Fear

To watch the news is a real test in stamina. Facts are no longer reported, they are presented in a context of hyper-emotion with swirling graphics in hot colors and presented in emotional rhetoric that either is designed to disgust or frighten. This compulsion to frighten is everywhere, to the point that almost daily communication is presented that way. The only thing that seems to be reported is celebrity gossip, and I swear to sweet Jesus that I could not care less if Katie Holmes is being held captive by Scientology or whether she simply got a too-trendy haircut.

Katie Fucking Holmes is presented as news. The presidential election is reduced to a tabloid serial and Halloween 2008. I lost it the other night when Countdown with Keith Olberman showed age-progression pictures of the three leading candidates, depicting how each may look at the end of their first term. I kept expecting Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear to pop out and recommend A-line skirts for all of them.

Of course, in many ways the fearful are more easy to control. At least in the short term. The thing that the powers that be and the mainstream media seem to forget is that the fearful sometimes do erratic, unexpected things, like elect a black man as president.

Over the past few weeks I've become more and more convinced that Barak Obama is the best candidate standing for president. I'm willing to weather the difficulties that will result from his lack of experience and I'm willing to accept the inevitable social turmoil that will result with his election, and make no mistake: there will be turmoil.

But there is subtle and not-so-subtle fear mongering going on. What sort of retribution will a black president exact from white America? And the pointing at Reverend Wright is exactly the tool to scare the bejesus out of white, middle America.

The fact is that Wright does speak for a segment of the African-American community. I've heard such comments from black co-workers. It's not a fringe element here in Chicago. And it doesn't take a wild imagination to put yourself in their position to understand why they see America as they do. In fact, there are times where it is a major leap of faith to say that they are wrong.

While I believe that Barak Obama is first and foremost a politician, and by definition a politician is not free of an agenda, I do believe that he just might be the savior figure for the American political system. Many candidates before him have tried to run a clean campaign, and while that's not totally possible when running against a Clinton or a Republican (is there even a difference anymore?) I think Obama is seriously trying to make a difference.

And as scary as a black president might be, one who could actually effect change is more so.