Awesome Night
“What an awesome night for you,” President George W. Bush to President Elect Barack Obama, November 4, 2008
I grew up in America. In Columbus, Ohio, which I think would even qualify as real America in Sarah Palin’s eyes. In Kindergarten I didn’t really speak English and I was, for my entire time there, one of the only brown people in the community. However, I never felt racially left out and when we studied the Constitution and the history of America I never felt like it left out someone like me. And apparently it doesn’t. I still remember the pause in the roll call when new teachers got to my long and odd name. But now Barack Hussein Obama is President. It didn’t matter then and, after an 8 year nightmare, it doesn’t matter now.
I’m in Sri Lanka now. I see my future here or, more accurately, based here. There is an awful lot more cleaning up and, shall we say, infrastructure work that I thought there would ever be. But what it is. We are enduring our own George W. Bush, inarticulate, casually racist, surrounded by sordid men and dirty deeds, shredding the Constitution and burning money like so much paper. I fear that it will be 10 more years unless we find our Obama soon, and this political culture does not breed such.
However, for the first time in a long time, we have some adult leadership in the world that says explaining policy (as complex and boring as it is) is more important than marketing it. That achieving security is more than just posturing, and that torture and suspension of law does not substitute for intelligence. That rural people are cool, but city people are cool too, and no less patriotic. And any number of things which seemed blindingly obvious to me as a child but which have had no play in this tragic century.
But, inshallah, I do believe in this man and I do have great hope for the future now. I, personally, feel like perhaps it’s possible to get ahead without being an asshole, and I’m making some effort to restrain myself. That it is possible to actually be calm and state points and listen and that some change will come of it. Because it has.
I watched the election at home with my mother, the only person I know that voted. Her absentee ballot is above. Afterwards I drove my Achi around to the bayth kade to get her and Seeya the weird ayurvedic oils that older engines require. Sat around shyly thumbing my Blackjack while she chatted on with the bayth kadette about her grandchildren and various ailments.
Came home to change for work and a very old man was tottering about in the sun, asking for money for some medical condition. I usually don’t, never do, but I though what would Barack Obama do, and I gave him all the money in my wallet. I don’t even think that’s what he would do, I don’t know, but I personally do want to do better. I mean, I can.
Went to see the kids later, showed them a picture and tried to get them to say ‘Obama’. It doesn’t compute yet, comes out ‘Mama’ or ‘Bama’. By the time they grow up perhaps it’ll be granted. I mean, the next feasible Republican candidate is Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American (as in Desi). But for today, man, it’s just so mind blowing. Not his race, but the fact that it is now so self evident that all men are created equal. Just self-evident.
It’s been a long election, and I’m hoping to believe, that the next years will be better than the last.
Great post, Indi. Glad to hear your reaction. I’ve been having an interesting exchange with Dinidu de Alwis over at his site and I’m not sure I made my point, but I’m sure this supports it. It may take time for this US election to have tangible effects for Sri Lanka, I mean in terms of economy, prices and such, but there’s this immeidate, powerful inspiration that has incredible value pretty much anywhere.
When I was considering giving up my Green Card, I told a (Democratic) friend of mine that the US no longer energized me as it had in the past; that it was now exporting fear rather than hope. I knew enough history to know that there were moments when America got deep into the fear business (The House UnAmerican Activities Committee is an obvious example, but there were others), but on balance the US was a net exporter of hope. The balance went negative under George W. Bush and there were moments when I thought the condition was permanent.
Now it looks like America is back in the hope business:
“And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. (Cheers, applause.) To those — to those who would tear the world down: we will defeat you. (Cheers, applause.) To those who seek peace and security: we support you. (Cheers, applause.) And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright: tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals — democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope. (Cheers, applause.)”
Full speech at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/us/politics/04text-obama.html?pagewanted=1&sq=obama%20speech&st=cse&scp=4
In terms of oratory, it was masterful. It evoked Lincoln (the first President from Illinois, in many respects an outsider like Obama, and one of the founders of the Republican Party), repeatedly. Most poignant to me was Obama’s reference to the vote as an affirmation that “more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from the Earth,” the same claim made by Lincoln standing amidst the graves of Gettysburg in 1863.
A victorious Democrat evoking Lincoln, a Republican who freed the slaves. Killing many birds with one stone. Masterful.
Obama said early in the campaign that he was reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, a book about how Lincoln constituted his Cabinet: not yes men, but independent thinkers who had in many cases opposed Lincoln on issues. Hope the lessons stuck. The most important quality of a leader is the ability to pick the right people for the right jobs. This was one where Obama clearly trumped McCain. So far, so good.
It is pro forma to say good things about defeated candidates, as Obama did. I am, and will continue to be, an admirer of John McCain, not because he trashed several expensive planes that belonged to the US Air Force and lived to tell the tale or because of his sojourn in the Hanoi Hilton, but for taking on vested interests while in the Senate. I followed the debate on the 1996 Communications Act closely. He was the one man in Congress who had the guts to take on the broadcasting industry. The US and the world needs more men like him.
And he had some good lines too, ones that Obama should consider making his own:
“We want government to do its job, not your job; to do it better and to do it with less of your money; to defend our nation’s security wisely and effectively, because the cost of our defense is so dear to us; to respect our values because they are the true source of our strength; to enforce the rule of law that is the first defense of freedom; to keep the promises it makes to us and not make promises it will not keep.”
Not that inconsistent with the last quote from the victory speech that I will use:
“There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know the government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.”
Freakin beautiful summary, Rohan. Really, really spot on. Thanks for taking the time.
Well put Mssrs Samarajiva – the enthusiasm coupled or offset with the history made this a fabulous blog. You(plural) should do it more often. Thanks.
lol hope
I’m an avid reader of your blog Indi- and I just noticed that your mom voted in Montgomery County, MD- the same county/state where I vote :) It really is a small world after all.
I recall mentioning about a year ago under one of your posts that polls in the US indicate that the support for war in Iraq was dropping. Even the support for the Vietnam war dropped in less than a decade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_popular_opinion_of_invasion_of_Iraq
Of course there is the economic crisis that has brought things to head.
So…question is…what makes people in some countries vote against their best interests for so long? Sri Lankans (of whom the majority are Sinhalese living outside the war zone) don’t appear to see that the war has been going on for decades and the economy has gone from bad to worst. I suppose it all boils down to freedom of press.
Would be interested in reading some posts on actual data or polls conducted within Sri Lanka.
On a semi-light note: Chris Rock (comedian) mentioned that when americans vote for a black man as dumb as George Bush….then you know that black people in the US can have the same aspirations as white people.
Obama’s portrayal of his father (Kenyan) and step father (Indonesian) in his autobiography will sound too familiar to a lot of Sri Lankans. Two highly skilled, energised young men eager to return home to contribute to a post-colonial future in their own countries only to have their spirit broken by corrupt politics.
Best wishes for the New Year and here’s to building hope for the future and those kids you are friends with :-)
Something like 75% support the war (LBO). Anecdotally, almost everyone I meet think that at least is going well. The government shut down all independent coverage, so I have my doubts