Mar
13
At the beginning of the year I was pretty much settled on voting for Clinton in the 2008 presidential race. I was one of many that were awed by Obama’s 2004 keynote speech but I didn’t know enough about him to sway me from the safe choice (Clinton). However, I was so intrigued with Obama’s success in Iowa that I took the time to read the Audacity of Hope. It took me 9 hours to pour through and the moment I set the book down I fired up my laptop and made a donation to the Obama Campaign.
As Obama gained ground and then pulled away from Clinton, I was dismayed to see the Clinton campaign resort to the “kitchen sink strategy.” A strategy that I perceived as a last ditch attempt to make Obama unelectable, in the hope that the super delegates will be forced to throw their support to her. The Clinton campaign then broke out Karl Rove’s media and communication playbook to sell the kitchen sink.
These Clinton tactics have so jaded my opinion of what she and her campaign are willing to do to gain the nomination that I have cynically concluded that the flap caused by Geraldine Ferraro was not accidental. It all started with a controversial comment:
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.” - Geraldine Ferraro
Many people believe that she was implying that Obama has achieved his current success because of affirmative action or because white americans feel guilty about their internal race conflicts, and had finally found a black candidate that was “safe” enough for them to prove that they are not really racist. I however, saw in her actions, signs that point to a much more sinister and Machiavellian plan.
Is it possible that Ferraro specifically planted this quote; a quote that, while not blatantly racist, was certainly on the edge and would assuredly raise controversy in the media? Ferraro is a smart woman and an experienced politician, she should have (and I argue that she did) know exactly how her words would be interpreted, and how that would play out in the media.
I think that Ferraro purposely planted the quote in the hopes that the Obama campaign would attack her on the issue of race. They didn’t quite take the bait - Obama called the comments divisive and patently absurd, but that didn’t stop Ferraro from appearing on morning talks shows and claiming that Obama was attacking her as a racist. It was a perfect platform to paint Obama as an unfair aggressor attacking the Matriarch of the democratic party (who has a 30 year record of supporting civil rights).
Watching the whole incident evolve, I couldn’t help but draw the conclusion that it was all staged to publicly sacrifice Ferraro in order to evoke a defensive reaction from white voters. When Clinton finally got around to asking Ferraro to step down, Ferraro took the opportunity to fire a final shot in her departure email (which was, of course, immediately released to the press).
“Dear Hillary, I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what’s at stake in this campaign. The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won’t let that happen. Thank you for everything you’ve done and continue to do to make this a better world for my children and grandchildren. You have my deep admiration and respect, Gerry”
I hope that I am wrong, I hope that Ferraro is just a product of a generation that is less sensitive to the nuance of how words and ideas are being used in the media today to spin agendas, create conflict and divide our nation. I also hope that Hillary had nothing to do with planning or approving this activity and that her lack of urgency with regard to dealing with it had more to do with her respect of Ferraro than her desire to let the firestorm of controversy build to a crescendo.
I hope all these things, but I no longer have the audacity to hope that Senator Clinton is listening to her conscious nor that she is willing to do what is in the best interest of the Democratic Party and the Country.
Mar
4
I am saddened today by the death of Gary Gygax. Mr. Gygax was the co-inventor of the pen and paper Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role playing game. Some of my favorite high-school memories were of playing D&D with friends. In 1980 I was introduced to the game by my brother who was 18 months and one grade level ahead of me. In very few other venues would a 14 year old be accepted by 16 and 17 year olds as a peer, and it is amazing to me how D&D and its decedents foster a culture of acceptance and tolerance of age, gender race and lifestyle that the broader community could learn from.
This transcendence has even translated effectively to modern descendants of the original game. About 18 months ago I rediscovered the joy of role-playing in a fantasy setting via World of Warcraft (WoW); in the same way that I was instantly accepted 25 years ago by the older kids when I asked to play D&D, I was matter-of-factly accepted again by a group of WoW players more than 20 years my junior. WoW is a melting pot of 10 million people and even my small guild had a female co-guild master, a few African-Americans and several gay men. All were accepted into this meritocracy, where the only real criteria for acceptance were: how well do you play and how well do you socialize with the others (I also think it helped that I had a computer with two monitors, so I could always be counted on to have thottbot at the ready to answer questions in guild chat).
I believe that Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (his co-creator) deserve much credit for adapting the medieval fantasy world of J.R.R Tolkien into a playable pen and paper game, but the real the genius of it was the way which the game provided enjoyment and challenge for people of all different cognitive styles. I personally loved rolling new characters, outfitting them, and drawing the pen and paper maps as we progressed through the environment, but the game also has immersive elements for people who excel at math, logic, tactics and strategy, those with a quick wit, and those with acting/improvisation talents.
Then they wrapped it in a perfect blanket of collaborative game-play and puzzle solving, the crazy idea of getting all your friends together for game night to play TOGETHER against a common enemy (the game) has proved successful beyond even Gary’s wildest imagination.
Gary, thank you for sharing your imagination and dreams with the rest of us and for making this world a more tolerant place: one dungeon at a time….