A Human Eclipse of the Soul

phot0 by David Turnley

"The world is watching what we do here," Obama said in a speech in San Antonio last night. "The world is paying attention to how we conduct ourselves. What will we they see? What will we tell them? What will we show them?"

The problem with icebergs for anyone navigating a ship is that eighty percent of the mass is below the surface of the water. Like the captain of the Titanic learned the hard way - proceed at full steam through uncharted waters full of icebergs, and you die. This historical lesson speaks of what last night's primary election analysis does not tell you.

Last night was a referendum on the politics of fear, race, and ethnicity - a referendum that won in three states and lost in another. It was a contest between Barack Obama's continuing call to what is best in us, and Hillary Clinton's appeal to the darker demons of our nature.

If the Democratic National Committee had any shred of moral barometer and courage -

- The DNC would have disqualified Hillary as a presidential candidate after the South Carolina primary for her campaign's injection of race and fear into the contest.

- The DNC would have publicly called for an investigation into the circulation of a photo of Barack Obama in traditional Muslim dress that was linked to the Clinton campaign, along with stories of Clinton campaign workers referring to 'Obama' as 'Osama' in campaign phone calls.

- The DNC would have called her on the carpet for her 60 minutes interview where she fed into the anti-Muslim smear campaign going on in this country.

- The DNC would have condemned her 3 AM Red Phone Ad full of dark and foreboding images of danger and menace, ending with Hillary lit in white light.

- The DNC would call this primary and caucus process to a close, today, and award the nomination to candidate, Barack Obama, who has and will have, more pledged delegates and votes. This is called democracy.

Last week, I watched the lunar eclipse, moved by the beauty of the earth's shadow lighting the moon in yet another tone. Last week, I also watched shadows of another kind, those that block the light, hope, and possibility we humans need.

So if you woke up this morning with a sick feeling in your gut, this is good thing, for it is evidence that you are still on the light side of the human eclipse of the soul -

ZJM