Two posts in and I'm already apologizing.
After posting the above column, the one that didn't appear in YES! Weekly, I must admit that I took advantage of not having to crank one out on a weekly basis and did as next to nothing as I could get away with for awhile. But, as the old joke goes, "Break's over, back on your heads," so it's time to jump back in the fray. I'll do better, I promise.
First off, a sincere thanks to all the folks who have called and emailed expressing regret, outrage, sympathy and sadness over the demise of my column in YES! I even picked up my eighteenth reader, Eric Huey, a man well known to the blogging community. Eric has forced me to retire the Sizzling Seventeen and supplant it with the Elite Eighteen. At this rate I may break that elusive twenty barrier by the end of President Obama's first term.
As the name implies, this space is apt to be about whatever it is that happens to trip my trigger at the precise moment I sit down to put finger to keyboard. If someone dangles a shiny object in front of me, it may be about shiny objects. Or, if I get too distracted it may not appear at all, again, the luxury of not being forced to beat a deadline.
For the past several months I'd been amazed at the number of folks who, jokingly or otherwise, asked me what I was going to write about once Duh left office. And last night I ran into a friend who said he assumed that I'd retired the column now that I didn't have Bush to bash on an almost weekly basis.
So, let's set the record straight, brothers and sisters. I'd been cranking out this drivel for a full sixteen years before Duh's tragic and illegal ascension to power on the federal level. So I suspect I'll be able to come up with fodder with or without his sorry ass.
Second, although my intention is to become a kinder, gentler columnist/blogger, exploring a wider range of local and non-political topics, don't think for a moment that we still don't have George W. Bush to kick around anymore. Until a War Crimes Tribunal is convened at The Hague to try him, Cheney, Rove, Rummy and a few other assorted neo-cons for treason and crimes against humanity, trust me, I'll not go gently into that good night.
Ah, I feel all better now.
Several loyal readers -- OK, five ... well, maybe four -- have asked exactly what happened at YES! The unvarnished truth is this: The publisher, Charles Womack, killed the column you see above that was to have come out the day after the inauguration. He'd read one too many Bush bashes, I suppose, and that one hit him the wrong way, so he exercized a publisher's prerogative. So, in a fit of petulance, I killed all subsequent columns. Like that S. Elm St. developer who stormed out of the City CounciI meeting because they wouldn't play footsie with him, I took my marbles and went home. I told Charles that he was a friend long before he became my boss and he'll be a friend long after he's my boss. I will still do some features for YES! as well as some special editions, still remain as editor of the Jamestown News, a Womack publication, and still remain a staunch supporter of the voice that YES! represents in this community. Charles and I learned long ago that it's always best not to burn bridges, and this one remains strong and intact. He's a stand-up guy, a friend and a top-shelf newspaperman.
Having said all that, I assure you I'll not go two weeks between posts from now on.
Let the fish fry proceed.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
You Say Good Bye, I Say Hello
Miracle on the Hudson a prelude to Miracle on the Potomac
One of the few drawbacks of working for a weekly, as opposed to a daily or a Web site, is that deadlines are typically a couple of days before the paper actually hits the streets. And in that span, particularly if you’re ruminating on topical political subjects, the situation could have changed dramatically. This week the political landscape will not only have changed but will have become unrecognizable from that of just a few short days ago.
Of course, that’s a tradeoff I’ll take eight days a week if it means bidding good riddance to the outgoing “administration” and ushering in a ray of hope in its successor.
As President Obama sets about removing the detritus from eight Godforsaken years of criminality, corruption, cronyism and ideologically driven incompetence, it is tempting to recast Gerald Ford’s (only) famous quote, “Our long national nightmare is over” in light of a New Day in America. But, in light of the desperate straits Bush the Butcher has left us in, one of Yogi’s many famous quotes, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over,” may be more appropriate.
Don’t think for a moment that I don’t have the utmost faith in President Obama, because I do. I am as grateful that he is the man replacing Duh as I am that Duh is being replaced. We are going to need a miracle to extricate ourselves from the disaster that will forever be known as the Bush legacy — regardless of whatever delusions he may have in claiming a “solid record” — but Obama may be just the miracle-worker who can pull it off. But just because we’ve quit digging doesn’t mean that we’re still not in a deep, deep hole. The Bush cabal laid down 40 miles of bad road and we’ve still got 39 to go before finding the freeway toward peace and prosperity. Premier Bushcheneyrove allowed the ship of state to drift so far from shore that it will take not only an enlightened captain but a nation full of yeomen to find the promised land.
But, I truly believe, there is a beacon out there somewhere. It’s been a tough and traumatic eight years, but I have not allowed Bush to rob me of my last spark of idealism. And now that he is being removed from the forefront of the public consciousness, my hope is that that spark can be rekindled and burn brightly from here on out.
In a bizarre juxtaposition of events, the day of the Miracle on the Hudson was also the day Bush gave his farewell address. In the most poetic irony imaginable, while the nation was transfixed on a disaster averted, a heroic situation in which everything went right, playing out its final chapter was a disaster actualized, a craven situation in which everything went wrong. One a miracle, the other a catastrophe.
Then, last Saturday evening Larry King had James Taylor and John Legend on his show, prior to their performance at the Lincoln Memorial as part of the greatest assemblage of musical talent ever on one stage (funny, I didn’t see Hank Jr. there). He asked Chapel Hill-native Taylor what Obama’s election meant to him, and he replied that it felt like we could now finally start the millennium, that these last eight years have been an aberration, a limbo-like existence.
While I share that view, it was impossible not to sit there and come up with my own analogy. It occurred to me that the nation has been given a second chance, a new life, a rebirth. I’m going to get very personal here, but it was like I felt when I quit drinking. Just as I grabbed a life raft that was tossed to me by some folks who cared more for me than I cared for myself, so must the country climb aboard. But we can’t simply hang on, we’ve got to bail as hard as we can, because, brothers and sisters, this raft is taking on water. To get this craft seaworthy again, collectively, we’ve got some work to do; a moral inventory to take, a thorough housecleaning, some amends to make to the world.
As I ponder the cosmic scheme of things, I can’t help but wonder if maybe there is a reason for this seeming aberration, this eight-year bad dream, after all. Is it possible that Bush — and only Bush — could have created the conditions that made it possible to elect as unlikely a person as Barack Obama? An African-American man with a Middle Eastern middle name with minuscule experience and a liberal voting record? Hollywood wouldn’t touch this, right?
Maybe that will be Bush’s legacy, that he made such a mess of things that America was able to become teachable, to become willing to open its collective mind and heart to the polar opposite of a deeply flawed human being and his failed ideology.
If miracles happen to those who believe in them, I’m coming to believe.
Ogi may be reached at ogiman100@yahoo.com and seen on “Triad Today” hosted by Jim Longworth on ABC 45 at 6:30 a.m. Fridays and on WMYV 48 at 10 p.m. Sundays.
One of the few drawbacks of working for a weekly, as opposed to a daily or a Web site, is that deadlines are typically a couple of days before the paper actually hits the streets. And in that span, particularly if you’re ruminating on topical political subjects, the situation could have changed dramatically. This week the political landscape will not only have changed but will have become unrecognizable from that of just a few short days ago.
Of course, that’s a tradeoff I’ll take eight days a week if it means bidding good riddance to the outgoing “administration” and ushering in a ray of hope in its successor.
As President Obama sets about removing the detritus from eight Godforsaken years of criminality, corruption, cronyism and ideologically driven incompetence, it is tempting to recast Gerald Ford’s (only) famous quote, “Our long national nightmare is over” in light of a New Day in America. But, in light of the desperate straits Bush the Butcher has left us in, one of Yogi’s many famous quotes, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over,” may be more appropriate.
Don’t think for a moment that I don’t have the utmost faith in President Obama, because I do. I am as grateful that he is the man replacing Duh as I am that Duh is being replaced. We are going to need a miracle to extricate ourselves from the disaster that will forever be known as the Bush legacy — regardless of whatever delusions he may have in claiming a “solid record” — but Obama may be just the miracle-worker who can pull it off. But just because we’ve quit digging doesn’t mean that we’re still not in a deep, deep hole. The Bush cabal laid down 40 miles of bad road and we’ve still got 39 to go before finding the freeway toward peace and prosperity. Premier Bushcheneyrove allowed the ship of state to drift so far from shore that it will take not only an enlightened captain but a nation full of yeomen to find the promised land.
But, I truly believe, there is a beacon out there somewhere. It’s been a tough and traumatic eight years, but I have not allowed Bush to rob me of my last spark of idealism. And now that he is being removed from the forefront of the public consciousness, my hope is that that spark can be rekindled and burn brightly from here on out.
In a bizarre juxtaposition of events, the day of the Miracle on the Hudson was also the day Bush gave his farewell address. In the most poetic irony imaginable, while the nation was transfixed on a disaster averted, a heroic situation in which everything went right, playing out its final chapter was a disaster actualized, a craven situation in which everything went wrong. One a miracle, the other a catastrophe.
Then, last Saturday evening Larry King had James Taylor and John Legend on his show, prior to their performance at the Lincoln Memorial as part of the greatest assemblage of musical talent ever on one stage (funny, I didn’t see Hank Jr. there). He asked Chapel Hill-native Taylor what Obama’s election meant to him, and he replied that it felt like we could now finally start the millennium, that these last eight years have been an aberration, a limbo-like existence.
While I share that view, it was impossible not to sit there and come up with my own analogy. It occurred to me that the nation has been given a second chance, a new life, a rebirth. I’m going to get very personal here, but it was like I felt when I quit drinking. Just as I grabbed a life raft that was tossed to me by some folks who cared more for me than I cared for myself, so must the country climb aboard. But we can’t simply hang on, we’ve got to bail as hard as we can, because, brothers and sisters, this raft is taking on water. To get this craft seaworthy again, collectively, we’ve got some work to do; a moral inventory to take, a thorough housecleaning, some amends to make to the world.
As I ponder the cosmic scheme of things, I can’t help but wonder if maybe there is a reason for this seeming aberration, this eight-year bad dream, after all. Is it possible that Bush — and only Bush — could have created the conditions that made it possible to elect as unlikely a person as Barack Obama? An African-American man with a Middle Eastern middle name with minuscule experience and a liberal voting record? Hollywood wouldn’t touch this, right?
Maybe that will be Bush’s legacy, that he made such a mess of things that America was able to become teachable, to become willing to open its collective mind and heart to the polar opposite of a deeply flawed human being and his failed ideology.
If miracles happen to those who believe in them, I’m coming to believe.
Ogi may be reached at ogiman100@yahoo.com and seen on “Triad Today” hosted by Jim Longworth on ABC 45 at 6:30 a.m. Fridays and on WMYV 48 at 10 p.m. Sundays.
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