Some might argue that it is a stretch to compare the controversies facing Senator Obama today with the tumult and dissension that confronted Senator Kennedy and the nation in 1966, in the midst of the civil rights upheaval at home and the Vietnam War abroad. They will say a revolution today is not necessary, indeed is not desirable. But as President Bush constantly reminds us, for his own purposes, we are at war today. It is only because there is no military draft, because he can get other nations to finance this war, and because the returning coffins are kept from public view that most Americans have been relatively unaffected. But that is changing. The number of U.S. military men and women killed in Iraq will soon pass the four thousand mark. The total eventual cost of the war is now estimated at upwards of three trillion dollars. And Senator McCain tells us that our commitment to the Iraq war and its aftermath will likely continue for many decades. To prevent this colossal tragedy from being repeated, say by undertaking a new war against Iran, a revolution is in fact needed—a revolution in how decisions are made and in whose interests they are made.
The mounting death toll in Iraq, the crisis in foreclosures affecting the many families who have already lost their homes, the worsening economic situation with increases in unemployment, rising gasoline prices and the falling dollar, the remaining millions of people without health insurance, the failure of No Child Left Behind to deliver on its promise, and yes, the lack of hope by millions of Americans that the Bush Administration can do anything about these problems—all are reasons why the need for change is so palpable.
The upsurge in optimism, largely inspired by Senator Obama’s candidacy, is why we see millions of Americans joining in the political process for the first time this year, why we see nearly a million people making small donations in support of his campaign for change, why in state after state we have seen the numbers of Democratic voters in the primaries far exceeding those of the Republicans.
I was a student at Berkeley when Senator Kennedy spoke there in the fall of 1966. I attended his speech, and took several photographs of him, including the two inserted herein. But only recently did I pull those negatives out of their file box and take a close look at them, some for the first time. And what did I see? I saw hope on the faces of those students, then reaching out to touch the Senator’s hand, now reaching out across time to touch us all. I saw an excitement that has long been absent in U.S. politics, until now. Yes, the elections in 2006, which returned the Democrats to the majority in Congress, did have a certain amount of energy and excitement, but that energy and excitement were motivated more by disgust with the recent past than by optimism for the future.
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(Univ. of Calif. Berkeley, Oct. 22, 1966)
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Let the record show that the Berkeley students in the photographs are well groomed and beardless. They were baby-boomers all. But today, nearly 42 years later, they are once again feeling the inspiration of hope for the future of our nation that they felt back in 1966. They are also grateful that a new generation of young people is finally being offered the same opportunity.
Let the record also show that I was inspired to dig out those old negatives from the sixties after reading Susan DuQuesnay Bankston’s account of her attendance at the Obama-Clinton debate in Austin, Texas on February 21, 2008. She describes here, with her usual incisive humor, her own gut-wrenching struggle in deciding which candidate to support in the March 4th Texas primary. Thanks, Susan.
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