Obama is the US President
It took long years and fights of values and unfailing spirit, but today the United States of America finally caught up with its Humanity.
Aspirations are wishes that cannot be seen or even contemplated. Commitments are promises that one makes with ones spirit. Meeting one’s commitments are important for freedom of the spirit that defines the basic character.
It is never easy. It takes duelling with one’s own prejudices and mind. It would be easy if the seed of nightmares were in another. But what if, we discover, that the fire of destruction of my spirit actually is born out of me?
Even at this stage it wasn’t easy. A respected and war hero fell as low as he could possibly have gone to stop this liberation of a nation’s and, indeed a civilization’s spirit. The sordid saga that had its beginnings in the flesh trade from Africa and of the poor, finally celebrated its second major milestone of liberation today. It took two great men – Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama to help everyone accomplish these victories. It also showed how far the values need to go to meet even the minimum standards that South Africa demonstrated in its acceptance of a black statesman as their leader. The likes of whom were canon-fodder was now General and ungrudgingly so.
Not many people may agree with the policies or one’s values, but there is a Grace that is cherished when it is demonstrated at times of epochal turns. For all his previous sins, Botha and others showed that grace. That is where, Obama’s opponents lost out. When the world will look back at these last few months, as I am convinced it will.. again and again… it will find a bitter and venomous performance unfolding from even the most respected of this land, where a victorious General had given up his claim on an autocratic rule to open the door for a democracy and another great man fought against his grain to establish a rule based on his conviction that man cannot enslave man.
US is not the greatest country in the world because it was the “greatest” to start off with. It is because of the efforts of those visionary, untested-yet-strong, fair and graceful minds in the face of utmost ridicule, animosity and rhetoric. To use “Greatness” as a reason for one’s actions is to make a complete caricature of the source of that virtue. Virtue of Greatness is not a cow to be milked but a plant to be nurtured by every generation and every person.