Love, empathy, tolerance--also puppies, flowers, and laundry

Friday, January 05, 2007

A Woman's Place...

...Is in the House. With a gavel in her hand, a glowing smile on her face, surrounded by grandchildren galore, and two heartbeats away from the Presidency.

I love it that Nancy Pelosi is unabashedly liberal. The "L" word as many smug conservatives have been calling it in print and on TV for way too long. I happen to think it's a compliment. Liberals change things. Like extending Civil Rights and championing underdog farm workers in the 60s. I think we could use a few changes.

Liberal and from California, haven for bleeding heart tree-huggers. Except for the gavel, the grandchildren and the heartbeats--I could be her.

Watching the change of power in DC gave me a thrill. The hopeful kind. Yes, I'm a Democrat, but I've voted for plenty of Republicans over the years if I thought they were the better choice. Which is another way of saying I have nothing against Republicans per se. However, for too many years, I have watched two branches of our government collaborating so closely that honest disagreement was branded unpatriotic.

Disagreement is our national right. Heck, it's our national duty. One commentator yesterday said that peaceful handoff of power is a hallmark of our democracy. I agree, but I think that the right to disagree, gripe, bitch, swear, and heckle (or more importantly, acknowledging that as our right) is also a hallmark.

So let's hope for some disagreement. The conservative bobble-head majority in Congress is gone. Let's stir the pot. We have some messy situations that need some creative solutions and the previous group of problem-solvers turned out to be a bunch of brown-nosers.

Let's hear it for controversy. Let's open up options. Let's see what we can do together after we listen to the other side. I want to be proud of the U.S. again. I want us to be the guys who do the right thing, the moral thing, the stand up thing.

I'm hopeful.

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