Mood:
brightTopic: "Vero Possumus" (4)
On the day that Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) declared his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States in Springfield, Illinois, Frodo ordered a Tee Shirt and two bumper stickers. Frodo has subsequently contributed to the Obama campaign, and he intends to do so again. It was Frodo's opinion on that day that this young man was "Lincolnesque" in both stature and in his approach to the world at large. Frodo had already determined that Obama was both older than John F. Kennedy, and had more time served in the Legislative Branch than had Abraham Lincoln, himself. Subsequently, Frodo determined that Obama was older than both Jefferson, when penning the "Declaration of Independence," and Columbus, upon discovery of a "New World." Frodo decided at that moment that the issue of age and experience would be of no consideration in his advocacy on behalf of the Junior Senator from Illinois.
Frodo made the assumption that Obama was much more "electable" than any of his competitors, and he was somewhat taken aback when he received similar but contradictory comments from friends and associates supporting other candidates. Frodo was concerned when many of those people who have stood with him in prior struggles were so vehement in their rejection of one about whom they seemed to know so very little. Truly, Frodo looked back and questioned his own judgment, simply to make sure that his hope and faith for the future had not clouded his assessment, or his investment.
Frodo did not know that John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the right guy for his time until he watched him on the podium on the day of his Inauguration. It was not the words which Frodo long ago memorized, and recalls with tears in his eyes from time-to-time, but it was the reaction of the President when a young man came flying down Pennsylvania Avenue amidst the snow and the cold, on the back of a live buffalo. Kennedy called him back, to return to the viewing stand, so that he could shake his hand, and pat the buffalo. Kennedy smiled, he laughed, he applauded, as the buffalo took off at a breakneck pace to contnue the parade and to delight an entire nation (except, perhaps, for anyone named Nixon).
Frodo was not there to make a similar assessment about Mr. Lincoln, so he doesn't have a long and distinguished track record in this regard, but today, he has the exact same feeling he had on that bitter cold day in January, 1961. Frodo became aware of the Latin motto on the Obama Campaign Seal, which appears as the Topic in this treatise.
Frodo was struck by the fact that so much of what we say, and read, and believe, is rooted in the classical Latin. How appropriate it is to link the cornerstone of a political campaign to the very heart of who we, the peoples of Middle Earth, are each to one another. Frodo's courage, taking the Ring as his personal curse, when all others seemed adrift, was matched by those who joined with him, and sacrificed so much in order to combat evil, no matter its' form. Lord Tolkien would have used a similar translation, had he thought of it first.
"Vero possumus."
Yes we can.
