Hope and History

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I got about ten to twelve seconds of face-time with Senator Joe Biden at last night's Pacific Design Center $5000-per-person fundraiser (which I was invited to but didn't pay for). I asked him if he'd seen Oliver Stone's W. and he said nope, not yet, how is it? And I told him it's more or less a Greek tragedy with a little comedy thrown in, and well worth seeing. Biden is obviously a little busy these days. I knew the drill before asking, of course, but I asked anyway.

Sen. Joe Biden during his Pacific Design Center speech at last night's fundraiser -- Thursday, 10.16.06, 8:05 pm

I loved a line in a speech Biden delivered to a sizable crowd in the open-air plaza area. It's from Irish poet Seamus Heaney, and expressed a dream that if things go well on Nov. 4th, "hope and history" might "rhyme. The exact line: "History forbids us to hope this side of the grave. But once in a lifetime, the longed-for tide of justice can arise and hope and history rhyme." Here's a partial mp3 of Biden's remarks.

Biden, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (l.) during Biden's open-air speech -- Thursday, 10.16.08, 8:02 pm