I'm pretty cynical about the Democrats. I'm cynical about Barack's ability to really change what's going on in the world. I not only think it's outside his power to change the economic system that has kept working people under the boot for hundreds of years, I think it's also simply not in his newest job description. The President of the United States simply isn't placed to get rid of US hegemony. To say the least, the Obamania I experienced in the US exasperated me. To say yet more, the same phenomenon appeared in Sydney and exasperated even more. Largely because in Sydney, the enthusiasm for Obama expresses itself not in "Get out the vote" events, but in rather...stranger ways:
Campos Coffee in Newtown, Sydney says, "To maintain Campos' staggering turnover of 200 coffees an hour, they draw on an arsenal of over 10 blends, including our pick: the new Obama Blend - a strong, slightly syrupy but eloquent coffee, blending beans from Africa and the Americas. Go Obamarama!"
Eloquent?
But when I woke up today (Wednesday), I knew the decision was made. Obama won, McCain conceded in the face of obvious defeat. Obama got out record numbers of voters.
I don't think the US has broken with the racism rooted in the very earliest days of the nation. I think the remnants of the Civil War, slavery, the Native American genocides that benefited the US as young nation are buried in the ground, sowed into our soil. They will affect everything that grows until we dig it out, acknowledge it, and radically change the society that prospered on the backs and blood of poor and colored people.
But today, as I read the New York Times, I read the stories of colored people crying, dancing with joy, feeling finally redeemed. I read stories of working people ecstatic at the end of a neoconservative regime. I read stories about people, just like me, who weren't sure he'd be able to do all he said, but voted for him because it was better than anything we've seen in the past ten years. Better than anything I've seen in my life...but I know that's not really saying much.
And I found myself crying with hope, joy, worry and relief for my tired aching country. I never expected to feel this way; today, I'm just a little proud of America.
I was soooo over joyed when Obama won it just seemed like i could finally breathe when i walked outside. Since for me personally health care was the issue i took up most i could just see in my mind mobile units of nurses walking through downtown giving flu shots and treating minor symptoms to the homeless and the poor. [enter the first person i met after i had left the massive celebration downtown] "Well they gone and did it! Now we'll see how bad it can get in this country. How do you think the terrorists are gonna be fraid of a black man who has no experience running this country? I'll tell ya they're gonna bomb us twice as much as they did with president bush." Yea that brought me back to the America i know, where online people had pictures of bullets with "obama" written on them and where people put obama's head on a monkey's body and where my friends who know where i stand tell me, "Thanks Chris, now all the blacks are going to be lined up at the welfare desk. Why would they work when the president will give them a free ride." Shit don't even get me started with the "baby killer" comments. So where as the election was such an amazing feeling and i had a short lived hiatus from the Asthma i get when i walk outside the dark and stormy cloud has once again parked itself right over my head again. I went to blockbuster the other day and was renting a movie and the guy at the counter began to make small talk with the girl i was with and somehow ended up spitting out something about an unexperienced black president imposing reverse racism upon the entire country,but don't worry cause he'll be dead a month into office, someone is bound to shoot him. i about hit him i think. So whereas the celebration was great i am back to the same pessimistic self i was before this whole deal.
ReplyDeleteCompletely unrelated to all of this, its Sunday. That means Bollywood to me. And for n*, krg, and everyone else, I give you this wonderful piece of joy:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKUVtlxwNXM