Subject: [big campaign] Thanksgiving Huffington Post Piece from Creamer
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:22:46 EST
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

I Am Thankful for Those Who Have the “Cathedral  Builder’s Mentality” 

I first got involved in politics in the 1960’s as part of the Civil  Rights 
movement. At the time, we thought that in short order progressive values  would 
triumph – that our careers would be spent passing initiatives like  universal 
health care, creating a truly democratic society where every kid had  
unlimited educational and economic opportunity, and ending war as a means of  
resolving human disputes.  
Instead, it turned out that most of us have spent the last four decades  
defending progressive values and institutions against a resurgent right-wing  that 
energized and re-mobilized the forces of privilege and the status  quo. 
Lord knows I am thankful this Thanksgiving Day that this period of  
retrenchment has finally come to an end – that we are poised once again to make  
fundamental progressive change in America.  Most Americans have not been alive  
during a period when Progressives were on the offensive --   when progressive 
values were  ascendant.  Barack Obama’s victory,  coupled with the complete 
failure of the right-wing agenda, make that possible  once again.  I am truly 
thankful  that we are on the verge of a new progressive era in America. 
But history is not some independent force that carries us along like  corks 
in a stream.  People  make history.  We will decide by our  actions whether the 
next ten or twenty or fifty years will be remembered as a  period of 
extraordinary progress and possibility, or whether our children will  write that we 
failed to seize this great historic  opportunity. 
Of course the fact that we find ourselves at this historic moment was not  
inevitable.  We have been afforded  this opportunity because of the labors of 
millions of people who did battle  before us. We stand on their shoulders. Many 
of them never got to see real  progress, but they battled on anyway.  They had 
what we all need -- the “cathedral builder’s  mentality.” 
During the Middle Ages, whole generations worked to build the great  
cathedrals of Europe without ever seeing their  completion.  They did their portion  
of a great multi-generational project.   
Today we should give thanks for the many progressive activists, and  
political leaders who have labored for decades but – like Moses – didn’t get to  
cross into the Promised Land.  There  were famous ones: people like Senator Paul 
Wellstone and Senator Paul  Simon.  There were political  consultants like the 
great Paul Tully.   
But, of course the real heroes were the thousands of unsung progressive  
political activists who built their section of the cathedral wall, or put  pains 
of glass in the windows, but aren’t around to see how the cathedral looks  
today.  People most of us never  heard of like my friends UAW Region IV Senior 
Citizen Coordinator Milt Shraeder,  or Jerry Prete who lead the senior citizens’ 
movement in Illinois for decades.   
And we should also give thanks that many of those who have labored for  years 
will – in fact – be able to  watch Barack Obama put his hand on the Bible in 
January, and experience that  moment of victory and all it could mean for the 
future of our planet. People  like Alice Tregay, who worked tirelessly for 
decades to register African  Americans to vote all over America.  People like 
Harvey Mader, who is now in  his 80’s. Harvey  worked for every progressive 
cause imaginable, including the campaigns of his  great friend Paul Wellstone.  
Harvey  was devastated when Paul and Sheila Wellstone died in that plane crash 
six years  ago.  But he followed Wellstone’s  dictum: Stand Up, Keep  Fighting. 
For the many  people like Harvey and Alice this election and the opportunity 
it gives us puts  the lie to the cynicism of the neigh-sayers.  It has 
validated their work, their  commitment and their faith in the future. 
I personally talked to dozens of African  Americans who took pictures of 
their deceased parents or grandparents with them  to vote on November 4th.  They 
wanted the people who came before them to join them – to witness –  at least 
symbolically – their vote to make an African American President of the  United  
States.  
After all, the “cathedral builder’s mentality” is rooted in something  very 
ephemeral: hope.  Everyday life  doesn’t always reinforce the notion that we 
will ultimately succeed at the great  multi-generational project of creating a 
truly democratic society. It’s been  pretty easy to lose faith in that 
possibility – especially through the darkest  moments of the last 40 years.   
To keep hope alive, periodically you have to experience some  success.   
That is probably the most important thing for which I give thanks this  
holiday.  More than anything else,  this year will be remembered as a time when 
hope was reborn in America: when the triumph of  improbable possibility sent a 
message to every child, of every color, all over  the world, that anything is in 
fact  possible if we make it so.  
So as my friend Brad Woodhouse would say: we have a lot to say grace over  
this Thanksgiving. Time to praise the Lord, and pass the potato  salad. 
Robert Creamer is a long-time political organizer and  strategist, and author 
of the recent book:  Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, available 
on _Amazon.com._ 
(http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Your-Mother-Straight-Progressives/dp/0979585295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213241439&sr=8-1)  

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