funny, isn't it?
by jeanne charters

I am a person who runs way ahead of deadlines…always have been. Even in grade school, I would race home and get my homework done so that I was free to go out and play with my friends. Don’t know why I am that way. It wasn’t really pressure from parents. It was pressure from me.

That’s why as the WNC Woman December deadline came and went, I was shocked to realize that I was not going to come close to meeting it. Oh, my God. I had writer’s block! That just doesn’t happen to me. But happen it did, and I couldn’t figure it out…for a while.

Then, suddenly it hit! I am depressed over the results of the Presidential election. I still do not believe it. I may have been the only person on the planet who fully expected a Kerry landslide. Not just a win…not just a respectable margin…but a genuine landslide.

How could it be otherwise? John Kerry was a decorated war hero; a distinguished member of the U.S. Senate; a brilliant debater; and apparently, at least, a man of high moral fiber and impeccable honor.

He was running against the “bubble boy”…the most isolated and out-of-touch President in our history…a man who prides himself on never reading a newspaper and who insulates himself within a web of cronies and supporters. Further, this was a President who just plain did a lousy job. I needn’t remind anyone about the deficit, the feet dragging after 9/11, the invasion of the wrong country (oops), and the grandiose posturing on the flight deck while wearing a tailor-made flight suit with private parts pushed up and out for all the world to see. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED the banner said. Mission Accomplished, my great aunt Fanny’s arse. Try telling that to the moms and dads who have lost their children since that silly posturing last March.

Or should we take a look at all the lost jobs right here in North Carolina and across the nation? The lack of concern for our air, our water and our forests. The pandering to big money and big business on the backs of the middle class in this nation.
Look, maybe I’m bitching; but you know what? It feels good.

It seems to me that the only positive thing we can take from this crazy election is the fact that we must get smarter…fast! This President’s campaign manager is a Machiavellian genius who can take any positive fact about an opponent and twist it right around the adversary’s neck. It was brilliant that they were able to find enough disgruntled Swift Boat vets to mount that cruel and invective campaign. Of course, it was supported by the very folks who will benefit financially from 4 more years of this mean-spirited administration.

I’ve been reading everything I can about what we are supposed to do for the next 4 years (or longer unless the Dems get their act together). I take solace in listening to Stephanie Miller, Al Franken and Ed Schultz on the radio. Since I am a talk radio junkie, it feels good to hear people I can agree with, rather than Rush and Reilly. Funny, isn’t it that these guys’ idea of morality seems to include Oxycotin and phone sex?
Leonard Pitts wrote of a truly “Christ-like” president, Jimmy Carter, whose vision involves building homes for the poor, mediating wars, feeding the hungry in Africa and fighting disease in Latin America.

I am a Christian, too. I go to church every Sunday and try to put my faith in action through work within my community. However, I just don’t get the zeal of the neocon Christian whose primary focus appears to be on homosexuality and the woman’s right to choose. Abortion is ugly, I agree. I would be with you on your pro-life stance if all the old white guys in power would agree to adopt every unwanted child born in this nation. Or, at least, if they would support educating children in regard to reproductive reality. I would really like to hear from some of you so that you can explain that to me because, in my view, Jesus who said, “Feed my sheep” has now been reduced to little more than a Republican shill. I don’t think my Savior would like that!

So, what do we do now? Gandhi said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Let’s start with being even better Christians or Jews or Muslims than we have ever been before. As the song said, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” At this time when I, an American of good will, feel more powerless than ever before in history, I will stop praying for the “W” impeachment (which I believe will happen) and will start trying to understand what kind of divine plan is in the works to make this a better planet. Once I figure that out, I intend to work my butt off for change.

Since I do believe in Divine Providence, I also believe that the ways will appear.
The holiday of Christ’s birth is fast approaching. Let’s use that time, more than ever before, to love one another and to heal wounds caused by this nasty election.
And remember this…”Everything works out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out…it isn’t the end!”

Merry Christmas!

Jeanne Charters is a former V.P. of Marketing for Viacom Television. She started her own award-winning broadcast advertising agency in 1990. Jeanne lives in Fairview with her husband, Matt Restivo. [ charmkt@juno.com; 828-628-0023 ]