A year ago, on this blog I have been so privileged to participate in, I posted an entry posing the question, ‘Wouldn’t Abraham Lincoln be proud today?’ Now, on this February 12, 2009, the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, we can say that, indeed, he would.
If Lincoln could return to visit us, what he would find most surprising about Barack Obama’s election to the highest office in the land would most likely be the capital ‘D’ next to his name. In Lincoln’s day, ‘Republican’ and ‘Democrat’ meant something very different from what they do today. The G.O.P. was initially sparked and founded by the anti-slavery movement, as many amateur political historian readers will be aware. It was long after Lincoln was called ‘Home’, precipitated by an assassin’s bullet, that the Democratic Party came to represent the down-trodden and others who in so many ways have been marginalized, disadvantaged or neglected by the larger society. Yet, on this date in 1809, the nation's first Republican president was born to, let's face it, a poor family in a backwoods Kentucky log cabin.
In all fairness to history, Lincoln might also be initially shocked by Barack Obama’s skin color as a President of the United States. Lincoln was, after all, a man of his time. At the outset of the Civil War, his prime objective was to hold the Union together. Only later, amid all the fraternal bloodletting of that conflict did he see the fundamental need to take his country to a higher place and emancipate the slaves throughout the land. But, it wouldn’t take sharp-minded Lincoln long to convert that shock into amazed delight. I would add that it might also, in his case, give him a sense of great humility that his own quest to create a more perfect union could result in a man who would have been held in chains in the Confederacy now occupying the seat of the leader of the United States of America that Lincoln saved. In fact, I contend that it is in that very humility combined with an extraordinary compassion cited by those who knew him and can be seen so clearly in the face that stares back at us from the portrait photos we have of Lincoln that the true greatness of ‘Honest Abe’ lies.
As a supporter of Barack Obama before the Iowa caucuses and even before he took to the same steps of the Old State House in Springfield, Illinois to declare his candidacy for President of the United States where Lincoln began his own long journey to the White House, I feel honored to be a witness to the service of a President Obama during our historic time we all share today.
Abraham Lincoln would be proud of his country today, yet, at the same time, humbled by his own significant role in charting its course to come closer to fulfilling the promises contained in the creed put to paper by the Founding Fathers. Furthermore, like President Obama is now from the same office Lincoln held nearly 150 years ago, he would be well aware of the many great tasks, unfinished and yet-to-be-begun, that lie ahead.
Today, I made my first contribution to the Obama campaign since the end of the primaries. I had been planning to do so for some time, and decided to do so now... in spite of the decision to opt out of public financing. I have to say, I felt like I was biting the bullet for the first time since I started making contributions to the campaign with an initial $100 on New Year’s Day as a Resolution to do something constructive to create a better world.
When I set up my profile on my.barackobama.com , I hesitated to tick the ethics box in the list of issues that I care about. With so much else going on – illegal and immoral wars started by a country I love, a long-since unkept promise to provide all Americans with health care coverage, a dismally deficient education system in which America is falling behind its competitors, a “challenge of our time” to actually make the hard choices that will be necessary to tackle global warming instead of our leaders burying their heads in the sand – there almost seemed to be little room to be passionate about ethics and campaign finance reform. I remain as concerned as ever about the other issues, but have found myself increasingly concerned about these last two as this truly historic campaign year of 2008 unfolds. Today I ticked the “electoral reform” box in the long list of issues I care about, adding that to “good government / ethics” and all the others I ticked off a long time ago.
I watched Obama’s video about his decision and was left just convinced enough to bite that bullet and give another $50, added to the other contributions I’ve made. I’m one of those hundreds of thousands of Americans who give money in dribs and drabs, but as much as we can afford. Living in Madrid, Spain, I have had a somewhat different experience from most Americans, but there have been campaign events here, too, in support of Obama, which I have attended. Also, Obama’s candidacy more than anything else prompted me to join Democrats Abroad and vote in their global primary back in February. I’ve made an approximately $50 contribution to that organization with gratitude for organizing the primary which made it so much easier for us voters overseas to participate in the primary process, and now, through events like the Obama Bridge Span project, in the challenge presented by John McCain and the need to bring real Change to Washington, our country and our world.
I have been an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama and hope to continue to be through November and beyond to an Obama administration starting on January 20, 2009. As someone living abroad, take it from me – the world can hardly wait for that glorious day to come – to put the lies, corruption and flat-out wrong-headed policies of Bush/Cheney into the history books as a lesson we must never repeat.
All that being said, I am troubled by Barack Obama’s decision to jump the public financing ship. I post my concerns here today in the hopes that other folks will express their opinions and that some of them will satisfy my doubts about the decision Barack Obama has taken on this issue. As bad as the policies of the Bush Administration have been for America and America’s role in the world, the outright deceit of the American people may stand as it’s worst legacy. I still believe Barack Obama when he says he wants to change Washington, but his reneging on his commitment to follow the public financing rules or at least to come to some agreement about how to proceed with John McCain raises a red flag for me as an Obama supporter. I’ve tuned into various sources and heard a range of opinions, but to give you just one of those sources, I refer you to the discussion between Mark Shields and David Brooks on the Online News Hour ( http://www.pbs.org/newshour/ ) as one example.
Please, if you read this article and have an opinion about the Obama campaign’s decision to opt out of public financing, take a moment to share your views and respond. I really want to know what other Obama supporters think, and to know if they have the same doubts I do. I still want Barack Obama’s candidacy and, hopefully, presidency, to be “CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN”.
I was very saddened by the news of Tim Russert’s sudden passing away on Friday, June 13. Russert was an exceptional journalist who put his heart and soul into getting the truth from people in leadership roles in politics and carefully analyzing political events as they developed.
Most American viewers of ‘Meet the Press’, moderated by Russert over the past 17 years, see this program on their TVs on Sunday mornings. As an American abroad in Spain and with Spain being 6 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, I wait with anticipation until Sunday evening each week to see the netcast of this always insightful program. It has been my best cure for the end-of-the weekend blues that can come in gearing up for the work week ahead. ‘Meet the Press’ will go on, but it won’t be the same without Russert at the helm.
In addition to ‘Meet the Press’, I also looked to Tim Russert first for his analysis of ongoing developments in politics and, especially, of this historic election of 2008. Living abroad, I got great comfort from being connected by Russert to events and people back home who have been part of this election all through the primary season. As Barack Obama said in his observations on Friday upon hearing of Russert’s sudden death, “Tim is irreplaceable.” I hope that the role he played as a “standard-bearer” of high-quality, balanced and ethical journalism will be heeded by those who survive him in reporting political news. I notice that many of my fellow Obama supporters are also fans of Russert, given the more than 1000 responses here on this website to Barack Obama's statement on our common loss of Russert's presence.
We could always count on Russert to get to the bottom of the issues and provide well-researched analysis. Furthermore, his own family background, coming from a blue-collar background of modest means is a great example of American Dream come true. The way Russert lived serves as an inspiration to do our best and put the same kind of enthusiastic energy into our own pursuits as he did into his. Above all, in everything he did and the down-to-earth way he presented himself, Russert's viewers always saw what a fine and decent human being on and off camera he was.
As Obama shifts gear from the primaries to the general election campaign, I am grateful for having had Russert’s reporting on the events in this election which I could see his genuine enthusiasm for in ‘Meet the Press’ and the debates he moderated, and the day-to-day political analysis he gave. Tim Russert will be sorely missed and never forgotten. My deepest condolences go out to his family, friends and colleagues.
This week, we observe a solemn anniversary in which 40 years have passed since the hopes and dreams of a generation were suspended. With his very real relevancy to the remarkable candidacy of Barack Obama, I wish to recall Robert F. Kennedy, his legacy, and the promise, 40 years after his life was so tragically cut short, of a return to ideals he believed in with the Movement for Change Barack Obama inspires.
In this 40th anniversary year of the tragic end to RFK’s life, I’m sure many will remember the eulogy given by his brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, on June 8, 1968 in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, which is surely one of the finest and most touching public addresses in American history (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ekennedytributetorfk.html). In speaking about RFK’s ideals, his surviving brother said, “[he] saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, and saw war and tried to stop it.” These words provide a context to consider the life and legacy of Robert F. Kennedy and the potential we have now in this watershed year of 2008 for making true progress in returning to and reaching towards RFK’s ideals.
He Saw Wrong and Tried to Right It
Robert F. Kennedy became a champion for civil rights in the administration of his brother John F. Kennedy, and beyond. As Attorney General of the United States, Bobby Kennedy saw that desegregation laws correcting wrongs of the past were enforced. As Attorney General, U.S. Senator for the state of New York, and candidate for President of the United States, Kennedy worked tirelessly to see the enactment of legislation further advancing the cause of guaranteeing that all Americans be given equal rights and that human rights be recognized and respected elsewhere around the world, such as when he called for an end to apartheid with his visit to South Africa in 1966.
He Saw Suffering and Tried to Heal It
In the mid-1960s, the United States was supposed to be fighting a “War on Poverty”, but as a member of the Senate committee reviewing this effort, Robert Kennedy was disappointed by what he saw in urban areas across the country and in rural Appalachia. He made addressing poverty a focal point of his 1968 presidential campaign. Funds which could have been going to address the needs of the “disaffected”, “the impoverished” and “the excluded” Americans in Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” had been increasingly consumed by an unpopular war of the traditional kind in a far-away land.
He Saw War and Tried to Stop It
One of the prime motivations for Robert F. Kennedy to enter the 1968 presidential race was the “perilous course” he saw the country on by persisting in fighting a far-away foreign war which was taking American lives by the thousands and draining resources from the growing needs of the country at home. The Vietnam War would cost more than 50,000 American lives and without John F. Kennedy to prevent from sending ground troops in the first place and Robert F. Kennedy to stop it, the war dragged on and was even expanded to Laos and Cambodia with little to show for it, apart from the higher death toll on all sides and a weakened America which had effectively abandoned its war on poverty and other promising initiatives.
The RFK Legacy in Barack Obama
The cause of Civil Rights which Robert F. Kennedy championed so vigorously in the 1960s has resulted in the opportunity for a Barack Obama to be on his way to being the first African-American President in American history. Obama’s very success up to now and in the months to come will take the Civil Rights Movement to the highest office in the land. Imagine how pleased RFK would be. We indeed appear to be on our way to creating “a more perfect union”, not only as represented by Barack Obama’s candidacy, but Hillary Clinton’s, too. However, issues raised by their candidacies also show the work yet to be done to assure that race and gender and the other categories for dividing people are overcome and that all Americans truly have equal rights as one people.
As Obama has traveled the country in his historic campaign, he has seen the suffering of many Americans and proposed common-sense solutions to alleviate it. Contrary to his Republican opponent, he proposes action to help Americans keep their homes in the wake of a crisis caused by lax regulation allowing lending which concealed the dangers hidden in the fine print of mortgages. He calls on supporting innovative companies which create “green jobs”, and rewarding them for tapping into American ingenuity. With a united Democratic Party which no longer depends on money from lobbyists and the influence it buys, Obama will also finally be able to deliver on the promise of health care coverage for all Americans by responding directly to that long-standing need.
Part of the cost of these initiatives will be paid for by ending “a war which should have never been authorized and should never have been waged”. Getting out of Iraq won’t be so quick and easy as the blunder that getting in was, but Obama’s very commitment to do so will allow the U.S. to refocus it’s foreign policy priorities and be the agent for peace in the world Robert F. Kennedy wanted it to be as he campaigned for the presidency in 1968 and that his brother John F. Kennedy toiled to achieve in his all-too-brief presidency with RFK at his side. Ending the war in Iraq and making the U.S. a force for peace in our increasingly complex world with tough, principled diplomacy will restore America’s moral standing in the world and also restore the kind of courage RFK demanded of himself and believed in for his country.
Barack Obama gives our nation the best chance to restore the ideals Robert F. Kennedy had 40 years ago – to end unnecessary war, to constructively address the serious economic issues of our time, and to see a commitment to a common purpose in which all Americans have the same opportunity to live the American Dream. Perhaps more like RFK than on any one issue, however, Obama inspires American people to believe in themselves and in the great potential of Americans as individuals and as a nation to create a better country and contribute to a making better world.
By his very candidacy, but more importantly, by the vision he presents now as a candidate and will provide as President, Barack Obama calls upon us all to live out the promise contained in one of Robert F. Kennedy’s favorite philosophies, as originally stated by George Bernard Shaw: some people see things as they are and ask ‘why’; I dream of things that never were and say, ‘why not’.
(This article solely reflects the opinion of its author as a supporter of the candidacy of Barack Obama. In no way does it purport to represent the official position taken by Barack Obama, the Democratic Party or the Obama campaign organization. As a blog article, I welcome any and all comments.)
Five years ago today, “a war which never should have been authorized and should never have been waged”, to quote Barack Obama, commenced with the invasion of Iraq. One year ago today, my worldly-wise mother, Sonia, made her final exit from our small, fragile planet. Like Obama and me and many others around the world, my mom recognized that the Iraq War would have disastrous consequences and that it was downright wrong. So, her departure on the fourth anniversary of the "shock and awe" invasion was almost symbolic. If she could have chosen that date, she would be as happy with it as any other to say good-bye to this world.
I write this tribute to my mother as a blog article on Barack Obama’s website because of the very personal identification she gives me with Obama from his own family background. With what I know now about Obama’s family history, my own support for him to be the 44th President of the United States is, to use modern parlance, a “no-brainer”.
I was struck by some parallels between Obama’s mother’s story and my own mother’s life when I read a New York Times article the other day about Ms. Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro and the influence she had on her son (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/us/politics/14obama.html?pagewanted=all). My mother was also “unconventional” for her time, and had the same kind of determination and might I even say courage that Ms. Soetoro had to live a free-spirited life in many places of the world far from her roots. Like Barack’s mom is for him, my mom has been a great influence on me, thus explaining to some extent why this Oklahoma-born, New Mexico-raised American now finds himself calling Spain his home.
However, while there are many traits in my mother’s character which must have been to some degree shared with that of Ms. Soetoro, my mother’s story is something of a composite between Barack Obama’s parents, for like Obama’s father, my mother was an immigrant to American shores. From what I know of Barack Obama Sr.’s thoughts on the United States, my mother shared his belief in the fundamental goodness of the US and in its potential to do truly remarkable things in our world.
Of course, the parallels only go so far. My mother was born in British colonial India. She grew up from the age of eight in a Southern English coastal town, although her family roots are from Yorkshire in the North. Sonia was a member of what people are now nostalgically calling the Greatest Generation, joining the RAF in World War II. Her service in the defense and ultimate victory of her country enabled her to embark on the first of her extensive travel adventures with a posting to Singapore, where she contributed to rebuilding after the Japanese occupation. Then, she lived in Australia briefly, Burma, and in Japan, where she was at the time of the Korean War. She recalled the impact that conflict had on Japan, which itself was rebuilding after World War II. She returned to Britain for several years in the 1950s which, according to her accounts, had a rather bleaker time than Britain’s booming chrome, steel and tail-finned American cousin across the Atlantic.
In 1960, Sonia got another opportunity to travel. When Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, she was working as an executive secretary in Libya, where she had met the man who would later become my red-white-and-blue American dad, Vernon. Both of my parents served out a five-year contract for an oil company in pre-Gaddafi Tripoli, taking advantage of the opportunities they had for travel all around the Mediterranean and elsewhere. They were true jet-setters when jets themselves were the latest innovation in travel, and the early 1960s were halcyon years for both of them.
My mother became an immigrant to the United States when she accepted my dad’s proposal for matrimony he had sent to her in a letter after they had each gone their separate ways when their contracts had ended. She moved to my dad’s native Oklahoma, where I was born at the end of 1966. The elegant parties my parents hosted in the two homes they had in the years they lived in Oklahoma City’s Heritage Hills neighborhood are fondly remembered to this day. In 1967, Sonia and Vernon took a ski trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, which my mother was charmed by instantly. She loved Santa Fe’s mountains and its cosmopolitan culture – its pluralistic art and history – and, with its Spanish colonial heritage, adobe architecture and semi-arid expansive landscapes, its Mediterranean ambiance. As a family, we moved to Santa Fe in late 1976, where my mother would live the remaining thirty years of her life.
In the years she lived in both Oklahoma and New Mexico, my mother contributed to her community in many ways, being a patron of the arts and raising a son at the same time. In Santa Fe, she gave out information to tourists on the plaza and was later a guide in the historic Palace of the Governors. She went to City Hall to make her voice heard when she felt the need to stand up for the causes of cultural, historic or environmental conservation, among other issues. She was widely respected among those who had the opportunity to know her personally and even among some who didn’t. Sonia also sewed costumes for the Santa Fe Opera, the performances of which she loved to attend, and we had apprentice singers and musicians stay with us in our home every summer during opera season when I was growing up. Sonia was just one of many immigrants, though, who have made the United States not only a beacon of hope, but have contributed to their communities and made the US stronger, worldlier and more forward-looking by enhancing its multi-cultural and multi-ethnic collection of people.
If Sonia were with us today, I’m frankly not sure who her candidate of choice would be in this historic presidential race of 2008. She liked Bill Richardson as the governor of her state and recognized the importance for New Mexico of Richardson as a national and even international mover and shaker. She certainly admired Hillary Clinton; I know my mom would have been proud to see a woman with a real chance to become president. But Sonia was also intrigued by Barack Obama’s candidacy – by his international family background and his own experience of spending childhood years in Indonesia. In fact, I read about that to her in the hospital last year from my copy of “The Audacity of Hope”, which I picked up at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport on my way from Spain to what would be the last days in Santa Fe I would spend with my mom. Sonia also would have appreciated the fact that Obama has had the wisdom and courage to be opposed to the Iraq War from the beginning.
So, mom, it is with you in heart and mind that I post this tribute today. You have always been my greatest inspiration and, if you were here now, I know you would be pleased by the hope, vision, background and lifetime experience Barack Obama offers to a country so in need of these things as we collectively strive "to form a more perfect union”.
Americans wake up this morning to a New Day, a day without (Fidel) Castro as leader of Cuba. It’s downright revolutionary. I suppose there will be few readers old enough to remember Cuba without Fidel Castro. For those who do remember, it was a Cuba quite different from the Cuba which Americans see from afar today, wasn’t it? Oh, yes, many solid American-built cars built way back when can still be seen on the streets of Havana today thanks to the embargo the US has imposed and enforced on the island.
How did this remarkable event of Castro leaving power come to pass? Did the embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba finally work? Well, unfortunately not. Old age merely took its toll on Fidel and he now goes into what will surely be a short-lived retirement on a tropical island, all without having to leave home.
For those who need a little refresher on just how long Castro held on to power in Cuba, he became its leader back in January of 1959, under the Eisenhower Administration (remember them good ol’ days; I don’t). He ruled Cuba through Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter (yes, it would seem that I know my chronology of US presidents pretty well, but am I forgetting anyone?). Oh, yes, that’s right, then there were the two terms of Reagan, followed by one of Bush I, the Clintons (both of them for 2 terms), and most of Bush II’s sad-to-say two terms, as well. All of that amounts to nearly fifty long years of suffering for the Cuban people above all.
I like these blogs because they make it easy for a person to express his or her opinion and for readers to reply, whether in agreement or disagreement, or totally off the subject if they like. So, please do. I’m at a loss here. Is there anyone out there who can explain what the purpose of the economic embargo on Cuba is? Is it to make Fidel and his cohorts in power suffer personally? If so, I doubt that has been achieved. Is it (now I should say “Was it”) to oust Fidel from power? If that is the rationale for it, is there anyone out there who can tell me with a straight face that it has worked?
Nothing seems to have worked. Even exploding cigars and a whole slew of other clandestine tactics couldn’t do the job. Worse than the other measures taken to provoke regime change in Cuba, I would contend that America’s less-than-legal embargo on Cuba effectively maintained Fidel Castro as Cuba’s dictator rather than dislodged him.
Apart from wide-spread suffering on Cuba itself, one mustn’t underestimate the importance the embargo and hostile US policy toward the island have had on US and world history in the long years it’s been in place. After all, as just one memorable example illustrates, it all came down the Cuban-exile community bitterly wanting to get back at the Clintons and the Democrats for an apparently “soft” policy on Cuba with the Attorney General having ruled that the boy Elian Gonzalez had to be sent back to the island that ensured (if, indeed, the results were what we’ve been told they were) that George W. Bush “won” in Florida, the state on which the whole 2000 election hinged. By then, though, it all should have been a mute point. How could the fate of one little boy have such a huge impact on history? Perhaps it is because America's policies with respect to Cuba were and still are misguided in the first place.
Between the infamous 2000 election and George W. Bush taking the reigns of power in Washington, I was tempted to write a letter as an FOB (that’s “Friend of Bill” if you don’t remember or are too young to) encouraging Clinton to lift the embargo then and there, as by that point, there was nothing left to lose. I wonder if he might have paid any attention to such a letter. Dunno. But, I can imagine he got others along the same lines from other concerned Americans and nothing changed.
The tiny, but enormously influential Cuban-exile community in Miami has held American foreign policy hostage long enough. Fortunately, Barack Obama doesn’t seem to owe it anything, especially as the agreement of ALL of the Democratic candidates was that the votes of Florida’s delegates to the Democratic Convention won’t be counted because Florida (and Michigan, too) violated Democratic Party rules for the 2008 nominee selection process. Also, with Obama’s Movement for Change sweeping America, it’s highly unlikely that the General Election results will all come down to Florida this time around (and, by the time Obama could implement his program for change, he’ll have already taken the oath and given the Inaugural Address anyway – ah, what a glorious day that will be!).
The time to lift the economic embargo on Cuba has come and, in fact, came a long time ago. The embargo has only resulted in deprivation for the vast majority of the Cuban people (the Castros and other high officials of the regime excluded, of course), and the raising of the Cuban people’s ire and that of many peoples throughout Latin America against the US and its policies. If the embargo was ever legal or even if it ever made any sense (both of which I believe is, at best, dubious), it would have been during the Cold War, which supposedly ended nearly twenty years ago.
Barack Obama would seem to understand better than most the folly of the US embargo on Cuba, given his public statements on the issue, as reported by the Washington Post in its article “Obama Calls for Easing Cuba Embargo” on August 21, 2007. Obama may not be in favor of the evidently “radical” concept of lifting the embargo entirely and restoring full diplomatic relations with Cuba as might best enable it to become the free, democratic nation Americans would like to see it become, but he goes farther than any of the other candidates, Republican or Democrat, be they has-beens or in the race now. As the Post article states, “None of the other top presidential candidates have sought to ease the restrictions.” Come to think of it, though, Bill Richardson has also publicly encouraged rethinking on the Cuba question (see his article, “A New Realism”, in the January/February 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs), and, if I recall correctly, Mike Huckabee even talked favorably of easing restrictions (although he has since changed his mind because his previous thoughts on the issue were based on supporting rice growers in his home state of Arkansas, and now that he's on the national stage, such a posture wouldn't be appropriate in the Republican party). Well, it would seem that others have been jumping on Obama’s bandwagon, whatever their motives … and who says we don’t know where Obama stands on the issues?
To lift the embargo on Cuba or at least “ease the restrictions” fits hand-in-glove with Barack Obama’s aim (and the aim of his supporters like me) to rebuild America’s moral standing in the world. Such an action could also amount to wresting a major and all-too-long-running US foreign policy decision from a small special interest group and replacing it with one rooted in common sense and benefiting Americans at-large, the people of Cuba and America’s relations with its Latin American neighbors, in general.
Please, if you have an opinion en favor or en contra of what I am saying here, or otherwise, I would welcome it. Most of all, I desire an answer to the fundamental questions of this issue. What is the purpose of the embargo on Cuba? And, if that purpose was to dislodge Castro’s Communist regime, what evidence is there that the embargo has been effective? And, what are the implications of insisting upon a failed embargo policy for the post-Fidel Cuba and America’s relations with Latin America?
The time to fundamentally change America’s relationship with its island neighbor 90 miles south of Florida has finally come. Better late than never, I suppose.
Go OBAMA ’08!
199 years ago today, an American whose name we all know was born to a poor family in a log cabin in rural Kentucky. From such humble beginnings, in any other land, his story might be an unlikely one, for this man would grow, with his insatiable appetite for learning, and rise to serve in the highest office in the land. More than that, Abraham Lincoln would lead and inspire our young country through some of its darkest days, weeks, months and years of brother fighting against brother to create a more perfect union.
Now, in Our Time, we have the privilege of being witnesses to another unlikely story, a story that Abe Lincoln, as much as anyone, has made possible. Wouldn’t Abraham Lincoln be proud today!? Wouldn’t he be proud to see someone who may well have been condemned to a life of slavery in his time now having a real chance to serve his country in that same highest office in the nation that Lincoln held? Beyond that, wouldn’t Lincoln be proud to see this man as not only an agent of change, but of unification in a nation which has been divided for too long? I can imagine Lincoln and his smile in one of the last photos taken of him – I expect you know the one (if you aren’t sure, please click on the following link, for example: www.readyaiminspire.com/images/last_lincoln.jpg ) – coming to life as he looks upon the next great chapter of our country’s history about to unfold. He would see Obama's leadership that reaches across races, genders, ages and, yes, even political party lines. His smile then, as seen in the photo, would transcend the pride of seeing an African-American on his way to the presidency to become contentment that this African-American shares the vision Lincoln had when that photo of him was taken. That vision is one of a United States replacing the house divided it had been before to finally take on the great challenges of this day and age which require unity of purpose in order to create a better nation and world for future generations.
A hundred long years would pass after Lincoln’s time before America, with the civil rights movement, would finally start to deliver on the promise he held forth in the 1860s – a promise Lincoln saw as the higher good that was necessary to come out of a bloody Civil War so that all of those who gave their lives in that conflagration would not have died in vain. Barack Obama was born in 1961, in the midst of that renewed struggle for equality led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, the outcome of which would enable him to fulfill his potential and inspire the rest of us to fulfill ours.
Nearly one year ago today, Barack Obama embarked on the same unlikely journey as Lincoln did from the same State House in Illinois where both of them served citizens of that state, now known as to all as “the Land of Lincoln”. Yes, Abe Lincoln would be proud today. I can imagine no gift he would like more on the 200th anniversary of his birth next year than to see a person with a similar inclination to inspire and seek the better angels of our nature that Lincoln’s words and story still do today be installed in the White House as the 44th President of the United States.
Happy Birthday, Abraham Lincoln!
Go OBAMA ‘08
Hello to fellow Obama supporters in New Mexico,
From the place where I'm holding on to this spinning world in Spain, I've been watching the movement grow in New Mexico, a place that will always be "home" for me, and I have been truly impressed. In the past couple of weeks, the ground seems to be shifting in my beloved Land of Enchantment and more and more people there are starting to believe in the power of hope and in the power of themselves to make a difference. That is owed to people like you reading this little "Thank You" greeting for all the hard work Obama supporters have been doing in NM. Every major newspaper in New Mexico has endorsed Barack going into Super Tuesday! Every one! WOW!
THANKS, New Mexico!
¡Sí, se puede!
Yes, we can!
Go Obama '08!
Love,
Charles
From far-away Europe, in the bustling capital of Spain, you have a fellow New Mexican filled with HOPE and with his fingers crossed that Governor Bill Richardson will Stand for Change today in the quiet capital of Santa Fe and tell the world that he wants Senator Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States! I enjoy my life in Spain, but I wish I could be in cold but beautiful Albuquerque or Santa Fe today, to be among the many New Mexicans who are welcoming Senator Obama to my state.
Warm Greetings to New Mexico, the Land and People of Enchantment, from Charles, a New Mexican in Madrid (Spain).
All the way from Spain, I'm Fired Up! Ready to Go!
Go OBAMA '08!
The article below originally appeared on Barack Obama’s website as “Friends Waiting to Be Made in an Alliance of Civilizations” on January 22, 2008. I am re-publishing it now especially to share it with my compatriots in Spain, such as those in “Obama Supporters in Spain”, a group of friends of Barack’s which I joined today, 1st February 2008.
As this re-release of “Friends Waiting to Be Made in an Alliance of Civilizations” is aimed at readers who may be more familiar with Spanish politics, I should also provide the caveat beforehand that I have serious reservations about the Zapatero Government’s apparent willingness to negotiate with groups which use violence and vandalism in an attempt to achieve their objectives and its fuelling the flames of independence-seeking movements within Spain, a country I love almost as much as my own. Furthermore, I question the warm relations Zapatero’s Spain has sought with regimes like Castro’s Cuba and Chavez’s Venezuela, relations which are already bearing bitter fruit for Spain. However, I strongly support the Alliance of Civilizations as an initiative to promote peaceful relations between countries and peoples. I encourage US policy-makers like Barack Obama and those Israeli policy-makers inclined towards peaceful relations with their Palestinian neighbors to engage in the Alliance and other initiatives which aspire to create a more peaceful world.
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The American foreign policy I have known and loved is one in which war is a last resort. Sadly, in recent years, a very different policy has emerged in the current culture of fear propagated by America’s own leaders. Regarding one of the conflicts in which the US is currently mired in particular, Barack Obama says, “…the war in Iraq should never have been authorized, and it should never have been waged.” (1) With the truth better known about the Bush Administration’s real motives for the invasion of Iraq as opposed to what the public and even high-ranking officials in the Administration were told in the build-up to the war, it is now even more clear that precious US credibility was lost precisely at a time when it was most needed.
Barack Obama offers a fresh change of course for innovative leadership to restore America’s standing in the world and enable the US to once again be the protagonist for peace in the Middle East it has been when peace in this region was at least in sight, if not in reach. As an American residing in Spain, the Alliance of Civilizations (AoC), a United Nations initiative underway since 2004, sounds as tailor-made for Barack Obama as those trendy gray suits he wears. US participation in the Alliance or in some other similar peace initiative, led by an Obama Administration, could result in peace and understanding winning out over war and extremism.
Spain has had many centuries of experience with Muslim countries and peoples. Its record is most certainly a mixed one of being a bridge between Europe and Africa for finding common ground, but more often, of confrontation led by religious zealotry on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar. From its history and geographic position on the planet, Spain is a place where Christians, Jews and Muslims have, in its better moments, lived together in harmony, and in its worst, clashed in confrontation. However, in today’s tumultuous world, Spain would seem to have learned from its own experience.
Spain’s version of 9/11 was 3/11, that tragic day in March, 2004 when 192 innocent lives were taken by terrorist bombers on early-morning commuter trains in Madrid. Instead of lurching to the right and pursuing a policy of war in a culture of fear as might have been expected, the Spanish people rose up and swept a progressive new president, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, into power. He has taken a markedly different approach to addressing the fundamental issues dividing people in our world.
On September 21, 2004, Zapatero presented a proposal for an Alliance of Civilizations at the 59th General Assembly of the United Nations. According to the Mission Statement for this innovative organization, “The Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) aims to improve understanding and cooperative relations among nations and peoples across cultures and religions and, in the process, to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism.” (2)
The Alliance of Civilizations fits hand-in-glove with Barack Obama’s goals to fundamentally change the approach of American foreign policy. At a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in April, 2007, Obama stated, “In today's globalized world, the security of the American people is inextricably linked to the security of all people.” In the same speech, he provides five ways in considerable detail “…to let the world know that we are committed to our common security, invested in our common humanity, and still a beacon of freedom and justice for the world.” One of these five measures in summary is “…to invest in our common humanity - to ensure that those who live in fear and want today can live with dignity and opportunity tomorrow.” (3)
This approach represents the America which in its best moments has been a proactive positive force for international relations based on peace and shared prosperity for all peoples. The Alliance of Civilizations has already been putting machinery in place to constructively work towards the goals and vision presented by Barack Obama. Notably-absent US and Israeli membership and participation in the Alliance are crucial if its good intentions are to be converted into potentially dramatic progress towards a common security rooted in our common humanity. US leadership and dialogue between warring nations is essential if there is to be peace in the Middle East. Sadly, the absence of that US proactive and positive intervention in recent years has created a void in which extremist elements have won out over more moderate ones and conflict has spread like a wildfire in that critical region.
Nobel-Peace-Prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu says, “An enemy is a friend waiting to be made.” (4) Barack Obama understands that talking to so-called or even self-proclaimed enemies is essential if there is going to be any chance for peaceful resolution of conflicts. Some individual representatives of nations may speak of other nations being sworn enemies and of wiping them off the map (often for domestic political consumption), but without US dialogue to “give peace a chance”, those flames are only fanned further and there is little if any chance for cooler heads to prevail.
In addition to concrete on-the-ground steps for fostering understanding and cooperative relations among nations, such as those taken at the Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Madrid on January 15-16, 2008 (5), the AoC provides a setting in which constructive dialogue can take place. However, US involvement to bring all parties to the table and US pressure on all sides to bring them to agreement will be needed to settle long-running disputes.
I wonder what has happened to US leadership as a problem solver. Barack Obama’s insight gives me hope that the US will once again take its place as a confident leader to make real progress on issues like world development and world peace, two issues which both Obama and the Alliance of Civilizations program recognize as intimately related. A strong US role is needed in the AoC or some other similar initiative which can offer some hope for Middle East peace. Barack Obama offers the vision we need to lead again and for peaceful resolution of conflicts in the world to be paramount to US foreign policy.
1 Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: “Lessons from Iraq”; De Moines, Iowa; October 12, 2007 (available on www.barackobama.com)
2 Alliance of Civilizations Mission Statement; AoC website, www.unaoc.org
3 Barack Obama speech, “The American Moment: Remarks to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs”; Chicago, Illinois; April 23, 2007 (available on www.barackobama.com)
4 Comments by Archbishop Despond Tutu; video interview; Alliance of Civilizations website, www.unaoc.org
5 Major Outcomes of the Alliance of Civilizations Forum; AoC website, www.unaoc.org
Barack Obama offers a sound health care plan which will guarantee something LONG overdue for Americans – quality health care coverage for all. My experience in Spain, a country which has given all of its citizens guaranteed health care coverage for many years, makes me wonder how and why the by-far richest and most powerful nation on Earth hasn’t been able to do so for its people.
As I have attempted to do in my other blog articles, I wish to share with readers of this article what my experience as an American living outside the United States may be teaching me and what lessons there might be from the way other countries address critical issues like health care. It’s sad for me, frankly, that the United States is the only developed country which does not provide a health care coverage system for all of its people - that so many Americans live in fear of exorbitant health care costs and either avoid getting the care they need or go into bankruptcy when unavoidable health care needs arise. It’s almost incomprehensible to me.
It seems to me that the industries which profit off of health care have stricken terror into the hearts of many Americans by falsely convincing them that nationalized health care would ruin a system that is already broken. Living in Spain, I have had the opportunity to witness a very different side to nationalized health care. I had an unfortunate experience which enabled me to see and, in essence, without wanting to, to test the Spanish health care system quite intimately.
In the wee hours of August 13, 2004, I fell from the loft where I had been sleeping in my central Madrid apartment. I still have no memory of exactly what happened. The first memory I have is of waking up in the early morning, back in the loft, with intense internal pain. I called a friend of mine who is a nurse and he came over right away. Taking one look at me sans shirt, as that is how I tend to sleep through the night in the hot summer months, he said, “You have a broken collar bone.” He took me to the hospital and it turned out that I had the broken collar bone he diagnosed, plus four broken ribs and a head injury known as an epidural haematoma. I spent 10 days in the hospital plus several weeks in physical therapy afterwards.
I was given excellent care by well-trained professionals, both during my stay in the hospital and for the follow-up rehabilitation. The hospital was clean and as comfortable as it could be under the circumstances. I was given X-rays and CAT scans on machines as modern and sophisticated as any I know of in the US. Some of the rehabilitation I had to do was done in a delightful, warm, indoor pool, again guided by well-trained, caring professionals.
At this point, you may be wondering how much all this cost me or how much my co-pay was. The answer is NOT ONE RED CENT - I believe I did have to pay a modest amount for some pain medications I was prescribed, so, OK, let’s say $50. A conservative Republican friend of mine – I do have a few conservative Republican friends – who is an economist, told me by phone from the US, “It’s a good thing you had that accident in Spain. If it had happened in the US, it would have cost you a hundred thousand dollars.” Spanish citizens who visit the US are advised to have special travel health insurance; otherwise, they won't be covered, and those unfortunate ones who have suffered some malady or accident while in the United States, have come back with the kinds of horror stories about health care costs that are all-too familiar to Americans. I will be eternally grateful to my adopted country for all of the outstanding care I was given. I still have no idea how much it actually cost, as I was never even sent a statement with a breakdown of the costs.
In Spain, everyone’s health care is covered by what’s called “seguridad social”. Now that really is social security. The Spanish can opt to have private health care, but when the public is as good as it is, most people are simply content to have the publicly-provided care. Apart from paying into the system which covers health care and retirement benefits, they have no costs, no co-payments, no worries.
Most of the candidates for president of the United States, at least on the Democratic side, have some kind of health care proposal. Perhaps Obama’s is not particularly better than the others. However, what Barack Obama has head-and-shoulders above his rivals is an ability to unify people around common causes for the common good. Tackling the health care debacle in the US will be no easy task. The Clintons found that out in the ‘90s. We need a unifying leader who will bring all parties which have a stake in health care to the table and, with Democrats, Republicans and Independents, will develop common-sense, innovative solutions to the American health care crisis. If the divisive political maneuvering the Clintons were doing in the run-up to the recent South Carolina Democratic primary is any guide to how a Hillary Clinton Administration would address issues like health care, then she is simply not up to the task of building the consensus needed to obtain a national health care system which covers all Americans. Barack Obama is singularly capable of offering the vision and leadership in a spirit of bi-partisan cooperation to create the climate possible to make long overdue universal health care coverage a reality in the United States of America.
Spain has had many centuries of experience with Muslim countries and peoples. Its record is most certainly a mixed one of being a bridge between Europe and Africa for finding common ground, but more often, of confrontation led by religious zealotry on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar. From its history and geographic position on the planet, Spain is a place where Christians, Jews and Muslims have, in its better moments, lived together in harmony, and in its worst, clashed in confrontation.
However, in today’s tumultuous world, Spain would seem to have learned from its own experience. Spain’s version of 9/11 was 3/11, that tragic day in March, 2004 when 192 innocent lives were taken by terrorist bombers on early-morning commuter trains in Madrid. Instead of lurching to the right and pursuing a policy of war in a culture of fear as might have been expected, the Spanish people rose up and swept a progressive new president, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, into power. He has taken a markedly different approach to addressing the fundamental issues dividing people in our world.
This approach represents the America which in its best moments has been a proactive positive force for international relations based on peace and shared prosperity for all peoples. The Alliance of Civilizations has already been putting machinery in place to constructively work towards the goals and vision presented by Barack Obama. Notably-absent US and Israeli membership and participation in the Alliance are crucial if its good intentions are to be converted into potentially dramatic progress towards a common security rooted in our common humanity.
US leadership and dialogue between warring nations is essential if there is to be peace in the Middle East. Sadly, the absence of proactive US leadership and dialogue in recent years has created a void in which extremist elements have won out over more moderate ones and conflict has spread like a wildfire in that critical region.
On this, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, I just want to pause and reflect for a moment on his great legacy. Wouldn't he be proud that we have a truly viable African-American candidate for President of the United States!? Perhaps he would be even more proud, though, that Barack Obama is not only a candidate for black Americans, but that his message and appeal are for all Americans - that he is not a viable candidate because he is black and catering to one special interest, but rather, that he is an African-American who is viable precisely because he blurs racial divisions and lots of other divisions. Senator Obama is so widely respected for simply being the PERSON he is - not the African-American person he is, but simply the person he is.
Barack Obama's message is so powerful because it appeals to the hopes in all people, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation or any other characteristic that might serve some to pigeon-hole people into one classification or another. I hope the resonance of that message is a reflection of a maturing of American society to go beyond the interests of one group or another and seek our highest good as Americans as one people, a people who have a vested interest in contributing to creating a better world together. That would be Dr. King's dream realized.
With that being said and similar feelings being expressed far and wide, I hope those in the media, his challengers for the presidency to the extent they may have done so, and any others who might seek to divide the strength and unity of the Movement Barack Obama inspires can soon put the issue of race to rest. In his empowering message of hope and change, Barack Obama transcends all of those things which have divided Americans in the past. Through his vision, our country can truly be healed and we can accomplish great things together. As someone living in Spain whose home state is the Land of Enchantment, New Mexico, I close this appeal with, ¡Sí se puede!
As an American living abroad, perhaps the best contribution I can make through this blog to the Movement for hope and change led by Barack Obama is to provide the perspective of an American looking at his own country from outside of it.
Obama says with regard to climate change that “…it’s one of the greatest moral challenges of our generation.” (1) I envision a United States of America which, with his leadership, can take the place it took repeatedly in the 20th century - to face our world’s challenges with courage and resolve.
I am proud to be an American, but I am also proud to live in a country, Spain, which has made a commitment to addressing the problem of climate change by signing on to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon emissions. Spain still has a lot to do, but by signing the Protocol, the Spanish and other signers are among the first to realize that taking on the challenge facing our generation which could ultimately save our planet requires an obligation which will not be easy to fulfill.
In the years I’ve been living here, one of the steps Spain has taken which will help it meet the Kyoto Protocol targets is to invest millions of euros to expand its system of high-speed trains known as the AVE (pronounced “AH-veh”, an acronym which stands for alta velocidad española). These state-of-the-art electric-powered trains give Spain a much more efficient infrastructure. They reduce carbon emissions by encouraging Spanish travelers to leave their cars in the garage and opt instead for the greater speed, comfort and safety the AVE system provides. The completed system, establishing a network connecting all major cities and towns on the Iberian Peninsula, will lower congestion on Spanish roads, reduce pollution by taking cars off those roads, and even save lives in the here-and-now by curbing traffic fatalities.
When my Oklahoma-born dad – whose heart is not red, but rather red, white and blue – was visiting me in Spain several years ago, we went down to the beautiful city of Seville on the then-only-existing AVE train line. Whizzing through the Spanish countryside in whispery silence and great comfort at more than 150 miles-per-hour, Dad turned to me and said, “Son, we think we have the best of everything in the good ol’ US of A, but it just ain’t so!” No, Dad, it ain’t necessarily so.
Barack Obama stands above his challengers for the White House by leading a Movement of vision that will restore the can-do attitude which has defined the American experience in its best of times. We need that vision in order for America to retake the place it has regrettably forfeited to others in recent years. John F. Kennedy led a generation of Americans to take on a challenge of its time by reaching into outer space and sending a man to the moon. Recognizing the seemingly insurmountable obstacles to be overcome and calling upon his fellow citizens to make increased shared sacrifices to accomplish those goals, Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” (2)
Climate change is the challenge of our generation. Future generations will look back at ours with contempt for having failed to meet it or with admiration for making the hard choices and the short and medium-term sacrifices to save our fragile planet. Barack Obama offers vision and leadership to unify Americans and hope to bring about the change which our time demands.
1 "THE BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE: Barack Obama’s Plan for America"; 2007 (available on www.barackobama.com)
2 Speech given by John F. Kennedy at Rice University, Texas; September 12, 1962
As an American living abroad, I am very concerned about the role the United States has in the world. From Barack Obama's own lifetime experiences and his policy proposals, he gives hope to restore America's image. He gives hope to enable the US to fulfill the great promise it offers to the rest of the world, the promise of delivering people from oppression and giving them a voice to improve their own lives. In this promise, the US will seriously address the problems the world faces and make it a better place to live.
I believe Barack Obama understands that the promise for a better world that the United States of America offers cannot be delivered down the barrel of a gun, but rather, by America restoring its moral standing. He will put the shame of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo behind us. Under his leadership, the US can once again respect international law and institutions it has been so fundamental in creating. He understands that the US can only be appreciated and respected in the world if it lives up to its own values.
Barack Obama also understands that the US role in the world depends on restoring its position as a leader instead of being dragged along as a reluctant follower. For example, he supports American ingenuity to address climate change and to be an active part of international efforts to solve this problem.
Finally, with his father being an immigrant to the US and his own childhood experience of living abroad, Obama understands that part of what has made the United States a great nation is its openness to new people, new ideas and diversity. America has taken pride in being a nation of immigrants. My own mother, who passed away in March 2007, was British - born in India, and lived in many places around the world. She spent the second half of her life in the United States and, with the worldview she had, she contributed to her community in many ways. I believe Barack Obama offers the opportunity to put that kind of understanding of the world into the White House, to make America once again the beacon of hope it has been and has the potential to be again.
As an American abroad, I want to do all I can to support the Movement Barack Obama leads. I want to be a part of that movement and hope others will join with me. I will be working towards getting as many Americans in Spain, in my home state of New Mexico, and elsewhere to vote for Barack Obama and support his campaign for hope and change. I welcome any opinions to the views I have expressed in this blog.
