I had a dream. (A message to Barack)
I had a dream. I just woke up from it, actually.
In my dream I was at a campground with my peers. I’m nearly 35 now, but every time I’m with my dream-peers we’re all stuck at high school age.
And my dream had the usual dream nonsense. For example, a car that drove up a ladder to put an ice chest on top of a tree.
Barack Obama was also in the dream.
Every night at campfire, Barack would be our special guest. He would share inspirational stories with us. At the end of campfire he would ask if we had any questions.
No one ever spoke up during question time. The whole tone of the thing was very genial. Even my conservative friends grumbled quietly to themselves rather than speak up. For it’s one thing to spout off about how much you dislike someone when they live in the White House. It’s quite another to sit around the campfire with that person.
On the last day of camp I had decided that at campfire I was going to speak up and say something of substance. I didn’t want to miss this opportunity.
It was when that black SUV with tinted windows was making its way to the campfire that I woke up from my dream.
You ever have that dream where you’re just about to kiss a beautiful woman and you wake up? And then you try desperately to go back to sleep hoping that the dream will take up where it left off?
Well, I’m married, so I don’t. I have the dream where Barack Obama is the special guest at campfire and I have something important to tell him at question time.
But it’s kind of the same thing. I did my best to get back to dream camp. I had this crazy feeling that if I could have spoken with Dream Barack that it would have some real world impact.
Chances that Barack will read this blog are pretty slim. About the same chances that Barack will leave Michelle for Glen Beck.
Still I thought I’d at least post what I was going to say in my dream…
…….
Sir, I voted for you and that I’m very glad you’re here. And thank you for the nail clippers with the Bible verse on it. [dream detail]
I have two questions. The first one is this:
When you accepted the Nobel Peace prize you mentioned again that your heroes are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ghandi. But then you spoke of your responsibilities as President in terms of ‘Christian Realism’. In other words, you defended a course of action that is predicated on violence being a more determinative reality than Christ. What do you think Dr. King or Ghandi would say about your speech?
Here is my second question:
You speak of the U.S. as if it has responsibility as the world’s lone superpower to remain firmly in first place among all the nations. Considering Jesus’ words that ‘the first will be last and the last will be first’, can you explain how a belief in U.S. superiority and dominance can exist alongside your Christian faith?
amen. Also, could he get us some freakin Health Care and not put so much effort into Banks that don’t loan money?
speaking of gift economy :P thanks for linking to the blog.
Well, you started commenting so much and it’s another Hawerwas/Cavanaugh site that it made sense. Plus, us odd attempts at truly actualizing a “via media” need to stick together in all this Anglican polarization.
word, yo.
I hated his speech. It felt too much like the previous administration. Considering that Obama’s primary qualification for receiving the prize less than a year into his presidency was his merely not being G. W. Bush, that was a pretty big slap in the face to the selection committee.
that photo of glenn and obama is amazing!
you gotta be in the right place at the right time.