A Few Fine Mornings Filled with Facts, Optimism, and Sheer Love of Country.
Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam, August 22nd, 2024.
Salaroche

Chicago is at UTC/GMT-5. Phu Quoc (Vietnam) is at UTC/GMT+7. This means I am exactly 12 hours ahead of (later than) the events unfolding at the Democratic National Convention this week. Evening over there is morning for me, and I mean morning in more than just one way.

There’s no darkness, gripe, or whining coming out of the United Center in Chicago these days. Just plain, spontaneous hopefulness. Sheer belief in the promise of America.

Hillary Clinton’s elegant 16-min. speech, Michelle Obama’s uplifting 20-min. speech, Barack Obama’s 30+min. hopeful follow up, Oprah Winfrey’s 15-min. powerful speech, Tim Walz’ 17-min. down-to-earth speech, not to mention Stevie Wonder’s well-chosen short version of his own song “Higher Ground”.

All of it and more has been over the past 3 days just a sign of how deep American ideals are ingrained in the hearts of millions of Democracy-loving Americans, as opposed to the dark, cynical, negative view most of our Republican brethren have mistakenly embraced lately.

Thus far, the contrast between the DNC convention and that of the RNC couldn’t be starker. Hope over dread, empathy over disdain, understanding over prejudice, honesty over deceit, love of country over partisan personality cults. There is a renewed sense of optimism across the land.

An additional, bright, patriotic spark of hope has been provided to the convention by Republicans like Stephanie Grisham, former Trump White House press secretary; John Giles, Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona; Geoff Duncan, former Georgia Lt. Gov., staunch Conservatives who all spoke in defense of our Democratic ideals and denounced their own party’s loss of their moral compass. Republican ex-Congressman Adam Kinsinger (R-IL) is also scheduled to speak on Thursday night (Friday morning for me).

There is hope in the air, my friends. And as all those speakers at the convention and elsewhere have been telling us, the power to keep America from falling down a dark, Fascist hole, the power to preserve our Democratic and Judicial Systems, the power to keep America moving forward, the power to keep alive the promise of America rests in our hands.

We have to seize the moment. We cannot afford to drop the ball. We have to keep the momentum growing. Come November 5th, we have to elect Kamala Harris as the 47th President of the United States. We neither have another choice, nor do we need any other.

Salaroche