Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

From the time he was born, Al Gore was groomed for political greatness. Whether he has achieved that greatness is in the eye of the beholder but I think he has. However, the barometer I use to measure that greatness is perhaps different from the one used by others. I measure political greatness not by the amount of balloons and confetti dropping down in a convention hall. I measure it not by the decibles of applause at a political fundraiser. I don't measure it by polls. And I certainly don't measure it by votes that go against one's conscience just to use them as a political maneuver. My barometer of political greatness is highest for those politicians who least look like politicians. In other words, those who truly exemplify public service by serving the people and not themselves.

Al Gore then isn't the only man in that category for me. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt also shares that spotlight with him in my heart as I believe Al Gore could well be the Franklin Roosevelt of the 21st century, but not entirely because he served in the White House or may under the right circumstances be there again some day. Your residence doesn't determine your character, your integrity, nor your honor. There is one aspect to Al Gore that sets him in this category with Roosevelt for me, and it is his true caring for people that he would have regardless of where he lived. For while Roosevelt was a President adored by the American electorate, he was also a man adored by many more people who saw him as one of them.

The key similarity I find between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Al Gore is then that they both had defining moments in their lives that brought them to another path. For Franklin Delano Roosevelt it was his polio. Born to a rich family and attending all the best schools, President Roosevelt until that time had been shielded from the hardships of life. After polio struck him however, his descent into the darkness and pain of his own soul brought on by it brought out a man of immense strength, character, conviction, and controversy. For he too struggled between the politician and the humanitarian, and was successful in combining them both into a legacy that will live on in American history because of his polio. Warm Springs is just as much a part of his legacy in my heart as the New Deal, and in my view Warm Springs shaped the man he became.

I believe Al Gore's defining moment was the 2000 election. While many may not see that as a personal defining moment but rather as a political one, it is both, and I believe it is a much more personal one to Mr. Gore than he has admitted in public. A moment like that encompasses so many different emotions on so many different levels, and how a man handles such a moment defines him for life. And Al Gore handled it like a man who knew exactly what had transpired and who did all he could to fight it but couldn't do it alone, and shouldn't have had to. But that one event, that tragedy of American history truly brought out the greatness he always had deep inside him and the world is now benefitting immensely from it.

Therefore, I will give my own thoughts on why I believe this event was the defining moment in Mr. Gore's life and how I believe he also descended to the same place in his soul that Franklin Roosevelt did and how he also is now using that experience to better his world and ours, and where it will lead us all in the future.To me there is a difference in politics between the public persona we see and the private one we don't see because the politics involved in not allowing us to see that personal persona gets in the way. Which is why Franklin Roosevelt had to learn to walk with a cane in public appearances many times aided by his son as to not give away that he could not walk. The political fallout supposedly from the American people seeing a "flawed" man was thought to be a political failing as they would only vote for him out of pity.

Many say had there been television when Roosevelt was running he would never have been elected President. That push to be perfect in the television age I am sure has also deprived the American people of perhaps having a President that could truly uplift the people as Roosevelt did in the pre-television age. It was also of course proven to be false, as even now in this technological age and with the truth of Roosevelt's polio being known, his legacy still carries the same weight and I believe is even more treasured because of the personal struggles he endured. It is also interesting to note that at Harvard, Al Gore did his thesis on the Presidency in the television age.

From all I have read about Al Gore's life he grew up in a family that loved each other very much with two parents who did all in their power to provide him with a good life with moral guidance, and they were well off in regards to what they had attained after both struggling, his father a teacher, and his mother one of the first women to graduate from Vanderbilt Law School. They were not as well off as the Roosevelt's however, but young Albert did attend private schools while living most of the time in Washington D.C. (working summers on his Carthage farm to teach him discipline) and attending Harvard University where he went on to graduate cum laude with a degree in Government.

That is because his father had plans for his only son and he was expected to follow in his footsteps even though there were accounts that young Mr. Gore was not really interested in the mechanics and ego involved in political campaigns. There were great expectations involved that I am sure at times may have caused young Albert Gore great anxiety in wondering if he could live up to them much like the anxiety which faced young Franklin Roosevelt years before as he searched his soul as to how he would fulfill his own legacy with his limitations and his own struggle with expectations. It is said that Al Gore's father foresaw him as President of the United States and groomed him for that. It is something I believe young Al Gore may have fought on one level while wanting it on another. Which was just the beginning of his own inner struggle which led him to Vietnam.

As a young man he was against the Vietnam War as was his father who sacrified his Senate career to speak out against it. Al Gore still went to Vietnam and served as an Army journalist for about five months. By all accounts it was an eye opening and soul searching experience for him as well as he then pondered which direction his life would take once he returned to his wife and family. His choices ranging from army journalist, to working for the Tennessean where he exposed corruption in government, and his attending seminary and law school for a time while working and raising a family tell a story encapsulated about the spirit and heart of Al Gore.

He was a young man who loved his family, respected the Earth and saw the symbiosis between them and wanted to have a place in the world doing something to make the world a better place for those who lived on it. And whatever has transpired since that time that has always remained true of him and I believe continues to this day to corrolate to the inner struggles of that young man caught between fulfilling expectations of others while having expectations and dreams of his own and working on the one issue that was always part of him.

In the Senate from the time he was first elected in the late seventies, Al Gore was an early voice warning about the dangers of global warmingwhich was one of the many environmental and technological issues on which he focused on in both the House and the Senate. He was also the first Senator to call for Congressional hearings into toxic waste because of a letter he received from a student in Toone, Tennessee that led to other hearings, among them the infamous Love Canal in upstate NY. That conviction stayed with him until he was picked to serve on the ticket with Bill Clinton in 1992 when Earth in the Balance was written after a horrible accident involving his only son which caused him to reflect on what was really important in life and led him on a path to self-discovery as well.

Earth in the Balance, Mr. Gore's 1992 best-seller laid out the stark realities of deforestation, water pollution, overpopulation, and especially climate change. It also brought out the spiritual symbiosis between us and our Earth in a very intelligent and eloquent way. It was simply his soul in print. It was him expressing to us what his true love and priority in life was. The main idea of this book and Mr. Gore's vision are plainly stated in this comment from the book:

"I have come to believe that we must take bold and unequivocal action." "We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization."

This was a bold statement coming from a United States Senator because traditionally words like this just weren't spoken there and still aren't. The entire book was a bold move on the part of Al Gore who threw political expedience and caution to the wind to reveal his true feelings about this Earth and how we must begin to be better stewards of it or face the consequences that still challenge us today. It also reveals the soul of a man who loves this planet and sees the urgency with which action is needed. (Of course, those who to this day are still trashing it claimed he was speaking against Christianity and that his book was some sort of evil anti-corporate, anti-religion manifesto. Not at all unexpected to hear from those hypocrites who to this day plunder our Earth with selfish abandon and kill our children in the Middle Eastern sands for profit. For they were exactly the people this book was written for, so of course the truth is simply too much for them to bear.)

And while Al Gore's legislative record on the environment may not be what some would see as successful it was one of the best environmental records of any Vice President in the history of the United States. Ahh, but here once again is the rub. As a politician you are measured by legislation not by effort, heart, or soul. Your heart and soul are turned off, and you are judged not on the conviction you carry for an issue but on the amount of money you can make for those special interests which take precedence over principle. Herein lies the struggle. Which is why as a politician Al Gore's true vision for our making the environment the central organizing principle for civlization would not even be entertained. That is just the sad reality of it and in my mind it is one reason why Mr. Gore has come to the crossroads of his life now in finding new and better ways to achieve his goals for the betterment of our planet.

At this link is a listing of Al Gore's acomplishments as Vice President in the environmental field. http://cronus.com/gore /. A record of achievement not to be discounted... but that is the last I will mention of the political end of this, because for me the personal side to Al Gore's love for this Earth and how he is showing it now is truly the side more people need to see. For you see as I stated above, I believe Mr. Gore has finally come to the crossroads of his life and has decided to take the better path by living his own expectations. The path that will allow him to speak freely about this issue and to inspire others to do so as well and to be a true advocate for the Earth.

What did he have to give up to have that? Some would say much, especially considering that his desire to be President of the United States is what led him to Florida in 2000. And it may still be a part of him deep in the recesses of his heart and soul. However, the one thing he will always have as a legacy is his unwavering and abiding commitment to making this world a better place and that is a good thing for this Earth. Now, I don't wish to paint Mr. Gore as some sort of saint because he isn't. He has made mistakes in his political career and on the environmental front through the years. However, there is no mistaking his conviction regarding working to preserve this planet for future generations and his work to attain that end. This chapter of his life is then far from over because it is part of him.

Surely his upbringing by two parents who also cherished what America stood for and who also were respectful of their world did much to push him in the right direction. And while many have said that he was an elitist because he lived most of his life in Washington DC where he attended St. Albans School for Boys, I say that's just plain wrong. In all of my readings about this man from his childhood to now I have never gotten the sense in any way that he was an "elitist" or someone who was arrogant or distant, but quite the contrary. My impressions from reading about this man's life from his childhood to now tell me he is a man of great depth, wisdom, vision, and insight. He is a man who sees all as equal and who does not have tunnelvision where it concerns problems. He is a multi- dimensional thinker and a man who always sees the light at the end of the darkest tunnel.

At no time in his life was that more evident to me than the day Democracy died, December 13, 2000. As I also stated, I believe this was also the crossroads in Mr. Gore's life. It was also a time of great despair for our Constitution and our country and as a result of the decision foisted upon the people against their will by a complicit USSC that should never have had the duty of deciding who would be the winner, history as we know it was changed forever. I won't go into how truly outraged I was that hundreds of thousands of Americans didn't take to the streets peacefully to demand their President be inaugurated. I won't go into how the Democratic Party leaders instead of standing by this man turned their backs on him. I won't go into how those of us who continued to fight for some sort of justice for this crime were constantly ridiculed and told to "get over it." I will however say this... I do believe that was the call Al Gore actually needed to shake his soul and let his glory out.

It was also a turning point for me as an American citizen as I learned in one lesson that the system I had placed my faith in for so many years really wasn't there for me. Did Mr. Gore have those thoughts as well? Did he ever question why the people were not out in throngs chanting Gore Is My President? I sure as hell did, because he was worth fighting for then, and he still is whether it be as president, Chairman of Current TV and Generation Investment Management, or as a statesman and environmental advocate fighting to preserve our greatest natural resource: Our only home.

Currently, he is making the rounds of our world delivering the truthful message regarding how we are changing the relationship between ourselves and our only home which is inspiring others into action to mitigate the effect we are having on it which is at last bringing his work from all of these years the rewards it deserves with an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth and a Nobel Prize nomination for his environmental dedication. He is working to give us a voice by being a citizen journalist for Current tv where the viewer makes the station their own. He is giving speeches about morally and ethcially sound environmental investing which is something we really do need in this day and age to prepare for our future. (Not short term quick fixes, but longterm gains that can be matched against technological and environmental progress that promises our children and their children a sustainable world in which they can live in and prosper.) He is speaking about the moral imperative we as a nation now have to continue Democratic debate and to preserve what our forefathers began. In other words, he is doing that which is his destiny and that which he has always wanted to do: be at the forefront of influencing events and shaping our future in a positive way.

All of the inner struggles he endured as a young man and a Senator trying to do the right thing while weighing the expectations of others against his own desires and seeing that the system he thought would care did not many times... All of the years spent being a part of an apparatus that truly did not understand his vision... He has now shed those expectations and is on a road to becoming one of the greatest statesmen this country has seen since the days of Thomas Jefferson.

Where he goes from here, well, that's his call...

Therefore, it surely is not the conclusion for Mr. Gore, and I will leave this with one of my favorite quotes by this great man:

"In our democracy, the future is not something that just happens to us, it's something that we make for ourselves together. "

Amen. Together.

Happy Birthday with much love.