Obamamania ... I Get It ... I Really Do
It was inauguration day in the US today, a day that marks the 43rd peaceful exchange of power from one outgoing president to one incoming president. The simple fact that this has happened 43 previous times is noteworthy enough, but there's no denying the historical significance of the incoming president.
I mean in when I say I understand the historical significance of the first African-American president in American history. Race is so important to our neighbors to the south. They like to pretend that it isn't, but if that was the case then the ethnicity of the incoming president wouldn't be as noteworthy as it was.
I've been thinking about it lately, going back over some of the publicly information about President Obama, reviewing some of the speeches he made, some of the things he said ... and while I have no doubt that the president is a skilled orator I think that the reason he won has less to do with politics and ideology and more to do with the message he sent, a message that the American people needed to hear in a big, bad way: yes, we've got some tough times ahead of us. Yes, our economy is almost at a standstill. Yes, our soldiers are fighting a war on two fronts on foreign soil, not only for us but for a group of people who despise their presence and wish they were elsewhere. Despite all of these things there is still hope out there, and if we have the will to do so we can reach out, hold that hope to our hearts, and cling to it mightily, just like our forefathers before us.
It's because of his message, and because of his skill as an orator that the media so readily latched on to this otherwise ordinary person. And it's the media, as much as anything else, that's largely responsible for his victory, for it's the media that took this otherwise ordinary senator from Illinois and turned him into something the American people so badly needed: a leader that can inspire hope in an era where despair comes so readily.
Obamamania. I get it. I really do.
And as much as I wish President Obama all the luck in the world I find myself compelled to stay realistic. He has a long and difficult road ahead of him, and the entire world hopes he's up to the challenge.
As a Canadian I look to our neighbors to the south and wish them good luck and prosperity in the coming years. President Obama's first foreign visit will be to Canada, and inasmuch as I think that improving relations between the US and Canada is a good thing, I'm also mindful of the fact that as president Obama is obligated to look after the interests of his people, and Canadian interests and American interests don't always lie in the same direction, and aren't always compatible. This is reality, and nothing can change it.
And I can't help but feel a certain amount of envy. I look at our American brothers and see a leader who inspires hope, and then I look at Ottawa and see a pack of squabbling sycophants scrambling to grab as much power as they can, each one convinced that his way is the best for our country and his opponents are both wrong and misguided. I look at the insults and the finger-pointing and I start to feel some of the despair that seems to have permeated the US over the last few years.
Hope. Sure could use some of that up here.
Obamamania. I get it. I really do.
I mean in when I say I understand the historical significance of the first African-American president in American history. Race is so important to our neighbors to the south. They like to pretend that it isn't, but if that was the case then the ethnicity of the incoming president wouldn't be as noteworthy as it was.
I've been thinking about it lately, going back over some of the publicly information about President Obama, reviewing some of the speeches he made, some of the things he said ... and while I have no doubt that the president is a skilled orator I think that the reason he won has less to do with politics and ideology and more to do with the message he sent, a message that the American people needed to hear in a big, bad way: yes, we've got some tough times ahead of us. Yes, our economy is almost at a standstill. Yes, our soldiers are fighting a war on two fronts on foreign soil, not only for us but for a group of people who despise their presence and wish they were elsewhere. Despite all of these things there is still hope out there, and if we have the will to do so we can reach out, hold that hope to our hearts, and cling to it mightily, just like our forefathers before us.
It's because of his message, and because of his skill as an orator that the media so readily latched on to this otherwise ordinary person. And it's the media, as much as anything else, that's largely responsible for his victory, for it's the media that took this otherwise ordinary senator from Illinois and turned him into something the American people so badly needed: a leader that can inspire hope in an era where despair comes so readily.
Obamamania. I get it. I really do.
And as much as I wish President Obama all the luck in the world I find myself compelled to stay realistic. He has a long and difficult road ahead of him, and the entire world hopes he's up to the challenge.
As a Canadian I look to our neighbors to the south and wish them good luck and prosperity in the coming years. President Obama's first foreign visit will be to Canada, and inasmuch as I think that improving relations between the US and Canada is a good thing, I'm also mindful of the fact that as president Obama is obligated to look after the interests of his people, and Canadian interests and American interests don't always lie in the same direction, and aren't always compatible. This is reality, and nothing can change it.
And I can't help but feel a certain amount of envy. I look at our American brothers and see a leader who inspires hope, and then I look at Ottawa and see a pack of squabbling sycophants scrambling to grab as much power as they can, each one convinced that his way is the best for our country and his opponents are both wrong and misguided. I look at the insults and the finger-pointing and I start to feel some of the despair that seems to have permeated the US over the last few years.
Hope. Sure could use some of that up here.
Obamamania. I get it. I really do.