the end of the beginning

Within about fifteen minutes of leaving St. Croix on a 45' Africat a devine brown booby with a spectacular yellow beak started following the boat. He was quite magnificent, striking definition between his black head and white chest, a stunningly graceful flyer. He stayed with us the entire trip, swooping across the flybridge and sailing straight out ahead of us, then plunging down to glide along the tops of the waves. He'd disappear for a short while until we thought maybe he had tired of us only to reappear by the flybridge to repeat his performance. He guided us into Charlotte Amalie Harbor, glanced back at us to see if we were following, then when we looked like we knew where we were going he left us to fly back out to sea. A messenger of some sort i thought, he was so beautiful, he had to be.

i sat up top next to the captain and while traveling across the pond he asked me why i was taking a picture of his radar screen. i explained that i liked to take pictures to use in my blog and that i posted every Wednesday. i explained i was trying to save the world, chuckled and said tough job. He said that was noble, better than those not doing anything then he went quiet. He was quiet for a longish bit there then said, "You should title the blog "we are near the end of the beginning." i liked the sound of it and thought OK if i use the picture, i'll use his title.

Look at the picture,(you might have to double click on it to really see it) located on it is a point called the "End". The little boat symbol is where we were when the picture was taken and the "End" was the Yacht Haven marina but only the beginning of a night of great music. "Third World," the reggae band from Jamaica was making an appearance on St. Thomas and we were lucky enough to get invited to go see them.

Plato had this to say about new music...not that reggae is new but you will see where i'm going with this later.

"The introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state, for styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions. ... The new style, gradually gaining a lodgement, quietly insinuates itself into manners and customs, and from it ... goes on to attack laws and constitutions, displaying the utmost impudence, until it ends by overturning everything."

Today, those on the left who backed President Obama's incredible bid back in 2008 are getting to the end of the beginning. Like Plato said ,for some, President Obama's election is imperiling their whole world view. They are fearful of that which is new and different. They don't like change and fight against it daily. The arrival in the White House by President Obama was not the end of the journey to create change. That is happening now as new laws get passed and the end becomes more of a reality.

Closing Guantanamo, moving Kahlid Sheik Mohammad to NY, moving the health insurance bill through the legislative process, working to get out of Iraq and reconsidering our priorities in Afghanistan, finally announcing a deal with China on clean energy this morning these are all processes that get us to our end.

Closing Guantanamo will end some of the off shoring of detainee's captured in this
mess of our own making. While Mohammad's trial may finally expose some of the machinations behind President Bush's "War on Terror." The US-China deal is important because it will drive world and market behavior, regardless of what happens in congress or Copenhagen. While health insurance for all can only positively affect our economy by making our citizens healthier employees and employers and creating a more robust workforce.

It is only after we accomplish these goals that the real beginning can start.