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I had several stops to make downtown yesterday, and at each place people were talking about the sudden loss of Andy St. Onge. Within the cultural network and among downtown business folks, I had a sense of Lowell being a village–a village that had lost one of its own. Andy was part of the Lowell public team, those people who strive day to day to present the city in the best light and help present the public life of the community for the benefit of residents and visitors alike. Everyone was saying, I just talked to him yesterday or the day before that. He had picked up the phone a few days ago when I called the Cultural Affairs and Special Events Office at City Hall looking for LZ Nunn. Andy was a believer in Lowell’s potential. We will miss him. His family, friends and colleagues will remember his contribution to the ongoing effort to make Lowell everything it can be. 

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Writing in the Boston Globe Magazine on October 8, 2000, Neil Miller made this observation: “Increasingly, and with characteristic lack of fanfare, the Merrimack Valley is gaining literary visibility. And its writers are garnering various honors as well. [Andre] Dubus III’s novel House of Sand and Fog was a 1999 nominee for the National Book Award. [Jane]Brox’s Five Thousand Days Like This One was a 1999 National Book Critics Circle finalist in nonfiction. Andover novelist Mary McGarry Morris’s Songs in Ordinary Time was the June 1997 Oprah Book Club selection.” Fast-forward to today and pick up a copy of the Sept-Oct issue of Poets and Writers Magazine, the main publication for creative writers in the country, with a circulation of 80,000. Readers will find a full-page ad with the headline “A River of Writers: October is Literary Month in the Greater Merrimack Valley.” The page includes information about four major literary events coming in October. The annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! festival (Oct 2-5), the Massachusetts Poetry Festival in Lowell (Oct 10-12), the Concord Festival of Authors in Concord and Lowell (Oct 15 - Nov 2), and the Robert Frost Festival in Lawrence (Oct 25). The ad appears thanks to the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, especially executive director Deb Belanger. This is a big step in identifying our region as a literary hot spot in New England and the nation. There is much to be gained in promoting the literary heritage (Bradstreet, Whittier, Larcom, Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Hawthorne, Frost, Kerouac, Dubus II, and more) and presenting today’s literary talent in this time when more and more people are realizing that creative assets are natural resources. A river of writers, then and now.

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This is a video of George W Bush’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in 2004. It is pretty long, but take a look at the first minute or so. Check out the backdrop behind Bush…It is made up of large Grecian Columns. And the stage is round protruding away from the president’s entrance area…sound familiar? After listening to the far right describe the Obamaopolis for the past week, I am sure this does sound familar. To quote Shakspeare…”The eye sees not itself, but by reflection”.

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Media pundits, political talkers and bloggers as well have made a big deal - pro and con - about the Obama decision to make his acceptance speech outdoors in a 75,000 seat stadium. Most commonly the comparison is made to JFK’s 1960 acceptance speech in the Los Angles Coliseum. Reviews of that speech given in that venue are more con than pro - even reviews written by Kennedy acolytes are less than glowing. Barack Obama himself seems to welcome and even encourage the JFK comparisons. The President’s daughter Caroline made it clear during her tribute to “Uncle Teddy” that she was inspired by Obama even as others were inspired by her father. Cultivating the Camelot chrisma may seem calculating to some and yet natural to others. Will the Obama acceptance speech today further the mystique? Will the speech harken back to any of the Kennedy words of July 15, 1960? Or will it be the moving Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” speech of  August 28, 1963  at the Lincoln Memorial - 45 years ago this day - that proves a better model? Perhaps the Barack Obama speech will hold its own place in history. Here are a few quotes from those memorable speeches -

We are not here to curse the darkness; we are here to light a candle. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: If we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future. Today our concern must be with that future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.   JFK

 We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.  MLK

 It is time, in short — It is time, in short for a new generation of leadership.   JFK

…when we let it (freedom) ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! MLK

 The New Frontier is here whether we seek it or not.

It would be easier to shrink from that new frontier, to look to the safe mediocrity of the past, to be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric — and those who prefer that course should not vote for me or the Democratic Party.

 But I believe that the times require imagination and courage and perseverance. I’m asking each of you to be pioneers towards that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age–to the stout in spirit, regardless of Party, to all who respond to the scriptural call: “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be [thou] dismayed.” (Isaiah)     JFK

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.” (Isaiah)    MLK

I’ll be watching and listening through the unfiltered lens of C-Span and then I’ll click through the to the wags, pundits, spinners and talking heads. Stay tuned.

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As the Democratic National Convention speeds along in Denver a scathing attack on Barack Obama circulates the airwaves. The Ad tries to associate Obama to sixties radical Bill Ayers. The Obama campaign is so upset they are demanding a criminal investigation of the group responsible for its production, the “American Issues Project”. The campaign is also asking that television networks throughout the country refuse to play it. While the objections continue Obama released a counter Ad.  Take a look…

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When you watch the convention on C-Span it’s such a different experience! The speeches not heard on the big networks or big cable are important, relevant and right on the money in making the Democratic case for Obama/Biden. The full court press of Day 3 is showing that Republicans don’t own the flag, the military or patriotism. John Kerry hit a home run tonight - probably not many saw or heard it. Kerry’s experience of four years ago has certainly honed his skill at skewing the GOP Rovian attacks on Obama and the Democrats. Look out Mr. Beatty - John Kerry is on top of his game. No swift-boating will go unanswered nationally or locally.

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My favorite moment of the 2004 Democratic National Convention occurred at the end of John Kerry’s acceptance speech.  He finished, the music started, various dignitaries wandered onto the stage, and thousands of balloons and gallons of confetti rained down on the crowd at Boston’s Fleet Center.  Only the balloons and the confetti didn’t cooperate and the open microphone of the guy directing all of this somehow was fed over the air to millions of TV viewers.  The tightly choreographed display of party unity intended to boost Kerry’s post-convention bounce into the stratosphere was overlaid with the audio of this guy urgently commanding “more balloons; go with all balloons now; more balloons; go balloons; go confetti; what the f— are you guys doing up there?”   And as Wolf Blitzer presciently wondered, might the failure of the balloons to fall somehow be an omen for what would happen in the campaign.  Anyway, for those of you who missed it and for those of you who enjoyed it, here’s the clip:

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Hillary Clinton was at the top of her oratorical game tonight. The speech was well crafted and exceptionally well delivered. Only those who are truly unreachable could not hear her call for unity behind Barack Obama for President. I expect Hillary Clinton will continue to personally campaign for the Obama/Biden ticket - they need her and she will meet the challenge. What will Bill Clinton do tomorrow night? I suspect he too will meet the challenge. Stay tuned.

By the way, Governor Patrick would have been a great keynoter tonight as evidenced by his speech which was available on C-Span but not elsewhere.

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Hillary Clinton just finished her excellent speech.  She very effectively signaled her supporters that they should give their full support to Barack Obama.  While the Clinton speech will undoubtedly receive the most press coverage, two other speeches gave me much cause for optimism. 

One of them was by Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, a rancher who strode to the podium wearing a bolo tie.  In all the Democratic conventions I’ve watched, I never remember seeing anyone at the podium wearing a bolo tie.  And I never remember seeing anyone speak at a Democratic convention who was quite like Schweitzer.  He spoke mostly about energy policy in a very vigorous and rousing way.  He exuded the authenticity of someone who’s spent his life pumping his own fuel and understands the need for energy conservation not because he read a position paper on it, but because he’s lived it every day of his life.  Schweitzer was the embodiment of Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy (When Dean took over as DNC chair, he vowed to compete in every state while many in the Democratic hierarchy condemned him for wasting resources in staunchly Republican states such as Montana – I guess we know whose side Governor Schweitzer is on in that argument).  While the substance of Schweitzer’s remarks was great – the case for conservation and new energy sources put in a common sense sort of way – it was his presence at the podium and the rousing applause he received that struck me.  After seeing him, no one will accuse this group of Democrats of being a bunch of out-of-touch elitists. 

The second speech that struck me was the keynote address by former Virginia Governor Mark Warner (who, two years ago, many thought would be giving the acceptance speech at this convention, not the keynote address).  Before entering politics, Warner went from the working class to being a very wealthy individual because he created a company that embraced cell phone technology back when many were asking “why would anyone want a telephone in their car?” (never mind in their pocket).  Warner had a couple of great lines, but the importance of his speech was the overall message – that through innovation, education and hard work, Americans can embrace and dominate the global economy but only if our leaders understand the global economy and the world as it is and as it works in the 21^st century.  According to Warner, Barack Obama understands where all this is headed and is capable of leading us through all the associated challenges, but John McCain looks to the past for his policies and his solutions. 

But this future vs past struggle transcends this election – it is at the core of our everyday existence.  It confronts us in an infinite variety of ways: do we embrace and master technology or do we shun it; do we conserve energy and innovate or do we keep, as Warner put it, borrowing money from the Chinese to buy more oil from countries that despise us; do we embrace the diversity around us and use it to our advantage or do we ridicule (and secretly fear) those who are different than us?  There are those who want to step off into the future, viewing its unknowns as opportunities for us as a country to excel.  There are also those who fear the future and want to turn back to the false comfort of yesterday.  That’s where we are at as a country.  This election is just one more manifestation of the choice we all face.

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Michelle Obama’s convention speech was outstanding.  The introduction (both the movie and her brother) the content of the speech, her delivery of it, everything - all seemed excellent.  It will be interesting to hear the reaction of others.

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