Speaking in koans
January 27, 2007 at 5:47 pm by Web Editor in News
It was easy to see that the toughest part of Hank Johnson’s job in the election season was behind him last September as the candidate, sporting a cream-colored suit and a lopsided grin, trotted onto the stage at the state Democratic Convention to scattered handclaps, and gave an impromptu speech that was heavy on halting phrases.
Johnson whipped firebrand U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-DeKalb, in a run-off election a month earlier. Now he was facing what amounted to a walk around the last lap of the track to claim victory in the general election. In seemingly off-the-cuff remarks, Johnson wasted no time excoriating — in his own, inimitably quiet way, of course — the Bush administration for leading America, at $3 billion a week, into what Johnson called "an unwinnable war" in Iraq.
He assailed the president over Bush’s constant refrain of making his tax cuts permanent. Finding some rhythm after a slow, stuttering start, Johnson called on the administration to instead make Pell Grants permanent, to make access to college tuition permanent, fair wages permanent, universal health care permanent.
It had been a speech waiting to catch fire, and the crowd almost responded to him as the list of woe continued, but McKinney holdouts were in the room, deflating with their silence the gushing reaction the strong words, however calmly delivered, might have generated.
Johnson didn’t seem to mind.
Friday down at the state Capitol, the crowd seemed to have adjusted to Johnson’s style. The freshman congressman was still the same old unflappable Hank. The fact that he’s a Buddhist and not a Baptist preacher in militant mode has sunk in to parts of his constituency. They now accept the battle phrases floated into the atmosphere as koans more than rage-filled ranting. Standing in the background like an Easter Island statue of spiritual calm, Johnson waited for his turn to speak at the anti-Iraq war demonstration. He was third in line, behind U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, and state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, the latter of whom is drafting an antiwar resolution in the Statehouse. For his part, Johnson’s working the issue with Lewis in Washington. A cosponsor of U.S. House Resolution 23, which calls on President Bush to not order an escalation of troops in Iraq, Johnson hinted he would cut off funding for the war if the president does not change course.
"We don’t need a surge of troops," he said. "We need a surge of truth."
It’s already a stale line. No matter.
"Teach," a woman encouraged, spoken not so much to stir emotion in Johnson as to acknowledge the crowd was with him, however low-key he wanted to be.
"We have lost 3,000 soldiers in Iraq," Johnson said in the calmest of voices, "and those numbers do not include the numbers of private contractors who have been killed. The numbers of casualties are much larger than what we’ve been told."
He charged defense contracting giant Halliburton with overcharging and "plundering" American taxpayers for the rebuilding effort in Iraq.
"Tell the truth, congressman," a voice said in the crowd.
The president has the power to send more troops, Johnson acknowledged.
"But Congress controls the purse strings," he said. "We are setting up a constitutional dilemma."
Some of the protestors on the Capitol steps, affiliated with the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, were on their way from the Statehouse to Washington, D.C., to participate in a nationwide antiwar demonstration.
"I see some of your signs that say "War is not the answer," Johnson said. "You stand tall with those signs."
"We’re with you, Hank," a woman shouted from the crowd.
The congressman stayed cool. If he was no rabble-rouser, his calm gave his words something maybe even more than seat-of-your-pants inspiration in the spotlight of public attention. The words conveyed a sense — how foreign in these times — of some reflection.
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