Friday, October 22, 2004

The Man of Careful Decision

Imagine if you will a huge chair, like the one that sits at the Lincoln Memorial.  Imagine a man who greatly resembles Lincoln sitting in it and looking down.  What is he looking at?  Well, below him is a table with a glass of water on it.  On one side of the table is a world leader, a man with a great following and on the other side of the table is another man who wishes to be a great leader.  He has many different people gathered around him who basically are there to protest the world leader who possesses the great following. 

The world leader declares, "This glass is half full.  We are on our way!  We can do it.  We have what it takes and there will be no stopping us."  His following cheers and exalts their leader.

The man seeking to be the leader rebutts, "This glass is half empty.  What we once had has been used up and there is nothing left to sustain us.  Surely there will be nothing left of us when you, oh great leader, are through."  Those in his company were jeering at those on the other side of the table and screaming, "Restoration! Restoration!  Viva la revolution!"

From the giant chair, the man who resembled Lincoln looked at the leader to his right and said," You look at this glass and declare its half full."  He then looks to the left at the man who wants to be leader and says, "You see this glass and declare it to be half empty."  He then says after thinking for a moment, "What I see is a glass on a table with some water in it.  We have what we have and we must build from there.  Perhaps I could listen to you from the left and empty it; out with the old and in with the new.  I could also, after emptying it out, listen to you on the right; only I'd ask that we build this nation together--no more they against thems; we would never have to decide whether a glass with some water in it was half full or half empty again."

This is how I see Senator John Kerry.

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