The choice

As I mentioned in the previous post, every turn of the page of today's Times has me howling with outrage or snickering with amused contempt. But, in light of Karl Rove's hate speech (which, as Josh Marshall notes, was certainly intended for our ears just as surely as it was for the people sitting in the audience), we come across a piece in the op ed section that can make a strong man weep.

I try to go to the gym just about every morning. Because I work out with my scarf on, people stare - just as they do on the streets of Cambridge.

The other day, though, I felt more self-conscious than usual. Every television in the gym highlighted some aspect of America's conflict with the Muslim world: the war in Iraq, allegations that American soldiers had desecrated the Koran, prisoner abuse at Guantánamo Bay, President Bush urging support of the Patriot Act. The stares just intensified my alienation as an Arab Muslim in what is supposed to be my country. I was not sure if the blood rushing to my head was caused by the elliptical trainer or by the news coverage.

Frustrated and angry, I moved to another part of the gym. I got on a treadmill and started running as hard as I could. As sweat dripped down my face, I reached for my towel, accidentally dropping my keys in the process. It was a small thing, I know, but as they slid down the rolling belt and fell to the carpet, my faith in the United States seemed to fall with them. I did not care to pick them up. I wanted to keep running.

Suddenly a man, out of breath, but still smiling and friendly, tapped me on my shoulder and said, "Ma'am, here are your keys." It was Al Gore, former vice president of the United States. Mr. Gore had gotten off his machine behind me, picked up my keys, handed them to me and then resumed his workout.

More than an election was stolen in 2000. Our humanity, our decency, our essence as a democracy was stolen then too. We just didn't know it yet. And a good man was deprived of his hard-earned right to lead us. And we were deprived of the right man to lead us.

Because of choices Nader made to put his ego ahead of the public good; because of choices a bare minority of voters made, preferring a guy "they'd like to have a beer with instead of the guy who invented the internets;" because of choices five members of the Supreme Court made to choose rank politics over the Constitution; we now have a choice: anger or despair.