Another tour stop in "Bono's America", and this one will perhaps be the most magical of all.
To look at these, and watch this footage, you would never know how nightmarish a place Congress has become these days....
...a place where Democrats routinely enthusiastically vote in favor of pro-Iranian War resolutions (the recent Kyl-Lieberman Amendment and others)....where they knuckle under like limp dolls and refuse to do their duty to subpenoa criminals like Alberto Gonzales to justice....where SCHIP failed, a no-brainer bill if ever there was one (children's health care!), and Democrats join Republicans in refusing to overcome Bush's veto of another version....where bills supporting torture, legalized wiretapping, "Extrordinary rendition", the Gestapo-style illegal immigrant raids (1,300 people rounded up from schools, homes, McDonald's, etc, and deported 2 days ago, in one massive sweep, in Cali) the criminal behavior of Blackwater USA, are applauded by Dems....where Henry Waxman sags like a jellyfish in the heat of Cheney's blackmail and can't seem to get anyone under the spotlight, much less newly classified documents back into the open..where Republicans and Democrats do not even hang out together socially anymore, they hardly ever speak to each other, the place has become a $(%(% FORTRESS with clouds of mutual hatred hanging in the air like clouds of Zyklon B, poisoning the fabric of the body politic. Things have NEVER been so dark....we are presently paralyzed by corruption, infighting, inertia, and fear, as we have perhaps never before been in our history..not since the Civil War, anyway.
And yet, when Bono walks into the place, it's like a ray of purest sunlight. Looking at those pics, and esp watching the video, you can catch the faintest whiff of what the place used to be like. A place to lookup to and admire and even believe for one slight moment that if you learned your civic duty and made your voice be heard, you COULD make a difference. Those paintings, and gorgeous wall murals, you admire them again, and forget that Flight 93 didn't crash there, as Bin Laden had planned, and almost happened.
The smiles on the faces of those Senators (some of whom, maybe, could be U2 fans? Some of the Blue Dog Democrats are younger than he is!
) must indicate they felt this way also. Never mind that Biden is working the room so shamelessly he may as well put on Bono's shades and pick up a guitar. Never mind that Lugar is an anachronism, a dinosaur from a kinder, gentler age, and his name is not often in the headlines these days; he has lost the power to tame his party. Never mind all of who is attempting to use who. Never mind, even, that Bono may genuienly enjoy, in his own way, playing his brand of politics,a nd even the memory of the man who walked up the Capitol steps wearing combat fatigues and an army hat has faded.
He is an Elder Statesman now.
But look at those smiles, listen to his voice, and above all, see the light in his eyes. Whatever he may have outwardly become, inside, he is the same person. "What happened to the beauty I had inside of me?" he asked on the last album, and indeed he has acquired the worldly veneer of those who mingle with power too much. That delicate balance of Earth and Spirit that he had until about 15 yrs ago has faded, and the shell is armor now.
But never fully....the "beauty" is still there. Even if he has to choose when to show it, at least we know he can and will. The possibility of the future is there, and it could still be if not better than today, at least it will still be a sane place. So we can see he still believes. And that's my incense, my Miracle Drug. We'd better treasure this as long as we can, folks. We don't know how much longer we'll have it.
I cannot help but think that these scenes will become sepia-tinted in time, and not too long from now. After we attack Iran, Bono may well bloody those lovely hands of his with fist-smashing (as he alluded to in his speech.) Keats's Widening Gyre will whirl and contract again, and like a chimera, this too will pass. These images will swirl and vanish, as if borne on the ripples of the sea. Bono will come to Congress again, but a year from now, because of what we will do, he will be changed, changed utterly.
Pray God he will still be able to look up at the ceiling and see the colors....as well as stand in the hallways and brood.