Hello, Friends,
It is a historical moment, almost beyond comprehension, that Barack Obama is President elect and that he and his family will soon be living in the White House... A black man and his family presiding and residing in the "White" house.
What is in the minds and hearts of black Americans now, especially older black Americans, is beyond my white person's comprehension. However, from my point of view--having been born in the forties and grown up in the fifties, etc., this story, if it would have been written then, could have been published only in a fantasy and science fiction magazine; maybe Ray Bradbury would have written it.
I remember a great scene in Bradbury's Martian Chronicles-- a beautiful book-- that--once Mars had been found to be safe and relatively easy to get to for residents of Earth-- All the black people in the American South just packed up and left... They all left, quietly and calmly-- leaving amazed whites lined up alongside the roads, just staring at them in disbelief and an odd kind of bereavement. If, during the time Bradbury was writing, if you were an American black and you wanted to find someplace to go to escape racist misery, you had to go to Mars to find it--obviously Detroit and New York and Chicago weren't really far enough...
Anyway, here we are now... What comes next, who can tell? Mr. Obama, as seems only fitting for a minority (minority for now--in about three or four decades, whites will be the American minority), finally gets the top job in the country-- but he has to shoulder the heaviest Presidential burden in almost a hundred years-- What he is inheriting is right up there with Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Its not a precise historical comparison-- no two moments in history could be. We've never been in a Depression and two wars at the same time before... But its just as about as bad as it can be-- and will take not just the President-elect's great skills and endurance to pull us out of it, but massive amounts of luck, international change and maybe even God's grace...
Does Mr. Obama have the intellectual gifts and perseverance of Lincoln and Roosevelt to do what he has to do? It certaintly seems like he does. Now he will need as much help as a President has ever gotten from his country. Can he count on that? Well, we'll see. You can only hope that those who are enraged or at the very least disaffiliated by the the reality of this man as President, will finally see that it is in their own vital interest to cooperate with what he has to do to save this country.
And-- a smaller consideration... Now what happens to all the news and talk and political shows? They must, inevitably (and naturally) take a huge dip in audience. Its a funny thing-- being on the radio and having a political talk show--I can feel everybody out there taking a vacation-- maybe one that lasts a long time... And shows like Jon Stewart's-- it will be like Court TV after the O.J. Simpson trial.
There is a kind of empty feeling that accompanies the joy and hope that goes along with this finaly achievement of this great event .. The anti-climax-- like the dropping off people often feel after sex or a huge undertaking has been accomplished. But there is, along with the worry and doubt and fear, also a great feeling of relief that the criminals, murderers and theives who have almost ruined this country during the last 8 years are soon to be gone. If there is any justice, many of them should be indicted and convicted for crimes against America. But retribution does not seem to be in Mr. Obama's nature and I guess its right we try to follow suit...
A moment of joy-- sober joy, but amazed joy, that such a thing should happen in this country.
Mike
mikefeder@nyc.rr.com
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3 comments:
Dear Mike and Fellow Bloggers,
I cannot in words express the feelings I have had since that historical moment when the announcement was made. It was beyond anything I have ever experienced in my 58 years on this earth.
I should probably tell you a little bit about me and my family. I am a white woman who has been in a committed relationship with a black man, David, since 1990. My daughter married a black man and they have two children, aged 7 and 4. I've seen first-hand the prejudice that is in this country. But I have also seen some changes in the past 18 years.
Back in the early 90's, people used to stare at us when we would walk down the street. Now, it just seems like interracial relationships are everywhere. It is wonderful to see. Nobody pays much attention to us anymore.
However, while surfing the internet, I have been amazed at how much hatred there still is in this country. There are people out there who actually believe all the lies that have been told about Obama. He's a terrorist, an Arab, a Muslim, hates white people and is going to take all of our money away from us. How can we possibly have made it to 2008 in this country with so much hatred? When will it end? Aren't the Republicans satisfied with all the havoc they've caused? They love Caribou Barbie, even though she doesn't even know that Africa, for God's sake, is a continent and not a country. Can anyone reading this tell us what magazines and newspapers you read regularly? She can't. Is she smarter than a fifth grader? I don't think so. And they wanted her to be "a heartbeat away from the presidency." What kind of idiocy is that?
In closing, all I can say is that it was a happy, happy day in this household and we look forward to eight years of progression and, hopefully, more understanding and cooperation. We had to live through eight years of George Bush. Now it's their turn.
God bless the United States of America and God bless Barack Obama.
Lana, your piece added a moving touch to Mike's piece. If I may add this:
This is not to take anything away from Obama, but as a man of 56(and you guys a tad older, or a few years younger) I've not seen a country feel itself free of a nightmare as we feel now; the dancing and singing is directed to Obama, but it has the feel of hostages being liberated from their captors........think about it, the Republican was campaigning against his OWN President; the President didn't go anywhere to campaign, he was poison........Gore didn't run against Clinton, not withstanding stories of some friction.....Bush Sr didn't run against Reagan.....and if I recall correctly, Humphrey didnt run against LBJ, and he lost an election due to blind loyalty....and we know now that LBJ's domestic achievements were enormous, and Humphrey attached himself to them, as he was a big part of their success. LBJ was limited as his Viet Nam legacy made him unpopular, but to this degree? This President (I can't call him 'my' or 'our' President, still, ever) was like a man without a country. I felt similarly from the other end of the tunnel.
Let me add this if I may; part of my frustration with the elections are substantiation, or lack thereof, of my perceptions....not my opinions, policies I think are correct, but my perceptions.....I saw in Bush 8 years ago a man who was a liar.....I saw a braggadocio coupled with that mendacity.
I saw a man who could not really debate, and you all remember that he was given points for debating and not falling apart in front of America. Gore was so on target, Kerry was also on top of the issues, and the bar for Bush was that he didn't implode.
Yet, when I thought after 4 years it was a slam dunk, bye bye, he won.......why, why was there a race?.......(not looking to discuss Kerry's weaknesses nor cheating, but it should have been a no brainer).........so now we see this past term that America was coming together to agree that this has been a nightmare, regardless of your political perspective. Aside from our friends, outside that circle, across the nation, we received affirmation.
So when I saw Palin, I could not, for the life of me, understand how anyone could feel good about her.........I understand that what I consider of value in a woman is not what Mary Jo Smith feels in the Dakotas .......but I heard women saying they loved the way she presented herself as a woman, how pretty she could look and be a working mom; and I saw, as clear as day, the kid in Junior High who didn't study and was asked questions, and you as the teacher would tell him/her, 'here's a bigger shovel'.........answering questions by bringing up bland issues and then, the most chuzpadik thing to do, to be applauded for telling a debate moderator that I won't, kiddo, follow your script and answer THOSE questions. The issue wasn't that you lacked intelligence, you were, instead, spunky.
So tonight I'm reading that the crap will be hitting the fan; we shall learn that McCain hardly spoke to her, that she unleashed attacks (Ayres I think was one) before McCain got to give approval; that she spent hundreds of thousands; that she thought (now this sounds as if it's fiction, but I'm hearing it is not) Africa was one country, and South Africa was one part of it, but not that it was continent; that she had no idea who was involved in NAFTA............and as we came closer to the historic day this past Tuesday, more and more we heard that she was hurting the ticket, that there was turmoil, that she was throwing her boss under the bus.........and I feel some vindication, not that you, dear friends, or anyone, will tell me I was right, as you felt similarly, but that my internal systems were on target, and that I can trust my sense of a person.............
I know I'm not alone in this, but it is a lonely feeling to experience doubts in your instincts, in your cognitive processing. So as much as I embrace the hope of a new age in politics, and enjoy seeing the President elect put together his team, the first order of business for me is to remind myself that a skill I thought I had, putting together impressions and facts, and coming to a fairly accurate conclusion, still has some life to it. I've been very worried that I was out of step, not with South Dakota, but with Barry at age 30 and 40.
Barry
Mike
You might want to try a paragraph break or two. This is not BAI after all ;-)
Just picked up The Talking Cure. Looking forward to it.
Can't say I'm happy about BO, but it's only because his politics are not mine. I wish him well for the good of our country.
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