for treason
#5 Cindy Sheehan is the most popular US Senator by 2010
#6 Barbara Boxer is VP to Biden in the 2008 Election

*** the dream world continues

#7 All aspects of patriot act evaporates from law
#8 Gays get civil union packages federally
#9 African Americans get positions in government in Georgia, SC, NC all over the southeast as we return to hand counted paper ballots and years of election fraud evaporate and the people choose african americans to represent them... Shirley Franklin is the governor of Georgia, John Conyers is Sec. of State (I get chills with that statement)
#10 Hispanics and other illegial aliens who have been here many years all across the country granted US citizenship
#11 Minimum wage is $8.00 an hour
#12 US sets strict import / export laws and begins prosecuting both technology and content/entertainment patents globally driving a new area of core expertise and making copying of technology less possible
#13 US creates jobs by providing small business loans as easy to get as mortgages
#14 US housing market booms as bio friendly components flood market and a shift in buyer interest in eco friendly living

*** the list goes on.


Howard Dean was right. 2020, we will look back at the Bush era as a nightmare, but be grateful to this suffering for the liberal backlash that finally put the balance of government back in the hands of the people
where it belongs.

Thank-you Howard Dean for reminding me that government can/does and will work for all citizens if you have enough endurance to make it so!

[MADem]

1. There are a lot of people here who don't remember how scary it was "way back when"

When McCarthyism was real--talk about the original "Watch what you say, watch what you do."

When Nixon was abrogating laws left and right, and conducting a secretive and imperial Presidency.

The pendulum swings, and then swings back again. I really do wish it wasn't necessary to swing quite so far to the right though...it's just, ... exhausting.

[peacetheonlyway]

2. agreed.

and let's hope the swing to the left is further than the swing to the right.

i think we are all tired and ready for anything new.

therein lies the moment of opportunity.

complacency is not our enemy, we all really want change bad enough now.

[madfloridian]

3. That was such a nice post.

He has a common sense thoughtful way of looking at things. I wish I had that characteristic.

[peacetheonlyway]

4. you do have that characteristic.

i read your posts like a hungry / voracious animal.

you have done much to move our pendulum back to that of righteousness and decency.

glad that Dean inspires you but not to quote a Dean ism, but "you have the power".

[madfloridian]

7. That was nice.

I don't see it, but it was nice. Thank you.

[peacetheonlyway]

8. my friend gloria

got ready to get arrested, and put a toothbrush under her skirt when Rumsfeld came
to speak in atlanta.

her sign "War Criminal" and her yelling "War Criminal, Liar, War Profiteer" is what caused a 20+ Year CIA veteran to call out Rumsfeld for his lies, this Veteran Exchange, played 100 Times on National News, this was the straw that broke the camel's back and led to Rumsfeld's ouster.

do not underestimate the power of your single domino activities as all actions are part of a web, that eventually leads to action on a larger scale though you yourself do not see your tiny actions or their impact.

my video of Andy Stephenson was used in a Micheal Moore movie on healthcare.
my data from Sgt. Benderman's trials was aired on 60 mintues.

the world works in strange ways. keep advocating without caring the outcome.

there is always outcome and there is always a tending towards truth.

you have and continue to fight for truth.

[madfloridian]

9. When Andy is mentioned my eyes tear up.

I loved his user name and I miss it.

[loudsue]

13. I feel that way, too, madfloridian.

You do a lot for all of us. :yourock:

:kick::kick::kick:

[madfloridian]

15. Aww...

thank you. Guess who started me being outspoken....yeh you guessed it. Initials HD. Hubby got to speaking out also. Shocked our Republican family and neighbors. :hi:

[Gregorian]

5. I was shocked when my mother said something in 2003.

I was totally worried that Bush was going to get back in. She said she actually hoped he did. My mind flashed with confusion, as both my parents have always been very liberal. I had to ask her to explain. She said that only by remaining in office would Bush's criminal flaws become totally apparent to the public.

And unlike me, both my parents have always been very patient and wise. I attribute that to them having grown up in poverty, and in a time when there was very little change. They also look in 20 year blocks.

There is an underlying sentiment in your post that transcends your lucky encounter with Mr. Dean. And that is, there are caretakers of America. There are wise people. People like Vonnegut, and perhaps even John Dean. The Conyers and Olbermans.

I have no patience for stupidity. And by stupidity I don't just mean uninformed. I mean those who force their ignorance through lies and coercion. A combination of greed and arrogance has invaded our highest levels of government. Our worst nightmare has come true. And it is extremely hard to be patient.

But this too shall pass. Sadly, with consequences and scars. But like any recovery, we can minimize the damage. We don't have long to wait. The infection has come to a head.

I don't know what I'm talking about. Real damage has been done. Unreparable damage. Iraqis and American soldiers who will never come back to life.

Hope is all we have. Let's hope we can keep it alive. The hope for knowledge and a brighter day for true freedom and liberty.

[peacetheonlyway]

6. "real damage has been done"

this line really got me.

wise observation. I would give my life's salaries for bringing back the 3,000+ dead US soldiers and 100K+ dead innocent iraqis.

I don't know how to handle that. I don't know who to blame. Dean's comment was comforting but for an honest and yes, effort to prevent future dicatorial paths of our US government, I wonder late at night who's really to blame if not myself and my neighbors when we shop at the malls?

who knows...

your post was moving....
thanks.

[kath]

10. Biden?!?!?!

ACK. :puke:

[JNelson6563]

11. I think Dean's just "gets it"

and I am grateful that he's doing what he's doing. :toast:

[donsu]

12. unless the neo cons attack Iran which I think they are about to do

nt

[calimary]

14. Doggies! How I LOVE that Howard Dean. It's awfully hard to be patient,

even though I know that's the only answer.

They used to say "let reagan be reagan." His strength. Yeah, fine. It was also his weakness. His strength was in his ability to connect to people through his communication. But after awhile, his eyes were empty, his words were scripted, and eventually, his ability to communicate failed him, as did his understanding. It almost got him impeached, as the ghwb-types around him started manipulating the puppet strings when Alzheimers had rendered him a shade of his old self. Letting bush be bush is leading him, like a brick dropped in the water, straight down to the bottom of the lake. His "strength" - the war on terr crap and all that "he's keeping us safer" shit - is now his undoing thanks to the war in Iraq. And while it's agony to think how much damage has, indeed, been done, maybe there are just too many multitudes of people who simply have to be smacked in the face with a 2x4 before they get it. And the 2x4 is already swinging. History won't be kind. Because he's lasted long enough to see his majority control of both houses of Congress yanked away from him last November, it means he's lasted long enough to see the last of the ice crack and give way under his feet. And he's young enough to live long enough to see everything he tried to change, pervert, dismantle, and destroy - fixed and restored and up-ended. I will live long enough to see, and to savor, that same MOST welcome change.

BTW, this contractor friend of ours (who was a little older than I) said something similar a couple of years ago to cheer me up when I was having a particularly down day. He kept repeating - "the pendulum. Remember the pendulum. The pendulum swings. It'll swing back."

I hope so. Sometimes you have to force yourself to cling to that hope even when you're really doubtful about it. But I do think, in the long run, that's what WILL happen. There WILL be a reaction to this era, and a push to the other end to balance it out (and NOT in a Pox Noise sense). I'm sure people who endured the damned Joe McCarthy era thought that was the end of the world. Well, we came through it as a nation a lot better than he himself did. He's a footnote of extremism, cruelty, intolerance, and dismal failure now, and we evolved OUT of that whole witch-hunting, red-baiting, fear-mongering era of shame. Just as the excesses and abuses of now are an "answer" to what the bad guys feel were terrible excesses of liberalism, the so-called "nanny state," and "activist judges" and all that other crap which has led us to this, there will be an equal and opposite reaction that brings things back to reason. They've been having their oats - at least up til now. They've had their "golden era." It has now entered the declining years. Everything has a beginning AND and end. ALL things are born, come to fruition, bloom, and then shrivel and die. This will, also. It was born with reagan, and I think bush-two will be its death. He'll bury them, and their God-forsaken party, for a generation.

Howard Dean also said the only way we lose is if we give up. As our own Class Warrior would say, NGU - NEVER Give Up!!!

[Demeter]

16. There's Only One Thing: I'm 52 And It's Been 30 Years of GOP

There is no 20 year block of relief in my past. Perhaps because as a woman, in an age of feminist backlash, it's always one step forward, two steps sideways, one and a half steps back?

[peacetheonlyway]

17. bravo demeter

i feel you honeyl..
i have nothing to say.

where can a woman go and not be surrounded by pot bellied good ole boy white men controlling things.

what about a world run by african american women, or hispanic women or european women, or chinese women.

i really dont' care what kind of women, but I would welcome a world run by women.

the men can't handle women power.

it's why books/movies everything gets squashed that smacks of a world where women don't need them.

keep up the fact stating.

you my dear are dead right.