This Tuesday America took its first step towards celebrating its own diversity. Now I have already said in a prior post, albeit in a snarky manner, that I do not find it my place to talk about American politics. But Barack Obama has forced me to request a mulligan. Under no circumstances can I, someone who has lead a charmed life, claim to understand the travails of black America. To comment on the significance of the first African-American president without a tangible understanding of what it is to be an African-American, would be to trivialize the resonance this will have in that community. If I were pressed, I would be forced to speak in borrowed cliches. And if there is anything I hate more than a cliche it is a borrowed cliche. However let me speak to why I cannot maintain a stoic silence at this juncture.
"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union...."
These constitutional beginnings were famously quoted by Obama in his now famous speech on race relations and I believe they deserve a second look, in particular the words "more perfect union". It is fair to say that few countries epitomize the word "union" like America does. The word "perfect" is considered in certain etymological circles to be an absolute. If that were true, perfection would be a zenith from whence the only available direction is downhill. America has often been guilty of buying into its own delusions of grandeur. This has been pretty difficult of late given the current situation the country is in, but a section of the population is still fairly gung-ho about living in denial. Creating a functioning, vibrant and productive society is a dynamic process that can never reach equilibrium. There may be the occasional meta-stable pocket in time or space, but growth is invariably achieved only through the action of opposing forces. So in using the qualifier "more" the intention, in my opinion, is to remind citizenry that what they perceive as perfection can still be improved.
In his momentous acceptance speech last night, Obama alluded to this in detail. He acknowledged the 46-and-odd percent of the population that did not exercise their franchise in his favor and said that he was willing to listen. In acknowledging the origins of the Republican party and the original spirit of conservatism, he reminded us that bi-partisanship was not, forgive my topical analogy, a pie in the sky. In acknowledging that there will be false starts and missteps he reaffirmed to me that the enormity of his burden is not lost upon him. In acknowledging that the power of America is the power to change for good, he renewed the hope that America has in its most powerful office, a man who understands the spirit of its constitution. As far as politics is concerned, I come from a long line of cynics. A line that believes quite fervently that politics leaves us to choose from the lesser of evils. But I find my cynicism doubting itself in the face of Obama. The straggling pieces of my cynicism remind me that extreme levels of hope in one's blood tend to cause side-effects such as disappointment. And yet I find myself.... full of it.
