Distraction from What?

So I had the great and unexpected pleasure of sitting down with Al Gore for a couple of hours this week, to talk mostly about some distributed media ideas. He was a much brighter, open-minded, and – if I might add – cosmic thinker than I gave him credit for, before. I felt like he was really one of “us,” if you know what I mean: the kids in college who got those wild thoughts about how everything in the world, and even beyond, is connected somehow. And evolving. Only Gore found this organic view of reality reflected in the Constitution of the United States, and sought to enable the extension of this Enlightenment thinking into practical reality.

But still, I could imagine him back in the dorm room, sitting up all night with the rest of us and dreaming about how things might be – if we were ever in charge. With Gore, much more than Clinton, we almost got one of us in there. This was an inspiring thought to me, until I realized that this might be as close as we ever get. And if we get that close again, would the refs just throw another flag?

Call it awful, but I realized that the judicial decision to give the 2000 election to Bush has left deeper scars on my psyche than watching the WTC fall (from my apartment window). It made me wonder if the ‘system’ is broken, the game is rigged, and no one of conscience will ever be allowed to actualize the Constitution ever again.

Close to the end of the meeting, we got on to the subject of the Showdown in Iraq. Gore said quite plainly, “Well, of course it’s just a distraction. Nothing more.” I nodded along, but only later thought to ask: a distraction from what?

I’ve got my own ideas, but what are yours?