Goodness, it's hard to love America, notwithstanding some great art and literature. All that misconceived superiority, the election of cretins, the lack of universal health care, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the McCarthy era, binning Kyoto, Guantanamo, 50% of people believing in creationism and not evolution, to pick a few things that spring swiftly to mind.
And then something happens that suddenly humanises a nation that seemed anything but.
The last time I remember deliberately turning on the television during the daytime it was to watch, open mouthed, the collapse of the twin towers. On Tuesday it was to hear Barack Obama’s inaugural speech, which made me glad and hopeful and worried that too many people see a clever, able and inspiring man as a saviour and with huge relief expect him, not us, to improve our faltering world.
But just read it - an intelligent, thoughtful, determined, hugely human approach that doesn't shrug off the ignominy of the very recent past, but draws a line between the approach then and now.
Gordon Brown talked about change, change, change when he took up the UK premiereship. Huh! We can but hope that Obama will deliver where Brown just teeters on the brink of indecision and same, same, same. The world will be watching like never before.
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12 comments:
Too much "Obamania" as it has been coined in French.
Is the French reference to mania about the impossible expectations from the US public of one man, or a dislike of the man himself?
We hope Obama doesn't become Oh bummer!
What a time for a mixed race president to be elected. He has a can of worms to lead the way forward through. But it is a global problem with global solutions and not down to one man. He is an amazing orator, hopefully not in the same vein as the vacuous one dimensional Blair, and he has the personality to lead people onto better things, engendering an ‘us’ approach to solving the problems. He seems to be a breath of fresh air and I am wishing him well, waiting to see how he performs, am prepared to give him extra time and the benefit of the doubt as he is in a unique world with unique problems for the 21st century and things will conspire against him for a while. He has a honeymoon period and fickle people will be impatient for returns, results and turn against him as quickly as they embraced him – human nature at its least attractive, (well almost, serial killers just pip them at the post here). But given how far we have fallen with our cult of celebrity and personality culture, the greed of the financial institutions and our dreadful treatment of the poor then I can only hope, the holistic approach of an inspirational president untarnished, not jaded, not cynical but realistic with an open minded view, coupled with the credit crunch making people less selfish, less full of self entitlement and more caring as we all become less materialistic, will produce a kinder more caring world society. There is a great deal of good that can come out of a selfish society crumbling before our very eyes – it’s nature, it abhors a vacuum – and it’s time to hold out a hand to the worlds, cultures and societies we have ignored, trounced, walked over and dumped upon as the credit crunch levels us all out to a much more egalitarian and empathetic world. Well, let’s hope so eh?
No, it means too much is too much. Too much talk about the same thing, over and over again.
WW - oh yes!
MOB - Oh yes, yes yes!
Have to say tho, in America's favour,that it's hard (impossible I guess) to love any country if the manifestations of patriotism is something one equates with jingoism.
AMEN mOPSA but I do think everyone expects a hell of a lot of him. He is only mortal after all... isnt he?
Yes, I thought it was a wonderful speech.
Well after years of enduring the last administration Iam truly happy to have Obama in office.
I read your list of things that make it hard to love my country.
Your list is the same list so many of us here have. My personal favorite is the election of cretins, cretins who refused to accept scientific facts about climate change, or evolution for that matter, and have tried to destroy the separation of church and state.Those same folk have bankrupted this country through greed and war. I could go on and on...
I still have hope that things over here might change for the better. We'll see..it's not going to be easy for any of us..
Fpot - exactly!
Welshcakes - yes, I've been depressed by the sniping about it in the press - what do they want, manna from heaven?
Frauklug - I hope no offence taken - I could just have easily produced a list that reflected equally badly in the UK! I can never decide if it's immensely reassuring or depressing that nothwithstanding great swathes of public opinion that feel the same way I (you?) do, that we still end up in such a mess and with such horrors "representing" us.
No offense taken at all Mopsa, I loved reading your take on the whole thing.As well as the others. I'm with you, and - "horrors" is the word. Let's hope both of our countries can get out of this mess, and soon.
Oh PLEASE don't judge Americans so harshly. Yes there are those who naively believe that the world ends once they take a step off US soil, and that POOF, Adam and Eve appeared as by magic, and ,,, Kyoto ... well that was it, the last bit of horror (well maybe not the last, but certainly one of the most blatant mistakes).
Many of us ARE hoping that we can admit that we are Americans again. That our government will try to work with each other and other countries, and not follow the path of monied private interests. We're hoping that maybe now, everyone will realize that the world's resources, and economies all impact each other!
I didn't mean to go off like this, it's just that I'm one of the ones who watched the election with bated breath, afraid to hope that THIS time enough people would show up and vote the way I did. (Since they didn't the last time!)
Anyhow, I followed your photo of Mopsa here to your blog from Paula's. I've got Emma, an OES (But now it's time to work)
Kari
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