Americans Away From Home

Barack Obama's speech today had all the qualities Americans like to see in their President.  Contrary to whatever people around the world think of us, Americans really never got to vote on the swagger.  Given a choice between bragging and bravery, few Americans would go for the loud bark as number one choice.

So why the fuss over slinging hash between candidates?

What America doesn't need is another President who won't communicate.  Transparency is the name of the 2008 game.  From tax returns to earmarked spending to personal history, one candidate's been transparent, one's held back.  If they can't see it, they can't poke at it, is that it?

Today's speech broke records for bravery.  Talking to an audience of Ministers, it took real courage to look them in the collective eye and tell the truth. 

Many Americans were moved to tears when they heard Obama's open-heart surgery on a racial history of modern America.  You open the wound, you take it out and examine it, and it hurts, but less.  You're free to move on, to get to the point.  Today, Obama did.

The point:  Don't let distractions stop us from looking at issues.  Don't let old wounds fester without taking them out for a walk once in a while.  Don't let finger-pointing on a peripheral issue gut the chance to find answers for the real stuff, the yearning Americans feel for love of country.

When Michael Moore wrote "Dude, Where's My Country," did he anticipate it would only become more so, or rather, less so, less like the country he/we knew? 

In Obama's America, today shines.  The man had class, the man had grace, he talked the talk he's been walking. 

And for what, what did it achieve?

It limned for us the complexities of race in this country.
It addressed the non-productivity of anger, and by implication, of cultivating anger.
It inoculated those who'll now recognize it when they see the next race card coming down the pike.  After today, the next attack, the next attempt to divide, will out itself - for what it is.

"Let us find that common stake we have in each other."  A deep thrust when you got what that meant.  Who hasn't been there, at a low point, to recognize that a helping hand's a help, of any color?

The label was so clear: a distraction.  Bonus points for this one, forests and trees.  Swiftboats and pedagogues and Hate-TV balanced in unfair, they've all been distractions.  When one man stands and says, "Not this time!" will anyone listen?

We're not in Kansas anymore.  State fairs and summer dresses and a day at the sea can be nice, but America of the 50's, or the 80's, or even the 90's, just isn't where we're at.  We need a grownup, a person with vision.  A person who tells it when he's wrong, then has the guts to stand up. 

What Obama did today was the brave act.

(See the speech, read the text here).

Carole