It's almost over, thank god.

[newton]

Just a few years ago, Barack Obama was a little-known state senator, who somehow managed to get elected after having been blown out in a prior campaign. When he decided to run for the senate, he was given little chance, but the stars aligned and his favored Republican opponent self-destructed. When he announced his bid for the presidency, he again was given little chance, but somehow he overcame the powerful Clinton machine, which unexpectedly began to misfire. Then he was down again in the middle of the presidential race, with McCain/Palin riding the usual wave of previously successful wedge issues. Out of the blue, the economy tanked and McCain handled the issue badly, thrusting Obama into the lead he never relinquished, as McCain/Palin continued desperately to throw mud that never stuck. So on Nov. 4, Americans from all walks of life elected a black president named Barack Hussein Obama, abandoned by his father and raised by grandparents and a single mother who had to resort to food stamps. Not only Americans, but people throughout the world cheered and celebrated the dawn of new and better day, a sunburst following eight long years of American shame and disgrace.

If you had tried a few years ago to place a bet on this happening, the odds against it would have been several million to one. That to me looks a lot like a miracle, one of those extremely rare, intermittant interventions of the deity, however you define Him/Her/It, in the normal, self-contained operation of the world. Why this sort of thing doesn't happen more often, why so much tragedy and evil occurs, is the problem of "theodicy," a constant struggle for theologians and ordinary believers alike, fools though they may be in the eyes of others.

I've decided to move on from forum posting, having done so much of it on waukegan.org that I became tired of reading my own comments. May Waukegan Talk live long and prosper. And especially when it seems most foolish, believe in Waukegan.