The Caucus Race

A PLANT LADY’S LIFE IN GEEKATOPIA


First Week in April 2008 Part 2



Yes, this week you get two blog posts for the price of one!
Poem:
A few weeks ago my mother found this little ditty typed on a scrap of fragile, yellowed paper in a box of family memorabilia. Her best guess is that my grandmother copied it from a newspaper some time during the 1930s. Unfortunately she didn’t credit the poet but he was no doubt in the Civilian Conservation Corp. I thought you might appreciate this poem - might even identify with it as we all hunker down to weather the recession.

A PSALM FROM THE SPRUCES
Roosevelt’s my shepherd, I shall not want,
He maketh me to lie down on a straw mattress,
He leadeth me inside a mess hall,
He restoreth my job.
He leadeth me in the paths
Of Reforestation for his country’s sake.

Yea, tho I walk thru the valley of the shadows
Of poison oak and ivy,
I will fear no evil, for he is with me.
He preparest a saw and ax before me
In the presence of my commanding officer.
He anointest my mind with discipline.

My shoes runneth over from marching.
Surely Beans and Employment will follow me
All the days of Roosevelt’s administration
And I shall dwell in a tent forever.

Folks just naturally want to fix things, make things better, so they gather together in like-minded groups and cheer their aspirations forward. Saturday I did my share of cheering at the 11th District Democratic Caucus. I was there as a Clinton delegate from my neighborhood precinct - though truth be told I don’t actually care one way or another which of the Democratic candidates finally prevails - they are both excellent leaders. The 11th went for Obama by maybe as much as 2 to 1 and I’m okay with that. Like the rest of those gathered in the Machinists Union Hall auditorium I was swept into the excitement of it all. Few things are more thrilling than banding together with neighbors to make history, to try to repair what’s gone wrong with our country. The hall was alive with enthusiasm and hope - almost 2000 people cheering, waving signs.

Yet, I remembered another caucus, this one back in ‘72, when I wore a blue tin button showing the name McGovern below a small white dove. Shirley Chisholm, a brilliant African American woman, was also running for President (McGovern button not withstanding, I voted for Shirley that year.). We Democrats were determined to change the world. We would never permit another Watergate, another Nixon. We would succeed where previous administrations had failed us - we would get out of that misbegotten war in Vietnam - there would be peace at last and never again would this country be stupid enough to squander precious lives and resources on a purposeless conflict. Never again would we allow crooks, con men and terrorists to occupy the White House. We were full of idealism that year. We envisioned a brave new, civilized, compassionate world.

We lost miserably! Lost more than just that election, enduring another few years of Nixon and war. And here we are again. I hope that history does not repeat itself at this juncture, hope that we as a people are now ready to move ahead into sanity and peace, hope that we will settle for nothing less. And I hope that I have not become too cynical from past disappointments that I can’t once more be caught up in the excitement of a brave and noble enterprise. Hope pretty much says it all.