It almost feels like I am living on an alien planet this morning - like I woke up and the entire world, down to my own apartment, is completely different. Something mind-blowing has happened: an African-American man will be our president as of next January, and I think we have a lot to be proud of. This has been a long time in the making and (even though I was avoiding turning on the television or any other media outlet in which I will be forced to hear Meredith Vieira wax on unintelligently) it is really moving to consider how much America has changed with regard to race and acceptance since MLK's speeches forty years ago. Does this mean that the issue of race is now a non-issue? Hardly. If anything, it will be bantied about, analyzed, blamed, praised, and used as excuse even more than ever before. We have made a huge step, but it's important to realize that even when used in a positive light, race will continue to be on the minds of Americans--it will continue to be a way of categorizing our society. So what is the next step in that area? It is to have a president elected, or Academy Awards given, or NFL's star runningbacks announced WITHOUT mentioning that person's race.
To get back to my point: I am really proud of America because I do think that electing a non-Caucasian is an amazing step in the right direction toward America's color-blindness (perhaps a female will be next?--"electing a skirt" is another hurdle altogether, it seems). I only wish I could have actually participated in this making-of-history by voting for him. Unfortunately, I was not going to give my vote, the one right I feel that I must exercise without exception, to someone with whom I disagreed so completely on virtually all points. In other words, if Obama had been white, Asian, Cherokee, Eskimo, or covered with yellow and purple stripes, I would not have voted for him. You knew this already... it's nothing new.
The hope he has inspired in people with his speeches, his newly-found celebrity, is really breathtaking:** but my hope is that people realize that change comes from YOU, an individual American pulling yourself up by your bootstraps (as it were) and improving first yourself before attempting to "fix" everyone else's life. I have said this before (most recently in a lengthy facebook dialectic on politics):
"The ideas of "hope" and "change" and universal healthcare and 0% unemployment and fairness and cars that run on sunshine and everyone getting baskets of kittens are truly intoxicating. To be serious, though, it is easy to buy into "change" when it seems that someone ELSE will do the changing for us; as if a president is some kind of magic man (or woman) who will "fix" America, make everyone stop hating us, and ensure the health and wealth of all citizens. What we fail to see is that change, if it is truly desired, happens on a much more individual level. My friend Sam just posted as her status this quotation: "Everyone thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself"-Leo Tolstoy. In a world where people actually put Ghandi's "Be the change you want to see in the world" on bumperstickers, we seem reluctant FIRST to modify our own lifestyles, become self-responsible, and (gasp!) self-governing before meddling in others' affairs."
After speaking with a few Obama-fans in the last week or so about how they think Obama (coming off a messianic-like platform) will implement the ideologies and promises he's made for the last two years, I was told to hold my tongue: "He's just a politician, Jill. They say things during a campaign that don't come true -- that's nothing new." They're probably right, but you could have fooled me -- with the way people were buying into the rhetoric, it is tempting to think that they really BELIEVE that he embodies the change and hope they long for; and that he WILL do what he says. Alas, he is just a man. And that is news to me.
Now, lest those millions of ecstatic, face-scraping and clothing-rending fans of our president-elect become disheartened, remember: no matter what was promised, an American president is not a magic man. You will probably not get a check in the mail to pay off your house, or student-loan forgiveness, or a guaranteed retirement fund, or free and efficient healthcare, or a free polar bear cub ... but what you can change is YOU. You can make choices to manage your life better, to manage your money better, and to implement ethics and integrity in your business practices. Moreover, you need not wait until more of your income taxes are secured by the US Government to be given to help the disenfranchised, homeless, or unemployed -- if you really believe in helping people the way Obama says he will mandate, then start donating a percentage of your paycheck to local homeless shelters. Start volunteering to collect warm coats for winter and working regularly at a soup kitchen after you get off work. Start tutoring underprivileged school children and volunteering to speak to highschool upper-classmen about opportunities to go to college and secure a good job. If you think life has been unfair to those around you, then start leveling the playingfield and making personal sacrifices to help make sure life gives them a "fair shake" next time around.
I know this is going to sound awfully unpatriotic, but America is a cesspool of laziness. For decades people have been waiting for someone to come along, flying under the banner of fairness and just deserts, and zap the nation until it spins itself into a utopia of equality and sameness -- a world in which everyone has a job, wages are fair, the air is clean, and homes are warm and paid for by some great benefactor. No such person exists. Even a government that promises to "take care of us" and micromanage our lives is never going to issue you the treatment you feel you deserve.
...But you know what? You can work for yourself. You can earn a living and contribute to your community in a meaningful way. You can choose to not sit on your haunches and wait for "Change to come to America" -- if you wait for someone else to do it, you will be vastly disappointed.
Disclaimer: I hope none of you (and I knew where you folks stood politically when writing this, obv.) are affronted by a 'pep-talk' from a non-Obamanian... not that I need to vindicate myself, but you should know that I am not, and was never, a fan of the Ancient Centrist, John McCain. Had the tables been turned last night, I would have been only marginally less disgruntled with the results. This has been a difficult election season for conservative (note: not "Republican") thinkers, since there was really no one on that ballot I felt un-nauseated to vote for. Actually, the difficulty in the last several months came from losing friends who apparently valued the "idea of Obama" more than our friendship, and being belittled by my 'intelllectual' colleagues who--without even asking why I wasn't supporting Obama--called me an uneducated yokel who needed to get my corn pone ideologies out of the university. Hilarious? Hurtful.
Maybe what people want is a nation without dissent, with a single voice, one in which we "unify" behind Obama and toss diversity of ideas and backgrounds and worldviews to the wind. I know a few people's lives would have been easier this fall had I been an Obama supporter: (since I'm practically the only one here) they wouldn't have ever been confronted with the fact that there are people in this nation who disagree with them, who will have a rational discussion about political policy-making, who will always play devil's advocate to their pie-in-the-sky platforms, who will cynically question and need much-convincing on all their ideologies. All I want is for people to think, to think for themselves, to work for themsleves, and not to feel entitled to "change" -- but to work for change.
...and now I have to go write a paper on Kant. Blech.
**(edit/addendum): I forgot to mention something major that has been on my mind -- I especially hope that Obama's election will be energizing to the youth of the black community in America. To see an African-American, "one of their own" (the media makes much of this point) having made something of himself will hopefully make a lasting impression on a number of these young people, who will now go out and explore the opportunities for education, especially (a la McNair program at Truman State). While the election is indeed a historic moment, I hope people will move beyond 4 November 2008 let this be a milestone, rather than a monument in and of itself.
To get back to my point: I am really proud of America because I do think that electing a non-Caucasian is an amazing step in the right direction toward America's color-blindness (perhaps a female will be next?--"electing a skirt" is another hurdle altogether, it seems). I only wish I could have actually participated in this making-of-history by voting for him. Unfortunately, I was not going to give my vote, the one right I feel that I must exercise without exception, to someone with whom I disagreed so completely on virtually all points. In other words, if Obama had been white, Asian, Cherokee, Eskimo, or covered with yellow and purple stripes, I would not have voted for him. You knew this already... it's nothing new.
The hope he has inspired in people with his speeches, his newly-found celebrity, is really breathtaking:** but my hope is that people realize that change comes from YOU, an individual American pulling yourself up by your bootstraps (as it were) and improving first yourself before attempting to "fix" everyone else's life. I have said this before (most recently in a lengthy facebook dialectic on politics):
"The ideas of "hope" and "change" and universal healthcare and 0% unemployment and fairness and cars that run on sunshine and everyone getting baskets of kittens are truly intoxicating. To be serious, though, it is easy to buy into "change" when it seems that someone ELSE will do the changing for us; as if a president is some kind of magic man (or woman) who will "fix" America, make everyone stop hating us, and ensure the health and wealth of all citizens. What we fail to see is that change, if it is truly desired, happens on a much more individual level. My friend Sam just posted as her status this quotation: "Everyone thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself"-Leo Tolstoy. In a world where people actually put Ghandi's "Be the change you want to see in the world" on bumperstickers, we seem reluctant FIRST to modify our own lifestyles, become self-responsible, and (gasp!) self-governing before meddling in others' affairs."
After speaking with a few Obama-fans in the last week or so about how they think Obama (coming off a messianic-like platform) will implement the ideologies and promises he's made for the last two years, I was told to hold my tongue: "He's just a politician, Jill. They say things during a campaign that don't come true -- that's nothing new." They're probably right, but you could have fooled me -- with the way people were buying into the rhetoric, it is tempting to think that they really BELIEVE that he embodies the change and hope they long for; and that he WILL do what he says. Alas, he is just a man. And that is news to me.
Now, lest those millions of ecstatic, face-scraping and clothing-rending fans of our president-elect become disheartened, remember: no matter what was promised, an American president is not a magic man. You will probably not get a check in the mail to pay off your house, or student-loan forgiveness, or a guaranteed retirement fund, or free and efficient healthcare, or a free polar bear cub ... but what you can change is YOU. You can make choices to manage your life better, to manage your money better, and to implement ethics and integrity in your business practices. Moreover, you need not wait until more of your income taxes are secured by the US Government to be given to help the disenfranchised, homeless, or unemployed -- if you really believe in helping people the way Obama says he will mandate, then start donating a percentage of your paycheck to local homeless shelters. Start volunteering to collect warm coats for winter and working regularly at a soup kitchen after you get off work. Start tutoring underprivileged school children and volunteering to speak to highschool upper-classmen about opportunities to go to college and secure a good job. If you think life has been unfair to those around you, then start leveling the playingfield and making personal sacrifices to help make sure life gives them a "fair shake" next time around.
I know this is going to sound awfully unpatriotic, but America is a cesspool of laziness. For decades people have been waiting for someone to come along, flying under the banner of fairness and just deserts, and zap the nation until it spins itself into a utopia of equality and sameness -- a world in which everyone has a job, wages are fair, the air is clean, and homes are warm and paid for by some great benefactor. No such person exists. Even a government that promises to "take care of us" and micromanage our lives is never going to issue you the treatment you feel you deserve.
...But you know what? You can work for yourself. You can earn a living and contribute to your community in a meaningful way. You can choose to not sit on your haunches and wait for "Change to come to America" -- if you wait for someone else to do it, you will be vastly disappointed.
Disclaimer: I hope none of you (and I knew where you folks stood politically when writing this, obv.) are affronted by a 'pep-talk' from a non-Obamanian... not that I need to vindicate myself, but you should know that I am not, and was never, a fan of the Ancient Centrist, John McCain. Had the tables been turned last night, I would have been only marginally less disgruntled with the results. This has been a difficult election season for conservative (note: not "Republican") thinkers, since there was really no one on that ballot I felt un-nauseated to vote for. Actually, the difficulty in the last several months came from losing friends who apparently valued the "idea of Obama" more than our friendship, and being belittled by my 'intelllectual' colleagues who--without even asking why I wasn't supporting Obama--called me an uneducated yokel who needed to get my corn pone ideologies out of the university. Hilarious? Hurtful.
Maybe what people want is a nation without dissent, with a single voice, one in which we "unify" behind Obama and toss diversity of ideas and backgrounds and worldviews to the wind. I know a few people's lives would have been easier this fall had I been an Obama supporter: (since I'm practically the only one here) they wouldn't have ever been confronted with the fact that there are people in this nation who disagree with them, who will have a rational discussion about political policy-making, who will always play devil's advocate to their pie-in-the-sky platforms, who will cynically question and need much-convincing on all their ideologies. All I want is for people to think, to think for themselves, to work for themsleves, and not to feel entitled to "change" -- but to work for change.
...and now I have to go write a paper on Kant. Blech.
**(edit/addendum): I forgot to mention something major that has been on my mind -- I especially hope that Obama's election will be energizing to the youth of the black community in America. To see an African-American, "one of their own" (the media makes much of this point) having made something of himself will hopefully make a lasting impression on a number of these young people, who will now go out and explore the opportunities for education, especially (a la McNair program at Truman State). While the election is indeed a historic moment, I hope people will move beyond 4 November 2008 let this be a milestone, rather than a monument in and of itself.
