Hallelujah One Day

Above is a beautiful version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" from Steven Page, (former?) lead singer of Barenaked Ladies, at today's state funeral for Jack Layton, the late leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, its viable socialist opposition party.

From Jack Layton's last letter to Canadians:

"There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. ... My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."

If only here down here below Canada we had the ability to vote for such brave, committed and truly progressive candidates who are also not just symbolic protest votes but real possibilities for real change.

In personal news, I'm safely hunkered down on my hill in Brooklyn awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Irene. It's been quiet and peaceful today with intermittent rain; the bus that runs along my street was halted along with the rest of the NYC transit system. It's supposed to get interesting after midnight. Hopefully not too interesting.

'More than machinery we need humanity"

I was reminded of this brilliant speech by one of my favorite left-wing sites. It's the climax of Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film "The Great Dictator," a must-see on anyone's list. This is a stirring, heartfelt speech made by Chaplain himself playing a Jewish barber who has found himself masquerading as Adenoid Hynkel, the film's bumbling parody of Adolf Hitler.

The times we live in are very different than the world of 1940: the Hitlers of the world today are at worst very little Hitlers indeed. But it's not necessary to exaggerate the state of the world or fling over-reaching hyperbole about to find in Chaplin's emotional call for a new and better world ideas that retain currency even when jack-booted thugs are for the moment mostly dormant.

Fighting hatred, intolerance and militarism is always a good idea: and in a world that does seem like it's spinning about on a precipice of horrible possibilities, I find a poignancy in the relevance of this short and stirring testament. Some people seem in an awful hurry to repeat some really horrible chapters of the past: perhaps by listening to this cry from the past we can remember to keep our gaze pointed at a better future.

Hope Springs Eternal

Need a good cry? Watch these kids sing Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide."

MLK's Birthday: Never Forget

That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.
--the Reverent Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, April 3, 1968, Memphis

The Renewal of Hope...in the World!

Just a quick entry to note that Barack Obama has just been awarded 2009's Nobel Prize for Peace. The Nobel Committee said that the award was due for the President's renewal of the world's hope in the promise of diplomacy.

While the word is still out on what President Obama will be able to actually achieve--and it's fair to say what he wants to achieve is debatable--what an amazing affirmation from an esteemed world body of our repudiation, as a nation, of President's Bush.

Wake up, dinosaurs and troglodytes, the world is changing!

Tomorrow is the day...

I love this picture. It's Barack Obama and his maternal grandparents at his high school graduation. It's such a statement about who Obama is. And all the love and hope his grandma has for him, and the pride his grandfather has, and how the differences in their skin color is just so irrelevant. It gives me hope. And all my complaints about Obama's policies on this thing or that thing, we'll have plenty of time in the future to struggle over those. For now, the thing is, he's got to win. He's got to.

President-To-Be Barack Obama!

That pretty much says it. Barack Obama has received enough delegates in the flawed and corrupt democratic party system to be the party's nominee in November.

He's not perfect, and it's gonna be a hard fight against the republicans (and hopefully not any more against the Clintonites), but, God bless him, I think he's got a chance to be president. What a potential revolution in American society we are in store for.

The audacity!

Obama in 2008!