Once again, I’m proud to be an American and that makes me happy. The American Democracy has one again shown the world the possibilities! Americans dare… we dare to hope and dream. We show faith in the future. Many Americans express their capacity to have faith in their religious beliefs which evidences the capacity to hope in the future. Americans have gone on to put that hope into action and dare to change our future with a collective national voice. We have shown a preference for uncertainty over a continuation of the recent past.
Recently, it has been difficult to be an American. It has been quite awhile since America has really done anything to demonstrate hope for all of mankind. Possibly not since 1969 and Neil Armstrong’s small steps on the moon has America inspired all humankind. American standards of the practice of democracy are in stark contrast to the atrocities that continue to go on in the world. It wasn’t that Australians were making it tough on me personally because I’m American. On the contrary, Australians have embraced me and accepted me into their culture, society and nation. My difficulty starts inside of my mind because I cannot support America’s participation in continuing to perpetuate cruelty to human beings. And being honest with myself about what I believe to be right and wrong, I cannot find any ideological reason to support this sort of behavior. What makes it worse it that the world does look to America for leadership because America is in a position to do something about it (whatever “it” may be).
The meaning of the words from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, “that this new nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”, one hundred and forty-five years later has been realized.
Growing up in Queens, NY in the 1960s and ‘70s, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated for daring to “have a dream” of equality. Huey Newton and Bobby Seals were “revolutionary” Black Panthers. Angela Davis was exiled to Cuba. And atrocities against African Americans were still being perpetrated in the United States. I didn’t believe it to be possible for an African American to garner a majority of support in the U.S. of A. No way.
Yes, way! It’s happened! There is hope for the future. Even in these terrible times of economic uncertainty where the greed of a few has jeopardized the well being of the many, America has shown the world that it dares to take on the future.
Barack Obama’s winning a majority of the popular vote evidences a generational change of populist power in America and the power of American democracy in action to support its social evolution. This was achieved without the revolution envisioned and rapped about by so many. The genius, inspiration and endurance of the founding fathers of the United States vision for a free nation is mind boggling. These men were no less great than Isaac Newton, Albert Einstien, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Darwin and all of those great human beings that have positively influenced the course of humanity.
I hope President Obama can lead this change. He has a mighty task in front of him.
I hope that we all get make it through this economic downturn.
I now have a renewed hope in America and as a consequence, new hope for humankind.
I’m proud to be an American and I love living in Australia.
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2 comments:
Mate
And we are happy to have you here too!
We watched the moon landings with wonder, we watched Kennedy being assassinated with amazement and we look forward to Obama's healing and new leadership. Hopefully others will be inspired to follow in his shoes.
Tony I'd like to hear more of your views on how Aus is different to the USA, particularly with regard to mentality and cultural differences. Which country do you prefer to live in and why? What do you see as the positives and negatives of living in each country?
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