[Vision2020] Something to Think About . . .

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of Jon Stewart at yesterday's "Restore Sanity and/or Fear" rally.

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"Some of you may have seen today as a clarion call for action . . . or
some of the hipper, more ironic cats as a clarion call for action.

Clearly, some of you just wanted to see the Aaron Space Museum and got
royally screwed.  And I’m sure that a lot of you were just here to have a
nice time and I hope you did.

I know that many of you made a great effort to be here today and I want
you to know that everyone involved with this project worked incredibly
hard to make sure that we honored the effort that you put in and gave you
the best show we could possibly do.  We know your time’s valuable. We
didn’t want to waste it.

And we’re all extremely honored to have had a chance to perform for you on
this beautiful space on the mall here in Washington, DC.

So, what exactly was this?

I can’t control what people think this was.  I can only tell you my
intentions.

This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism or
to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument, or to
suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. 
They are and we do.

But, we live now in hard times, not end times.

And we can have animus and not be enemies.  But, unfortunately, one of our
main tools in delineating the two broke.  The country’s twenty-four hour
political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our
problems.  But, its existence makes solving them that much harder.

The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them
into focus, illuminating issues before unseen.  Or they can use that
magnifying glass to light ants on fire.  And then, perhaps, host a week of
shows on the sudden, unexpected, dangerous flaming ant epidemic.

If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.

There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats.  But those
are titles that must be earned.  You must have the resume’.  Not being
able to distinguish between real racists and TEA Partiers or real bigots
and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people,
but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it
takes to hate, just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from
Muslims makes us less safe, not more.

The press is our immune system.  If it overreacts to everything, we
actually get sicker and, perhaps, exema.

And yet, with that being said, I feel good; strangely, calmly good. 
Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our
political and media process is false.  It is us through a funhouse mirror,
and not the good kind that makes you look slim in the waist and maybe
taller, but the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass shaped
like a month-old pumpkin and one eyeball.
So, why would we work together . . . why would you reach across the aisle
to a pumpkin-assed forehead eyeball monster?

If the picture of us were true, of course our inability to solve problems
would be quite sane and reasonable.

Why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our constitution or
racists and homophobes who see no one’s humanity but their own?

We hear every damned day about how fragile our country is on the brink of
catastrophe, torn by polarizing hate, and how it’s a shame that we can’t
work together to get things done.  The truth is we do.  We work together
to get things done every damn day.  The only place we don’t is here
[Washington, DC] or on cable TV.

But, Americans don’t live here or on cable TV.  Where we live our values
and principles form the foundation that sustains us while we get things
done, not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done.

Most Americans don’t live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, 
liberals, or conservatives.  Americans live their lives more as people
that are just a little bit late for something they have to do, often
something they do not want to do.  But they do it; impossible things every
day that are only made possible through the little reasonable compromises
we all make.

Look. Look on the screen.

This is where we are.  This is who we are, these cars.

That’s a school teacher, probably thinks that taxes are too high.  He’s
going to work.

There another car; a woman with two small kids; probably can’t think of
anything else right now.

There’s another car swinging.  I am not sure if you can see it.  The
lady’s in NRA, loves Oprah.

There’s another car; an investment banker, gay, also likes Oprah.

Another car; a Latino carpenter.

And other  cars; a fundamentalist vacuum salesman . . . atheist
obstetrician . . . Mormon JZ fan.

But, this is us.  Every one of the cars you see is filled with individuals
of strong belief and principles they hold dear; often principles and
beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers.  And yet these
cars must somehow find a way to squeeze one-by-one into a mile-long,
thirty-foot wide tunnel, carved underneath a mighty river, carved by
people by the way, I am sure, had their differences.  And they do it,
concession by concession.  You go then I’ll go.  You go then I’ll go.  You
go then I’ll go . . .

Oh, my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car?

Is that an Obama sticker on your car?

Uh, that’s OK.  You go then I’ll go.

And, sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the
shoulder and cuts in at the last minute.  But, that individual is rare and
he is scorned and not hired as an analyst, because we know, instinctively
as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the
light, we have to work together.

And the truth is there will always be darkness.  And sometimes the light
at the end of the tunnel isn’t the Promised Land.  Sometimes it’s just New
Jersey.  But we do it anyway together.

Do you want to know why I’m here? And what I want from you?  I can only
assure you this.  You have already given it to me.  Your presence is what
I wanted.

Sanity will always be, and has always been, in the eye of the beholder. 
And to see you here today, and the kind of people that you are, has
restored mine.

Thank you."

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http://www.tomandrodna.com/Speeches/JonStewart_Closing_103010.mp3

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown