Last night I had a disconcerting dream. I was at a concert by The Who. (I have seen The Who a few times in years past.) They were playing “Won’t Be Fooled Again.” I’m enjoying the performance. And when they get to the end of the song, there is one last line: “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.” And right then, Roger Daltry, who is belting out the lyrics, turns into Hillary Clinton. I wake up in in a panic.
What was that about? Maybe it has something to do with the Compassion Forum I watched on CNN last night, where Hillary Clinton said that Barack Obama was out of touch by calling voters in small towns “bitter.”
She has stirred up quite a debate in American politics on whether it’s demeaning to be called bitter. Senator Clinton says the voters in the United States are optimistic. Senator Obama says those voters in small towns who have lost their jobs and pensions are bitter.
Yes, I know that to feel bitter for a long period of time is not healthy. It’s not good for the heart or the mind. It’s something to transcend. But it is not possible to transcend bitterness without acknowledging it or pretending that it doesn’t exist.
If I am bitter because I lost my pension then it’s OK for someone to say that I’m bitter. And it’s OK to say that I’m clinging to my faith.
Well, as someone who lost a job due to outsourcing (I quite before the office closed down but saw the writing on the wall) and a pension due to a corporate bankruptcy, I know how a lot of people feel. I also worked as a union steward, and represented employees who were being fired due to illnesses like cancer. Were people bitter? Hell yes.
To paint people in these situations as optimistic, as Senator Clinton has done, might sound like a positive statement, but I think it shows a lack of empathy. And I think it shows that she is out of touch. Or maybe she is just desperate for votes.
Am I bitter? No. Distrustful? Yes.
Whether it is time for bitterness is debatable. But it is time for change. It’s time for compassion. It’s time for real solutions.
Am I going to entrust my future to someone who tells repeated and blatant lies about running with her head down to avoid sniper fire? And then who dismisses the lies due to being sleep deprived, but who says she is the one we need to trust to answer the phone at 3 a.m? Am I supposed to trust someone who runs a campaign that can’t pay its bills but who says she will be ready on Day One? Not anymore than I’ll trust another CEO who tells me how much he or she values the employees, and then lays them off after having robbed their pension fund.
Why did I see that image of Hillary Clinton in my dream? Maybe to show me that I still have some bitterness to work through. Maybe to show me that politics is playing too big a role in my life. Or maybe it was just something I ate.
