Yesterday, I spoke with a worker (probably of Hispanic ancestry) at my regular grocery store, Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco. We shared how happy we are at the election of Barack Obama. I asked him what he was happy about. He said that the day after the election, three people greeted him warmly and directly on the street, the type of people who never ever had greeted him before. I asked how he would typify the type of person who is now greeting him. He said, “Caucasian,” with a look of awe in his face.
A new world has begun. Minds are changed. Perceptions are changed. Fences are mending. Connections are made.
Clearly, Barack Obama touches a vibrant nerve in the whole world. Please post what changes you’ve felt in the world and in your self since the election. What does the election of Barack Obama mean to you?
Thank you. I look forward to hearing your story.
2 comments:
Obama is more of the same. He will not disband the Homeland security agency. He will not recind the Patriot act. He will not address police accountability. He will not address the usurous lending practices in the U.S. He will not address the corporate enslavement of people world wide and he will not address government corruption. In short, Obama is an establishment man. I voted for him because I hope he at least will kill less people than Bush or McCain, and hopefully will not torture. At least outside of the American prison system anyway.
Was it Teddy Roosevelt who said that vigilance is the price of freedom? While the source eludes me, the quote itself is memorable, as it places the responsibility for continually re-creating a democracy squarely on the shoulders of the citizenry. Bush could never have achieved the crimes he committed without the passivity of the American public.
To me, what is most hopeful is Obama's refusal to state that he will solve our problems. Rather, he offers to lead a bipartisan effort to dig ourselves out of the holes we are now in -- economic, legal, ethical, environmental, international.
He would not have been elected without the increased participation of previously unengaged citizens. The present "yes we can" rhymes with the sense we had in the sixties and seventies that we could change the world.
I am also glad that Obama has stated he will support the bill to establish healthcare and compensation for the thousands of rescue workers so callously used in the clean-up of the World Trade Center (even though Bloomberg opposes it!)
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