[Dialogue] spong on denver 8/28/08

[KroegerD at aol.com]

August 28, 2008 
Impressions of the Denver  Convention  

Denver, the "Mile-High City," hosted a gathering of mile-high Democrats this  
past week. It was a moment of enormous history. No one could have planned in  
advance a scenario in which the first African American to be nominated for 
the  presidency of the United States by a major political party would make his  
acceptance speech on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream"  
speech. This incredible fluke of history appeared to be a sign from heaven 
that  not only can dreams be fulfilled, but that this nation is still and will  
hopefully always be evolving into something more than even its founders could  
have conceived. We are becoming a more perfect union. Prejudices die hard in  
America, but they do die. Women won the right to vote in presidential 
elections  by the 19th amendment to the Constitution in 1920. America's black 
citizens had  major blocks to their ability to vote removed in the Voting Rights Act 
of 1965.  A woman, named Sandra Day O'Connor, was first appointed to the 
Supreme Court by  President Ronald Reagan in 1981. An African-American, named 
Thurgood Marshall,  was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson 
in 1967. This  convention, more than any convention I have ever watched or to 
which I have ever  listened, reflected the America I know. I say listened 
because I can still  remember being glued to the radio in those pre-television 
days in 1940 and  hearing the galleries at the Republican National Convention 
shouting "We Want  Willkie!" Those gathered in Denver represented young and old, 
owners and  workers, men and women, whites and blacks, Asians and Hispanics, 
dreamers and  pragmatists and all of them seemed to me to be oriented not to 
the past, but to  the future.  
Let me share impressions, almost bullet points — radio, television and the  
print media will cover the details fully. Impressions are quite subjective and 
I  claim no more that that for them.  
    1.  This Democratic Convention attempted to call this nation beyond 
gridlock  into cooperation. This theme was first introduced by former Republican  
Representative from Iowa, Jim Leach, who recalled for the delegates America's  
great days in its bi-partisan past. He mentioned Republican president Theodore 
 Roosevelt, who reached out to Democrats on environmental issues and in his  
attempts to rein in the turn of the century titans of American industry, the  
oil barons and the railway owners. He referred to Republican Senator Arthur  
Vandenberg of Michigan, a well known isolationist before World War II, who  
forged a bi-partisan relationship first with President Roosevelt and later  with 
President Truman to present a unified face of America to the world and  worked 
to bring about the necessary bi-partisan endorsement in the Senate on  such 
things as the United Nations, the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine.  He 
reminded the delegates that before they are Republicans or Democrats they  are 
all Americans. This message, coming from a respected Republican who played  a 
major role in the impeachment of President Clinton, but who in retirement  has 
announced his support for Barack Obama, was moving and powerful.  
    2.  This same call for a new bi-partisanship was the major theme of the  
keynote address delivered by former Governor Mark Warner of Virginia, now the  
Democratic nominee to succeed retiring Republican Senator John Warner (they  
are not related) of Virginia. Mark Warner avoided the typical red meat of  
keynote addresses to call the nation to a common purpose.  
    3.  I was moved by the speech of Illinois Representative Jesse Jackson, 
Jr.  Not only was he articulate and obviously well informed, revealing an 
enormous  range of knowledge, but he also clearly knew who he is and what his time 
in  history is. He contrasted his style with his father's style. Jesse 
Jackson,  the civil rights activist, had to fight to break down the doors so that 
black  people could share in their own government. Representative Jesse Jackson, 
Jr.  is an insider, highly regarded, who sees that cooperation and not  
confrontation is the way to make progress in his generation. If Senator Obama  is 
elected president there will be a vacant Senate seat in Illinois. Look for  
Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. to compete for that seat.  
    4.  I watched Hillary Clinton speak in 2000 at the Democratic Convention 
in  Los Angeles. She was at that time the Democratic nominee to succeed 
Senator  Patrick Moynihan as the Senator from New York. She was stiff, her smile was 
 forced and her gestures were wooden. Later I listened to her speak at 
Coretta  Scott King's funeral in Atlanta and heard the political pundits suggest 
that  she should never again speak at the same occasion as President Clinton — 
the  contrast was too painful. Then I watched her in Denver. She was at the top 
of  her skills and it was moving and deeply impressive. She commanded that 
stage  as few people are able to do. She reached heights in defeat that I have 
never  seen in her before. She may never be president, though in politics 
nothing is  certain, but she has changed the face of America for the better and for 
all  time. I rejoice in that.  
    5.  The Attorney General of Delaware, Beau Biden, introduced his father,  
Senator Joseph Biden, by recalling that between the time Joe Biden was 
elected  to the Senate at age 29 and the time he was actually sworn in, his wife and 
 daughter were killed in an automobile accident and their other children were 
 seriously injured. Joe Biden wanted to resign. "Delaware can get another  
Senator," he said, "but my children cannot get another father." He did not  
resign, but was the only Senator who took a train from Washington to  Wilmington 
each night to be a father at home with his children.  
    6.  When Senator Biden did speak, I loved it when he described his wife 
as  "drop dead beautiful."  
    7.  I watched from the balcony in Los Angeles in 2000 when Vice President 
Al  Gore gave Tipper that 47-second kiss, and then listened to his wooden  
acceptance speech as the new presidential nominee of his party. It was a  
prelude to his wooden campaign, in which he seemed to try to reinvent himself  
almost weekly. At this convention, however, I saw Al Gore speaking  passionately 
and with a sense of self that if he had shown in 2000 he would  have been the 
president of the United States. His keen intellect makes me  think he might have 
been the best president we never had.  
    8.  The Democrats gave time to speak briefly to five ordinary delegates. 
One  delegate, named Barney Smith from the Rust Belt who had lost his job to  
outsourcing, urged his party to be more concerned about Barney Smith than  
about Smith-Barney. It was a great line.  
    9.  Every convention launches a new star. In 2004 it was a State Senator 
from  Illinois named Barack Obama. This year I believe it was the Governor of  
Montana, Brian Schweitzer. A Westerner, a bit informal with a string tie, and 
 a bit overweight, he electrified the crowd. Put him on your radar screen. 
This  nation will hear from this man again. The watch is on.  
    10. I was most moved by the speech of Representative Jim Lewis of 
Atlanta.  Lewis, a leader in the civil rights movement, knows what it means to be 
both  an outsider and an insider. In the 1960's he had his head fractured by a 
state  trooper using a lead pipe during a protest march. Now he was talking to 
the  entire nation about what it means to watch America change.  
    11. Finally, this convention made me aware once more that I am married to 
keen  political enthusiast whose commitment to Hillary Clinton knows no 
bounds, but  who will now work for a President Obama. 
This week the focus will be  on the Republicans. Then the campaign will be 
on. The issues are clear. I list  them without comment:  
    1.  The economy is struggling and 45,000,000 Americans are without health 
 care.  
    2.  Unemployment is rising and housing values are off 30%.  
    3.  The price of gasoline and milk both have now topped $4.00 a gallon.  
    4.  The war in Iraq, entered on false premises, drags on at huge human 
and  material cost.  
    5.  The war in Afghanistan is hot again and Osama bin Laden is still at 
large.   
    6.  The budget deficit of America continues to soar. The price of the 
dollar  has never been lower against other major currencies.  
    7.  The disaster of New Orleans remains an open wound in the American 
soul.  
    8.  America's reputation abroad is at an all time low. 
The differences  between the two candidates will be substantial. It is my 
hope that the debate on  these issues will make these differences clear without 
either candidate  demonizing the other. I also hope that no major external 
crisis will distort the  debate that America needs to have and that wedge issues 
will not replace real  issues.  
Finally, I hope we will elect a uniter not a divider, and that the dignity of 
 no citizen will be sacrificed for a cheap political victory.  
– John Shelby Spong
Question and Answer
With John  Shelby Spong 
Isabel Ahlgren, fvia the Internet,  
I've really been intrigued by Deepak Chopra's The Third Jesus. I noted  your 
comment on the book jacket. I do hope you will soon devote one of your  
letters to your thoughts about it.  
Dear Isabel,  
I have never met Deepak Chopra, but we have corresponded and I have read his  
books and listened to him speak on C-Span. I was pleased to endorse his last  
book, The Third Jesus. It is a sensitive treatment of Jesus from one  outside 
the Christian and Western traditions and I believe it helps to move  religion 
itself out of its tribal past and into what must surely be a universal  
future.  
It is my conviction that the rise of a destructive fundamentalism in  
Christianity, Islam and Judaism as well as among the religions of the East is a  
necessary phase through which all of us must go before we break out of our  
limited religious boxes to embrace a new consciousness. Those threatened by the  
future that they cannot yet embrace have retreated into the religious  
certainties of the past. That is almost always a prelude to a new breakthrough.  
Chopra writes from the perspective of tomorrow and he invites us to step into 
 his vision. I would welcome people within Christianity who want to do the 
same  thing.  
– John Shelby Spong




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