Righting My Despair: My cousin sent me this article written by Micheal Tomasky entitled "Against Despair" for the magazine Democracy a Journal of Ideas. Some are concerned about my despair of things political and perhaps are waiting until I commit Hara Kari. I surely will not but it is hard to hide my sadness. This article is an attempt to right a liberal's spirit and explain where liberals like I have misjudged events and also misjudged those heroes of our particular history. It is worth reading because it puts things in perspective by illuminating, I think, a truer reality.

Still, I was a college student in the late 1960's at one of the most radical universities with the exception of perhaps Berkeley in California. My university was, in fact, sometimes called the Berkeley of the East. I cannot help but look at politics through that oft distorted lens and wish longingly for an era that cannot be but I nonetheless want once again. Maybe I want that because it was the happiest time on this earth for me bar none. It was a time when all things humane seemed possible and a time when my view of life from the numb often stupid 1950's was turned happily upside down. It was a new time, it was a revolutionary time and I thought it was correct. It is hard to face a reality that perhaps never was or was different than I thought and would not last as long as I thought it would. Reality when one's dreams are altered significantly is very hard to admit.

This is a wonderful article especially for those of you who fall into the progressive category and walk around sad as I do wondering how things went so askew. Maybe things were not exactly as I thought they once were. The link below may help to answer why they probably were not.


http://democracyjournal.org/article2.php?ID=6760&limit=0&limit2=1500&page=1