Obama's need for a rhetoric of idealism

I write this from "the lake," which is definitely a Minnesota term. It doesn't matter which of the 15,000 lakes in the state you're at--when you're there, you're simply at "the lake." It's been five years since we've rented a cabin on Woman Lake (near Hackensack and Longville) and it feels good to smell the breeze and gaze out over the shimmering water.

Maybe this lake stuff is putting me in a dreamy, romantic mood, but I'm wondering if our President needs to spend a little more time at the lake--despite the criticism that he's already spending too many days on vacation. What got Mr. Obama national attention in the first place was his "red state/blue state" speech at the '04 DNC--it laid out a vision of America that was not based on Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, good guys and bad guys. Rather, it was based on the ideal that we are all Americans, and we need to pull together with a common vision and an inclusive mindset. It was a type of rhetoric that appealed to our best impulses and our highest ideals--something that is sorely lacking in politics these days.

Take the proposed Islamic cultural center, two blocks from "ground zero" in NYC. Quite rightly, the President has said that there are and should be no legal roadblocks to such a project. On the other hand, he has deferred comment on the wisdom or appropriateness of such a move. And in the process, I think he is erring by omission. This is an occasion to call all of us to our best impulses--our ideals, if you will.

What kind of nation do we want to be? What are our "best practices"? When all is said and done, how do we want to see ourselves? If we want to see ourselves as a nation that values and cherishes freedom, understanding, and tolerance, then we need to celebrate it in this case, not merely grudgingly accept it. For at our best, we can indeed be "better" than the rest of the world--we adhere to a higher standard. And when we don't maintain those highest standards--such as at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo--we diminish the United States in ways that no "terrorist" can.

Mr. Obama needs to get back "on message"--the message that propelled him to the national stage in the first place. At HIS best, he can move people to a common vision, to a set of ideals. It requires a passionate, positive, blunt, and forceful approach--not an equivocal finger in the wind, worrying about the political fallout. Other Presidents (John F. Kennedy certainly comes to mind) distinguished themselves by their ability to articulate lofty ideals. I think we are still ready to hear someone at the top speak that way; indeed, I think we are yearning for it.

Note to Barack: go for it, big guy. Show us a vision for America that plays off of our best impulses, not our deepest prejudices and fears.

Inception: Quite a complex conception

Well, the big movie buzz of late has been around the movie "Inception," which has been touted as nothing short of amazing. And, in many ways, it is an amazing attempt to play around with our sense of "reality," and in a visually stimulating way.

Having said that, I can't help but feel a little exasperated at a movie that tries to do so much. As a premise for a film, it's apparently not enough to work with the idea of planting a thought--one thought--in someone's head through dreams. No, in this movie, they are trying to plant thoughts in (a) a dream (b) within a dream (c) within a dream--no small feat! Not only that, but the dreams portrayed are incredibly rich in detail--gosh, these people dream way better than I do! To create dreams for others of such intricacy severely strains my sense of credibility. I can't even begin to think how visuals of such elaborate complexity could ever be planted in someone else's brain.

In short, I'm OK with trying to move us into another realm of consciousness. But I have a hard time suspending my disbelief to a level that defies any sort of realism. It's the same complaint that I have with the TV show "Medium"--Allison DuBois not only dreams about various crimes that have occurred or will occur; she dreams about them in such elaborate detail that it's as if a video camera were in the room. That makes for a sort of clarity that seems unreachable. I'd be happier if Allison had some vague-but-compelling images that she had to interpret. But not to worry--it's all there for her, item-for-item and word-for-word. If a guy in her dreams is wearing a blue shirt and says "I just came from the hardware store with this cordless drill," that's precisely how it plays out in "reality." That woman is just very, very talented!

Dream on, Hollywood.