That's What Friends (and Readers) Are For

Greg, who is a friend, blogger at Greg's Random Bits and a reader of this blog has an unenviable position. He seems to be able to give a good, reasoned counter-balance to my posts that keep me on my toes and force me to think things through a little more. He did it twice last week.

First in my pre-Wisconsin primary post I said that Wisconsin has "fierce political independence." Well, in his comment Greg reminded me of one of those things Wisconsinites have been trying to forget for 50 years- Joseph McCarthy. Yes, such fierce independence can be easily misguided. No doubt about that. The McCarthy Era is a stark reminder of that. I see a lot of that era still visible from time to time in many places. The radio personality in Ohio who was downright nasty about Obama yesterday at a McCain rally is just one of the minor examples among some unnamed big ones.

Then after the primary I had a post on hope and the attacks on Obama's language of hope. My premise was that we have to live and build on hope. Greg wrote (in part):

no consideration of hope is complete without the consideration of what false hope provokes--namely, cynicism. And that, unfortunately, is as much a political tool as hope. ... Twenty plus years of such "hope", Democratic and Republican, has emptied language of content. Hope leaves a bad taste in my mouth--something like the ashes from a fire that once burned bright and true.

Nothing like politicians of all parties, not just the Two Big Ones, to so easily give hope a bad name and leave a bad taste. It sure does lead to cynicism. But that is no reason to simply attack or discount hope. Unfortunately we can have a hard time believing anyone who proposes hope if we do that. I guess the question has to be, "Do I believe this promise of hope? Why?" That may be the one question we all have to answer.

Many of us Baby Boomers lost a lot of that hope and idealism about 40 years ago this year in that shattering, world-shifting year 1968. The final blow that began with the JFK assassination in 1963. Some of us are actually getting it back this year thanks to both Obama and Clinton. Thanks to Greg for raising the issue and reminding us that while hope is needed, it can't be blind, but based on some sense of who it is that's offering it. LBJ and the Generals in Vietnam used to feed us hope that the end is in sight and the light is at the end of the tunnel. We have often heard similar ideas in the past few years. Yes, be careful, but don't give up on hope.

And speaking of us Boomers: Then MadPriest left a comment yesterday on my brief post on Larry Norman's death. He commented on Norman's life but was surprised by the lack of attention Norman's death was getting considering his pioneer status. While Norman had his own demons which affected his life, MadPreist added:

Whatever, his passing deserves more acknowledgement than it seems to be getting. I wonder if some of the silence is due to the fact that for many of us aging Jesus hippies this is reminder of lost youth and our mortality that we would prefer not to face up to.

Amen. Lost youth and all, Larry Norman moved many of us into a new place of faith. Yes, Hippie Jesus Freaks, maybe. But we learned that we could begin to express faith in our own ways and musical language. We- and faith- have never been the same.