My Dear, Sweet God......THIS is all that I have wanted since 1980

[FredStembottom]

John Kerry at the "take Back America Conference" today:

“It was right to dissent in 1971 from a war that was wrong and could not be won. And in 2006 it is both a right and an obligation for Americans to stand up to a president who is wrong today.”

".....it is time to end a war in Iraq that weakens the nation each and every day it goes on.”

That's it. 26 years later - after a billion dollars' worth of campaign expenses, polling efforts and consultants have been flushed down the toilet. After a seemingly unstoppable 26 year electoral decline. Today. That one, little, tiny thing I have wanted from my Democratic party for every second of every day for 26 nightmarish years.....arrived.

Finally....and I am a puddle of tears.

Such a small thing. Such a homely thing. Like the spark plugs in a car or the horn speakers behind a movie theater's screen. Common but vital to the very purpose of the device.

How could such a thing disappear so utterly from an entire political party? How was it removed from each and every one of our party's leaders with such completeness - as if a vaccination had been given or an organ had been removed?

26 years! Or was it a hundred?

And how many theories poo-pooing the necessity of it or endeavoring to substitute something else for it or displaying the very latest exquisitely expensive "improvement" upon it have I seen from my party?

And how many letters did I write to my party and petitions did I sign and friends did I harangue with everything from questions as to where it went to entreaties to try finding it again to sheer freaking , desperate bewilderment as to why ANY political party would go on and on and on without it?

But it was gone. Totally. Apparently it had no more chance than a very average squirrel when faced with the enormous SUV's of a thousand faceless, shadowy consultants roaring down America's political highways.

Secretly, I had effectively given up hope. That the one, little thing I wanted from my Democratic Party - in lieu of everything else - was never again coming back.

I lived in despair that no one in my Party would ever again simply SPEAK UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT. Clearly. Simply. And with no apologies. And then see if that just might be enough to win an election.

And yet......for reasons that are unclear to me (and on a 'bad news" day), it appeared. It came back! And it came through John Kerry. Why now? Why not in 2004? Or 1984? Or 1994?

Nevermind.......it is HERE! A Democratic leader spoke clearly and forthrightly about what he believes!

And those 2 simple sentences delivered without the slightest hint of apology ring louder in my ears than anything else I have heard in 26 years.

I see the dawn.