President Barrack Obama
It’s been an emotional three nights watching the DNC. And I’m SO SURPRISED at myself because I didn’t think I cared as much as I do or that I was as afraid as I am.
Last week watching the Republican Convention, I was disturbed by the misquotes, distortions and downright lies. BUT not to the point of arguing with anyone about it…No, it was more like a malaise, a mild depression set in. I’ve been complacent and I think SO many of us who supported Barrack Obama four years ago, have become complacent. And complacency is fertile ground for a disastrous upset. We CANNOT let that happen! I’m so glad I’ve watched the Democratic National Convention these past 3 nights because I am REALLY UPSET now! I realize I have to sit up and take notice, speak up about my candidate, refute distortions, all the while trying to keep politics out of my friendships because I have several Republican friends.
The thing is being Republican is fine but not this new Republican mind set which seems to be based in racism, hate and distrust. I saw on some station last week a bunch of hate posters, racist depictions of our President, angry words scrawled and this was in Tampa. Extremism in anything is never a good thing as far as I’m concerned.
But this begs the question, Why am I crying? NOT because of any of the above, but rather because my emotions are running so high, there’s been a lump in my throat every night, my eyes have filled with tears. Why?
BECAUSE:
Michelle Obama is a lovely lady, who spoke from her heart. She was invigorated with emotion and passion and of course she was also saying things I wanted to hear about women’s rights, the right to get equal pay, the right to choose what to with our own bodies. I’m not a pro-abortionist, I’m not a right-to-lifer, but I am about rights!
Former President Bill Clinton moved my heart, my mind, and my soul. I wept with admiration for his ability to capture the attention of thousands of viewers who listened with rapt attention. He was AMAZING! He should have been a preacher (lol, lol,)well maybe not exactly a man of the cloth. I was so damn proud to have supported him and voted for him. Last night I was so damn proud to a Democrat, to be in the same party of beliefs that spawned the likes of John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama.
And tonight between tearing up while Gabby Giffords pledged allegiance to our flag and Jennifer Granholm shouting out the f…….g NUMBERS that saved our economy from tanking further, possibly into a real depression- Had all those jobs been lost, the foreclosures would have been overwhelming and thousands of people would have gone bankrupt, lost their homes and gone onto welfare. If that weren’t enough for one evening, we got Joe Biden.
The pundits are right when they say don’t underestimate Joe, he is REAL, he speaks the truth, he has lived the way MOST of us have lived and he just talks about what he knows. He was spot on tonight!
Helloooooo President Obama! I’m already teary so it won’t take much to make me cry some more. As I type this, he is speaking and so far the tone and temperament of his speech is clearly about what he has done, what he knows he has to do, why he should do it AND this is what we NEED to hear. This is why we should re-elect him and let him finish the job he has so intelligently started. And I am truly glad that so far he has not plucked at the strings of my heart.
I am crying because I’m thrilled with the caliber of speakers of these past three nights. I’m crying because their ideology is based in humanity, because the ideals and proposals have their root in benefiting the most not just the few, because at my age, I have lived through a couple of recessions, watched and waited for the trickledown to actually drip down enough so I could taste it, because perhaps they are all about the middle class. Hey I was born into the middle class, I am still in the middle class and 99.9% of all the people I know in my life are in the middle class. It’s a BIG class, some making huge salaries, some just enough to be comfortable…yes it is a BIG class and since there are many more of us than them, I’m glad my party is working hard to keep the middle class intact.
This is why I’m crying tonight!
Related articles
- Obama speaks on DNC’s final night (cnn.com)
- Quotes of the Day: Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention (polentical.com)
- Bill Clinton Wows The Crowd With Stirring Speech In Defense Of President Obama (atlantablackstar.com)
- Obama: I’ll try not to cry during speech (kshb.com)
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
Pbenjay's Blog 
THE BUTLER – Swallow Hard-The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged Academy Award, Barack Obama, Forest Whitaker, Gene Allen, Jane Fonda, Lee Daniel, Oprah Winfrey, Ronald Reagan, Washington Post on September 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »
When I found myself tearing up in the first scene, I knew the next two hours were going to be very long. I had a lump in my throat through out the entire movie and even those scenes that had the tears slowly rolling down my face did little to relieve that tight feeling in my throat
Lee Daniels‘ The Butler is “gut-wrenching and emotionally affecting” – that is the consensus from the web site, Rotten Tomatoes. Loosely based and inspired by A Butler Well-Served By This Election,, an article written by Wil Haygood for the Washington Post.
Here’s the GOOD: Oprah Winfrey gave a fine performance as the likable, edgy and often boozy wife and will probably receive an Oscar nomination. Forrest Whitaker in the starring role of Cecil Gaines is also an Oscar contender. When he looked at the camera and gave us the blank hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing and just serve look, you could never imagine him as the powerful and mad Idi Amin. The sight of the uber-liberal Jane Fonda decked out in Nancy Reagen-red had the audience laughing out loud. The casting of the “Presidents” was interesting; Robin Williams didn’t quite embody Eisenhower, Liev Schreiber isn’t tall enough to be Johnson and his Texan accent was questionable but I sure did enjoy his lines. James Marsden sounded more like Kennedy but was also short of stature and John Cusack was quite brilliant in his sinister shifty-eyed Nixon.
The BAD: The movie is NOT based on a true story. The real-life butler, Gene Allen, did not see his father murdered or his mother raped. He had only one son who served honorably in Vietnam and was not a Black Panther or involved in politics. Allen was born on a plantation in Virginia not in Georgia.
Forest Whitaker (Photo credit: Stephen Poff)
There has been considerable criticism regarding the movie’s portrayal of Ronald Reagan, particularly his position on apartheid in South Africa. There was no reference to the circumstances surrounding his non-action which had to do with the political climate of the day and the specter of yet another country falling to Communism.
If you are “of a certain age” as I am, then the chronological series of historical events was a trip down memory lane. The “events” marked the 34 years Gene Allen served eight Presidents. Unfortunately, we view these historical moments in Gumpian fashion through the eyes of a morally challenged hero rather than the mentally challenged Forrest.
THE UGLY; What was really ugly in this film? Racism is ugly, poverty is ugly, hunger is ugly, classicism is ugly. The true events were ugly because they really happened. Freedom Riders were killed, protestors were beaten and hosed down. College kids who sat in at the Woolworth’s counter were harassed, spit on and knocked down. That in my lifetime, there were still signs that said WHITE and COLORED is really ugly! Yes the truth is that the Ugly parts of this movie were all the true parts.
But that was then and this is now, and Barrack Hussein Obama is our President, who would have believed it?
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