A Hoosier’s advice to Tarheels during Race ’08:  Truman and “Ike” introduced a large portion of us “boomers” to the political world of spirited competitions in hot pursuit of the White House.  One “last hurrah” arrives via this present phenomenal contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. Such tremendous and obvious excitement permeates the land!

Though arthritic and  62 years of age, these gnarled fingers lent themselves to a (cell)phone bank the eve of the Pennsylvania Primary–one soul among a band of Hoosiers nagging at those far-away voters from “Penn’s Woods” to hurry to their respective polling places by 8 P.M.  We called them from 6 P.M.onward approaching that magic hour of closing. Rushing back to our modest homes, parking our cars in our driveways, searching for our remote controls as we catapulted across our living rooms mesmerized by the television screen and the voices of disappointed, astounded, rationalizing pundits, what “to our wandering eyes should appear”?  By Jove, our girl Hillary had won that very critical race, headed toward a double digit margin of victory–such rapid-fire results!  Had we, at our “Phone Bank for Hillary” (which sounds like a new Mel Brooks musical number), accomplished such a speedy, earth-shaking feat from our meager perches in an undisclosed Indiana locale?   (We got bumped earlier from the local library facilities; no one ever said “saving the world” would be easy nor without intrigue!)

Only in America , at this particular time, can we feel ourselves to be such a vital ingredient of major “reconstruction”, the likes of which has not been seen since the Civil War. There’s fun to be had “putting Humpty Dumpty back together again”, and with the help of musical troubadour John Cougar Mellencamp yet!  Whatever the rock-star calls himself these days, he rents himself out to both “parties”, i.e. Hillary AND Obama. 

Quite simply, a jolly experience all the way around…though do “hush, hush”, and keep your preferences to yourselves, as we must not “politicize” the situation and give ourselves away for fear of alienating those more opinionated than ourselves.  North Carolinians and Indianans share a chance to make or break history–let’s do talk “amongst ourselves” after all..or “what’s a heaven for”?   Note to Editor: Whether in NC or IN, leave the aforementioned quotation marks alone, as they denote familiar literary phrases which arose from somewhere or other in our “collective consciousness”–and operate as “stage instructions”.

“Glory, glory, Hallelujah!”  May our voices not be stilled; allow the “circle (to) remain unbroken”; and let’s all “play ball!”  Please, please publish this prayer-challenge prior to Hillary’s and Barack’s campaigns moving forth to Puerto Rico?   Topicality remains a plus in such times as these.