Obama’s Nobel is for all of us (except for republicans)
Here is a letter on HP from a European gentleman that, I believe, frames the Obama Presidency and the hope of this country well:
Mr. Obama has already earned the prize in my books here in Europe. I am not sure about how you sensed the fear we had here in Europe under the previous generation. Not so much about Bush and Rummy and Cheney but about our own country’s. We saw, under Bush’s administration the rise of Neo-nazism, about the Black Prisons oland and Latvia. The erection of nuclear missiles on European soil. The separation of the New Europe from the Old.
We were scared of ourselves and we had no way to end the fear and the things that rot and grow from fear. Only America could have ended it. And despite your taboos and your history of civil war and segregation and jim crow and the backlash against affirmative action, you went to the polls and elected an african american who held out a hope for peace. And you brought us peace. I fear war less now.
You have managed to capture the beautiful part of your wonderful country and have made its virtue full again. A Nobel Prize is not enough. This man needs your love. You have a great president and I am filled with envy. I wish we had him as our president. Honest. honest. He has proved more than most. If not to all of the world, then certainly to me here in Switzerland.
This post struck me because it states very clearly the promise that the rest of the world keeps about us. We’ve spent lifetimes ignorant of the impact our country has on the rest of the world - how simply being a place where, seemingly, votes really do count, optimism and freedom are strived for and the best of us is not buried has meaning beyond our borders.
Sure, we’re hardly perfect. Granted, some of our votes haven’t counted and our system is corrupted, but as long as we don’t let assholes like George W. Bush change what we hope to be there’s always a chance to recover. And that’s really it. The Nobel prize is for all of us (well, most of us) recognizing that the hatred, fear and ugliness of the Bush administration and it’s followers is NOT what this country is about. Our voting him out and an unlikely person in says alot about our own hope for the country.
Republicans just don’t get it. Being the nasty bully gets you nowhere. It’s bad foreign policy and a sickness that just grows. As evidence, the bully has become angry, bitter, jealous and is now throwing temper tantrums. It’s unfortunate they do not see how ridiculous and pathetic they look to the rest of us. I’ve never seen the left act in a similar way with the same type of negative energy - ever.
Their loss - and if we’re smart enough to learn from our mistakes this time it will be their loss for a long long time.
