reasons why

There are many reasons why I like Barack Obama, from what I have read of him and heard from him. One personal reason is that he recognises and acknowledges his mother for her guidance in rearing him. Within my own family, and within my own observances, it seems that a mother's input, even or especially if she was the one who did the majority of the child-rearing, is negated and dismissed, or not thought worthy of acknowledgment, by many sons. In fact, mothers wear a lot of bitterness, and obviously not all are saints, but the bitterness is often misguided. I have a post in the works on that concept.

However, the quote below has nothing directly to do with his mother. It is from his Audacity of hope:

...When [the United States seeks] to impose democracy with the barrel of a gun, funnel money to parties whose economic policies are deemed friendlier to Washington, or fall under the sway of exiles like Chalabi whose ambitions aren't matched by any discernible local support, we aren't just setting ourselves up for failure. We are helping oppressive regimes paint democratic activists as tools of foreign powers and retarding the possibility that genuine, homegrown democracy will ever emerge (2006, p. 317).

He further expands and qualifies the topic in a chapter outlining his viewpoints on current (as of 2006) American political attitudes to the world beyond the States. The above viewpoint does not seem simplistic as he devotes nine pages in the chapter to the policies of developed countries which are not applied carte blanche to those countries that are not quite so developed. Throughout his writing he constantly refers to how we are all part of a global economy and a global system, and how the pain of one does ultimately affect another, no matter how many oceans divide. He is a politician, too, obviously, and from all indications he will do very little to alleviate any of the tension that has been outlined in the blog post below. He is not naive in the role he is probably expected to play by the American people, and the role that he believes he should play.

However, I like the viewpoint he expresses and I hope he has the strength, support and clear-sightedness in 2009 for some modicum of decency, awareness, and relief to spread through the world, albeit ever so slightly. It is highly unlikely. He is a politicaian, as stated before, but, anwyay, Happy New Year. May some of the generosity of spirit and compassion that humans are capable of manifest itself in opposition to, and in spite of, the horrendous callousness and terror we are equally able to inflict.

Obama, B. (2006). The audacity of hope. Three Rivers Press: New York.