BONO in 2008 //

Just imagine...

The Oval Office becomes known as “The Ellipse.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas in wraparound shades. The secret service in black leather jackets lined with American flags. “Beautiful Day” for a national anthem...

A president whose commitment to addressing the crisis of poverty and AIDS is fully matched by his budget priorities!

YET...

We won’t seriously entertain any ideas of changing US election law to support a Bono bid for the presidency. Why? Two reasons. First, we believe that Bono should keep on doing exactly what he does so well: writing lyrics, leveraging his celebrity status for the common good, and demonstrating how powerful creativity and a conscience can be.

More importantly, while the presidency does matter, this is not just about the presidency. It is about us. How much do WE care? We don’t need to amend the constitution to shift the terms of political discourse. We don’t need to amend the constitution to demonstrate our personal commitment to acting for change.

So why this website and “campaign”? At a time when American politics seems characterized by an insidious cycle of power brokering and cynical maneuvering, where peace and justice issues are caught in dichotomized language of “us versus them”, floating Bono for president in 2008 seemed like one way to sweeten the political atmosphere and throw light on the sort of issues that should be much more prominent in American public life.

With that in mind, we view this “Bono in 2008” page as a way to:

• offer a good humored but serious antidote to the current poisonous climate in American politics

• encourage change in how people think about political involvement

• increase awareness of why caring about and devoting resources to Debt, Aids, and Trade in Africa, personally and nationally, is in all of our best interests

• help make the poor, the vulnerable, the hungry, the homeless and the sick the “special interests” they deserve to be

• generate interest in human security, not just national security

• make “red vs. blue states” rhetoric irrelevant

Here you can educate yourself about:

• Bono’s political and humanitarian activities

• organizations that pursue peacemaking and social justice

• organizations that pursue socially conscious business practices

• and a page where you can sign in and register your willingness to commit to these causes, locally and globally

Our hope is that between now and 2008 this might be one contribution to a revitalized and renewed sense of political community. By holding all our candidates for office accountable to these goals, by personally committing to put our money and time where we say our convictions are, we can begin to “close the gap between dreaming and doing.”