From Barack Obama's Boston convention speech four years ago:
"Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America.
There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.
The pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.
We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states.
There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.
We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."
Today, my fellow Americans, I am burnt out. I am burnt out on Halloween candy and work for hire. I am burnt out on feeling angry and feeling tired. I am burnt out on cutting food into tiny pieces and to-do lists that never get smaller. I am burnt out on coffee and emails and arguing with people less than 3 feet high. And yes, I am a weency bit burnt out on politics.
I overdosed, and now I'm feeling hungover. Our elections are weird that way--you make history and then sit around for a couple of months twiddling your thumbs. But that's fine. I'd just not like to see electoral maps behind my eyelids every time I close my eyes.
But I did want to print this excerpt from the speech that brought Obama into the national spotlight because it was the part of the speech that lingered for me, and because I heard echoes of it in his acceptance speech, and because although I go around saying that I don't care if we are divided as long as my side is on top, the truth is I hate that the United States thinks of itself as these two groups with nothing in common except citizenship, and I love that Obama seems to agree this is worth not being glib about.
There are a few people I love whose politics are very different than mine. Many people I love have loved ones whose politics are even more different than mine. And the truth is, when I look close up at these people who come to mind easily, it's not fair or right or helpful to simply condemn their wrong-headedness. I don't ever want to be a one-issue American, even if I'd like to punch California in the gut right now, and send Arkansas off to Rikers for 15 to life.
I have tried over the course of my lifetime to bring people around to my way of thinking by arguing, pontificating, cajoling, pleading, mocking and commanding. Not so successfully. A few times in my life, however, I have changed people's minds, and that has always been by action, not words. I think this is Barack Obama's plan. I hope so.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I’m so glad that you included Obama’s quote in your blog today. I was frustrated watching the election coverage yesterday because of how compartmentalized everything is in the press. And trust me, when you are stuck in a waiting room with CNN on all day, you get A LOT of repeat compartmentalization! I actually tried to put my head into my book and ignore it after the first few rounds, but the one thing I looked up for and was so grateful to see was the blip from Colin Powell. I don’t have his words perfectly…but he stated something along the lines that Barack Obama shouldn’t be introduced as the African American President Elect, but as the President Elect who happens to be African American. My husband’s grandmother, a feisty, intuitively brilliant woman, used to take issue when her grandkids or any kid when they said: “I’m Irish,” or “I’m Italian.” Her response would invariably be, “When have you ever been in Ireland? Or “What part of Italy were you born in? You aren’t Irish, you aren’t Italian; you are American.”
Can we as a nation, every day, remember to stay aware of that which makes us similar? I know that I am naïve, but instead of those red and blue states, once in a while could we remind ourselves that they are all red, white and blue? We are a nation of individuals that live side by side in spite of our differences. I was proud on Election Day to be part of a whole, an enormous nation participating in the common goal of electing a new President. Some would back a winner, some would not, but in the end, we would all wake up the next morning having demonstrated the accord that makes us American. May we focus on that? The quote from Obama gives me hope that we will.
Post a Comment