Beautiful Day

Tonight, as I watch tv with millions of people worldwide, I see beautiful things. I see an Olympic Games as thrilling, controversial, and unifying as any; where athletes and patriotic fans come to watch the physical ability of track runners, wrestlers, swimmers, divers, gymnasts, and myriad other athletes compete for personal and national pride. No president, prime minister, nor party chairman can take credit for the success of her or his Olympic team, only the participants can. Thank God no evil acts of terror or violence was unleashed on anyone in Athens, except for the barrage of Cadillac and McDonalds ads. Thanks, Athens, hello Torino, 2006.

Another beautiful event witnessed on tv was the practice of the American freedoms of speech, press, and peaceful assembly. Assembly it was, as dozens of thousands of patriotic and concerned Americans gathered in New York City to protest the regime of George Bush. As the Republican National Convention kicks off tomorrow with a flurry of party platform supporting speeches, the nation and world have seen the immense opposition to the Bush administration. One estimate pegged the numbers at 250,000, or what would be five times the number of attendees to the RNC. Coincidentally, I am teaching the founding of this country and the fight to guarantee the rights that my fellow Americans excercised today; I have to, as a progressive thinker, make my students aware of this. If we own these rights, we must practice them. If we are to maintain these rights, we must make others aware of them. If we are to create change, then we must responsibly reflect the true power and grace of Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson stated that the tree of liberty must be fertilized with the blood of patriots and tyrants every generation or so. It is time that concerned, progressive Americans will truly voice their opinions, speak their minds, and demonstrate to the nation that the current policies set forth by the current administration are not liberal, nor progressive, nor even conservative; they are regressive, and to such extremes that they need to be brought to a sudden and grinding halt. To think that the last amendment to the Constitution that denied Americans civil rights was enacted in 1918 which prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Now, the same political party is attempting to dictate to the country how people are to conduct their own personal relationships while using executive powers to be able to surveil them at will. Today, we progressive thinkers are all New Yorkers and are with those real Americans in heart and spirit hoping that a peaceful example of outrage and disgust towards the current selected regime will be stopped in just two and a half short months. Let's raise our glasses, make a toast, and then open our mouths and declare that 'tis time to change this country.