happy actor Val Kilmer exits stage Obama
Yesterday I wrote about the seemingly impenetrable blood-brain barrier between me the cynical political reporter and me the woman who wanted to be enchanted with Obama.
Today, I am a believer… to an extent.
I believe in the power of the collective that supports this man. I was there on the Mall, among the relatively small number of seats facing the Capitol. I kept turning around to see the immense stretch of hundreds of thousands of people coming to witness the official end of the Civil Rights Era and the beginning of… what?
To say Obama Time would be facile. We are perched on the unknown.
I saw my mother smile and cry. I ran into friends. I watched the helicopter Marine One carry off a former president, Mr. Bush, who now seems more defeated than defiant. (As BET’s Jeff Johnson said of Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush, “One man wants to lead; the other wants to leave.”)
I am struck by Mr. Obama’s glamour. That word’s archaic meaning was more along the line of “a magic charm that makes people do your bidding” than “a good stylist who gets you in the tabloids.”
The President has glamour in the old sense. His magic spell is that he makes people want to be their better selves. A key example: there was not one police arrest during a moment when well over a million people crowded into the city to see the inauguration. People are standing outside in the cold for hours; stuck in overcrowded train stations for hours; driving for hours to get to DC… and they act like kittycats in a warm lap. That’s some serious magic.
On the glamour tip, Obama shares much with Oprah. Of course, Barack Hussein Obama now controls the largest standing army in the world. While Oprah runs a mean multi-billion-dollar corporation, to my knowledge her nuclear stockpiles are none.
Mr. Obama is also the hard side of metrosexual… chicks (and many men, hetrosexual and not…) dig how he loves and protects his daughters and pats his wife’s butt; but they also love that he can play a mean game of one-on-one basketball and doesn’t mind having an enforcer like Rahmchop felling his foes.
All this is the nitter-natter of small political punditry. It’s hard for me to really describe what it was like and is like to be here. People really are transfixed and transformed, if only for a moment.
Let’s see how long it lasts, and hope it’s a long while.
Tags: farai chideya, obama time, obama's glamour, the mall, watching the inauguration
I also have wanted to be one of the many enthusastic people throughout America I’d love to be one of the people who feel that
America has changed for the better and we are now a perfect nation I envy those people they sleep a lot easier at night then I do.
For the last year as this historic campaign unfolded I thought about Martin Luther King Jr.,all of the African-American Athletes and Entertainers I’ve admired and respected, along with African-American friends of mine I knew as a teenager and from college. It was during my teen years back in the late 1980’s, early 90’s that I got into Hip-Hop back when the music was political,eventhough I also liked Rock. It was during my college years that I met Congressman John Lewis and took a course in African-American studies. There was section I and section II of the course the Professor was a White male, also Jewish, who participated in freedom rides during the 1960’s.The second part of the course where Malcolm X,Martin Luther King Jr.Rosa Parks, and the Black Panthers were discussed I found to be fascinating. Me and the Professor were the only White people in the class. The first section of the course dealt with W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T.Washington they were significant political leaders but not as entertaining for a historian to read about as Malcolm and Martin.
So I understood the significance of electing a Black President and wanted to see America fulfill Dr.King’s dream. I voted for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary back in 2008 but was disappointed in both the American people and the nonsensical policy ideas of the past 8 years. I haven’t changed at all I have always supported government programs to help struggling Americans,seperation of Church and State, Civil Rights laws to make sure minorities and women are treated fairly, and a Middle East policy that would allow both Israeli’s and Palestinians to have a state. But these last 8 years, the build up to Obama’s Presidency, has to be put into context in order to make it clear why I still am not feeling as happy as those nice people at the inauguration.
Imagine my shock when besides George W.Bush and the Republicans creating a Faith Based Initiatives Office (Something I was against and felt would lead to discrimination against different religions we were funding churches under Clinton without building one), threatening to cancel the 2004 Presidential Election, trying to gut Social Security, actually eliminating overtime pay for 40 million Americans, while starting a war I now know wasn’t about spreading Democracy. The Democrats responded to this madness with a madness of their own. While a whole city was under water, instead of simply giving Federal Government jobs or money to the victims of Hurricane Katrina they were all over the TV trying to force Americans who hadn’t been drafted by the military or convicted of a crime to do labor. Imagine Democrats using a Republicans attack on African-Americans and poor Whites, there own voters to push something that is Unconstitutional and would only benefit members of their own social class. I couldn’t believe it when Tom Friedman(No relation to me)said his objection to George W.Bush was that after 9/11 all he asked the American people to do was shop. His main objection to George W.Bush is not that his economic policies harmed innocent people. He’s instead upset that he didn’t push the envelope and get some slave labor.
I always depended on the Democratic Party to respond to rightwing nuts. Instead I was left with one political party that wanted to take away normal government programs and Civil Liberties. And a second party that wanted forced labor. I volunteered on John Kerry’s campaign and watched him refuse to fight for disenfranchised Black voters in Ohio even if it could have gotten him the Whitehouse.
I opposed Chicago Mayor Richard M.Daley’s attempt to force businesses against their will to install surveillance cameras hooked up to Police headquarters. I think Daley believed at the time that Democrats also needed a War on Terror strategy. So I begged fellow Democrats to stop coming up with their own war on Terror ideas. Other then killing Al Queda members something I strongly support, everyother weird idea from the Democrats did nothing but give me two political parties who were competing to see who could make the world weirder. I found myself contacting Republicans like Ron Paul because at least he understood that you can draft people to serve in the Army but you can’t force civilians to do labor.
Now it was 2008 I was willing to forgive and forget who I was mad at and I just wanted a return to sanity. Barack Obama pleased me when he talked about getting out of Iraq, supporting Israel, also being fair to the Palestinians, and stopping Iran from building nukes. He annoyed me when in front of cheering white crowds he either referred to Dr.King as the preacher from Georgia or said “I’m not going to link my campaign to him.”
It was almost as if some Conservative Whites had decided that if there town would remain all white, if they could have government money for their megachurch,which consisted of mostly White conservatives and some African-Americans and Latinos who were willing to go along with the rules of this mostly White organization, if they could continue to have there neighbors phone bills sent to the National Security Council, if they could have a wall on the border to keep out immigrants and they could have a crackdown on immigrants(Most of these immigrants were hardworking people who only bent the immigration rules because they had to feed their families. And had themselves faced Ethnic discrimination by bigots who didn’t like the fact that these hardworking people were Black and Brown)then they would tolerate having a Blackman provided he was a critic of Dr.King and the 60’s and a supporter of this new cruel post 9/11 world be President.
This fascinated me because I figured that in Sports and Entertainment a person could have unfair stereotypical ideas about an Ethnic group but like an individual member of the group. But in order to elect a person President of the United States you must feel that the person should be your boss. The idea that a person could dislike African-Americans, Muslims, and Immigrants. But if a Blackman who’s dad was a Muslim and an immigrant is willing to support policies they like make him President. Then they want a boss from a group they are prejudiced against. So I never understood some of these Right Wingers who supported Obama. I watched the convention on TV.I felt thrilled at the site of my country overcoming years of discrimination against African-Americans by nominating a Blackman to be President of the United States. Besides Dr.King I thought about Malcolm X since at the end of his life he left the Nation of Islam and began to work through the Political system perhaps he’d be happy with America also for nominating Obama.
Since Dr.King wasn’t just about Civil Rights for African-Americans he also was a critic of extreme global Capitalism Dr.King believed in Democracy and free markets but he also felt there should be a guaranteed annual income or a guaranteed government job for every American citizen. Since Dr.King felt citizens could turn down the guaranteed job if they wanted. I figured he’d be furious that Mandatory State Service advocates were quoting him. And I wondered how the leader of the poor people’s campaign would feel about both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton a Blackman and a Women who’s Economic policies were to the right of even Republicans from King’s era. I figured Dr.King would be so happy that we finally became a country that would nominate an African-American or Female candidate for President that he probably would overlook whatever economic differences he had with them and join in the celebration with everyone else. So I think Dr.King would be cheering for Obama and keep quiet about his economic differences with him.
During the convention I also thought about the fact that the day of Obama’s speech was the anniversary of Dr.King’s “I have a dream speech” but then I got angry when Dr.King was dismissed by Obama as “The Preacher from Georgia”. Besides Blacks, Jews who were grateful for Dr.King’s opposition to anti-semitisim,and liberals of all Ethnic backgrounds who agreed with Dr.King’s liberal economic views are also groups who are used to hearing Dr.King mentioned by every politician White and Black during a speech. Then Obama showed his Grandparents who raised him. They sounded like nice people from the way he described them. I then looked at the crowd of people waving flags and I figured if we couldn’t even discuss domestic policy at our convention, our bread and butter issue. If a Democratic convention was filled with War on Terror talk, waving flags, and limited Domestic policy discussion, then it was as if George W.Bush wasn’t really leaving office. I still couldn’t understand why we didn’t just call it a war on Al Queda kill these guys who attacked us and end it.
I finally decided to vote for Obama instead I considered Nader as an alternative to the post 9/11 madness but decided that I’m a loyal Democrat. I watched as the same White voters made the first Black Democratic nominee for President assure them that his daughters wouldn’t get affirmative action(Isn’t not mentioning Martin enough),even though 10 year olds can’t go to college. And then these White voters insisted Obama condemn various Black Entertainers. All this silliness did was make me become a fan of a bunch of comedians and rappers I wasn’t as big on before. If the bigots didn’t like them it was time to buy the Cd’s.I once again found myself being the only White guy who couldn’t understand White people. It was almost as if these voters had said,
“If a Blackman puts down Dr.King, criticizes famous Black people, doesn’t want his daughters to receive affirmative action,
supports government funding of our Chuch,supports getting tough on our enemies abroad, admires Ronald Reagan, supports
a couple liberal things because he has to, criticizes Black musicians, and talks about some Economic policies that benefit
everyone meaning the White majority will see their incomes go up then he can be President.”
But I wondered are they progressives for electing him or could they like him and still have negative attitudes towards other members of minority groups? But I decided to try and enjoy what even if it wasn’t a perfect was a breakthrough for the country and then right when I wanted to just be optimistic like everyone else and forget about the 8 years of pain John Potter the Postmaster General appointed by George W.Bush who Obama has kept in charge is now talking about cutting mail delivery to 5 days a week allegedly because of a government deficit after the threats of a cancelled Presidential election, compulsory service, and mandatory surveillance cameras, all of which fortunately didn’t pass the long suffering American people now are being threatened with limited mail delivery will it ever end? Why won’t President Obama allow me to like him and my country instead of continuing the madness?
So I’m trying to be optimistic I didn’t even mention the Pakistan nonsense during the campaign I’m not sure if we have improved in the area of race relations or not I never would’ve believed we could elect an African-American President and still have to wonder if Ethnic bigotry exists but it’s possible that the White majority may treat the minorities the sameway they have before and just vote to have one Black guy they like be President which is so bizarre a screenwriter couldn’t have come up this concept. So while I’d like to just like relax and fade away and just go to the mall and live like a normal person just like with the Mandatory Service nonsense I now have to tell people to call their congressman about the mail. Why does the government keep screwing up? Ronald Reagan despite being wrong on most issues did point out that sometimes government can be the problem and not the solution but let’s hope we can have a normal country