I will always remember the moment I realized a true African-American brother name Barack Obama had changed time. I was watching the 2008 US election returns with my two older children at home in our basement.
I will always remember the moment I realized a true African-American brother name Barack Obama had changed time. I was watching the 2008 US election returns with my two older children at home in our basement.
Like many other men forced by the elements to confine themselves in limited spaces during that unkind season of the year, I am a serial Channel Surfer. Unless I find a show or topic interesting, I tend to run through the entire digital channel offering in a matter of minutes. On that night, I was torn between my favorite MSNBC and my Blood Cooker channel -Fox News.
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I grudgingly went back to Fox repeatedly because for whatever reasons, they always beat every other channel in calling States for a particular candidate. Sometimes, it was by seconds, but at other times, it was actually by minutes.
Well, at a point, I went up to get some hot drink, and came down just in time for Fox to call Ohio for Obama. That was after Pennsylvania had gone to him.
Without realizing it, I was screaming so loud my startled kids asked if Daddy is ok. I don’t remember being that excited about anything in along time. The hair on my skin was erect, and within seconds, I was on the phone trying to toast a Gambian friend about the pleasantly shocking news.
He thought I was ahead of myself. Gambians are like that. Adding One and One isn’t our strongest suit.
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My friend reminded me it was not over yet. That I should be patient. But it was. See, Obama was certain to win mighty California, the liberal pacific rim States of Washington and Oregon, and his native Hawaii. The seventy-two electoral college votes in that pool were sufficient to hand him the election even if he ended up falling short in Virginia, Colorado, Florida, and Nevada. I pointed this out to my friend and hung up to wait for the inevitable.
As we waited for the clock to hit 11:00pm for the formal announcement of what was obvious to me at that point, I went on to tell my uncomprehending and bemused little girls what the significance of that night was, and the reason for Daddy going crazy. Two years three months ago, it was.
I would later read a piece by brother Rudolf Okonkwo that captured the essence of what I told my kids: just like many of our people in Africa still tell their age by referencing stand-out natural events, catastrophe, or phenomena, long after Daddy is no longer anywhere you can find me, you’ll be talking to YOUR grandchildren about world history in reference terms like BO (Before Obama,) and AO (After Obama.) This I still believe steadfastly.
What I’ve had to doubt is Obama’s politics and leadership on so many issues dear to me in the past two years. There were glimpses of the Hope agent who took the world by storm two years ago energizing millions, and converting millions more from being cynics to believers that, yes a modern politician can make the changes needed to give respite to the downtrodden. But like I alluded to, these instances of hope have been rare and fleeting the past two years.
What characterized Obama in his first two years is a wimpish disposition to bend backwards to placate or pacify his opponents on an endless string of issues. There wasn’t a single issue on which Obama was willing to dig in his heels and take a firm stance. It seems everything – especially as it relates to the interests of his staunchest constituencies, is negotiable. Consequently, even in areas where Obama has “succeeded” in making reforms, such reforms are largely nominal, cosmetic, or perfunctory, lacking the teeth or substance his supporters were calling for. This is why though, he’s had more legislative success than any president since Jimmy Carter, very few notice. His self-created seeming lack of backbone encourages his detractors as it dispirits his supporters.
Just fancy the nonsense of Obama granting a wing nut like Bill O'reilly an exclusive interview on Super Bowl night -today. Of all the Right Wing blowhards and hate mongers on TV, none surpasses O’reilly when it comes to having an exaggerated sense of his self-importance. Neither does O’reilly care at all about facts that run contrary to the script he goes by - just like almost all his regular listeners. So why is Obama playing poodle to this man again? The only sure thing to come out of this interview is that Obama will help legitimize an out of control egomaniac, who is neither well-informed generally, nor particularly bright at all. The man is not even a journalist! But for the O'reillys, Obama will do anything to earn temporary Brownie points.
Some have argued with me that the brother is only being practical. American politics is all about compromise and horse-trading. It’s rare to get most of what one wants. I get that – to a point. But the problem with using terms like “horse-trading” is, they imply a give and take situation, not the one way – give, give, give, that Obama has signaled to his opponents he’ll tolerate in the name of bi-partisanship.
More importantly, Barack Obama promised us he is different type of pol. He is in fact on record saying, even if he is condemned to being a One-Termer, he will fight for certain core issues uncompromisingly. Two years on, we are still waiting for that Obama to appear. Some of us take promises –private or public, seriously. And hold their makers to them. And frankly, someone needs to play some of Barack Obama’s campaign tapes for him because what he promised is not what we have been seeing from him on a whole range of issues.
Many of the Signature issues that rallied some of us to Obama’s side are so clear cut that only a traditional politician would dither in discussing those issues. Or obfuscate them in any way. I know this because I was forced by some colleagues to make my views known during the Health Insurance Reform debate. I thought their constant discussion of the issue was either too silly, or too disingenuous. So I did my best to avoid contributing to the discussion in any way. But they had to get their “black” professional perspective. So when they prompted me for the umpteenth time, I told them what I believe. It’s something we have all come to regret.
You see, I don’t understand why so many things are the way they are in the US. Since my colleagues want to hear what I have to say, I obliged them. Here is what I told them as calmly as I could muster:
First, I don’t understand why in a country as rich as the US, anyone should have to pay for basic health care. Rich people who want fancy private or special care should have that choice, but otherwise, the US government should pay for EVERY citizen to be treated at government expense. To me, the idea of leaving out millions of people to the vagaries of nature because they are jobless and therefore unable to afford paying extortionist Health Insurance Companies unjustifiable fees is simply unconscionable. I cannot believe Barack Obama is willing to leave out a single person uncovered. I think it’s a shame.
The Military-Industrial Complex that president Eisenhower warned the US about continues to gulp more money than the rest of the world’s security budgets combined. In a nut shell, million dollar bombs are continually being made to be dropped exclusively on poor people somewhere in the world. Billion dollar defense projects are often abandoned and cancelled mid-way through their execution. No one makes a wimper, they simply start a new and more expensive one. This unending game of deceit is possible because ordinary Americans are led to believe there are enemies lurking “out there” in every nook and cranny who will kill them unless they continue to spend senselessly on weapons made by companies that are controlled by the same American Moneyed Class who are the main Fear Mongers insisting on endless defense spending. So it’s ok to spend $770 Billion dollars annually on Defense, but the government cannot afford $14 Billion to pay for poor people’s health care?
Second, I don’t understand why in a country as rich as the US, with enough land, building equipment manufacturers, and energy resources, anyone should have to spend the lion share of their earnings just to own a home, or rent an apartment. My own home cost me $275K when I “purchased” it. But a review of the actuarial calculation let me know that if all goes well, I would have paid my lender $597K on the day that it signs over title of the house to me thirty years after my date of purchase! How in the world is this conscionable? Other than luxury homes, no ordinary rental property should cost more than $250 monthly, and no ordinary home should cost more than $100K in the US. There is no reason why homes and rent should cost what they do in America. For rent in particular, especially in cities where such properties are decades or a century or more old, and the owners have long since recouped their investments, why do they continue charging people exorbitant rents? What more do they want? And why is this ok? This is the exact reason why so many Americans become homeless – a clear cut crime and an indictment against “the system” in my view. I’ll never understand something so cruel.
Three, I don’t understand why in a country as rich as the US, poor people have to struggle and be saddled with life-long debt just to get quality education be that college or vocational. The US government has enough resources to absorb such costs, and should in fact make college and vocational education free for all citizens. Those that can afford to set up their own private colleges, and send their children to exclusive ones should continue to do so. But at the basic level, no American citizen should pay a dime for wanting an education. If the US government is concerned enough to know about “what’s out there” in the larger universe, and is willing to spend hundreds of billions to make contact with whatever is on other planets, then it’s a disgrace that they refuse to offer their own people on this planet free quality education. Why would you be more concerned about “potential” living things in other worldly bodies than the actual living beings in your own country? Why is hypocrisy accepted as an American tradition?
Four, it really disturbs me that you guys keep trumpeting One-liners about the US being Number One in almost every important category of the Human Development Index. This is in fact false. From education, to Life Expectancy, to Health care coverage of its population, to Per Capita income, to equitable distribution of wealth, to Net wealth, and many other categories, not only is the US not world leader, it is not even among the top dozen! It wouldn’t take you five minutes to verify this. So, why repeat the lies routinely thrown around by Fox News Channel?
I had to stop because my argument and passion clearly proved to be a Conversation Stopper. My lunch mates were all shifting in their seats, and watching other diners furtively. Like I give a hoot. One said, he never knew I felt that way. And he said so as if he just found me to be an enemy. Apparently, to his types, the only way to love or be loyal to the US, is to swallow blatant lies, or send your conscience on vacation. Another said, “well, Saul that’s our system. That’s how the system works.” The third was even more disturbed by what he heard me say. “If I didn’t know you, I’d say you’re, you’re a socialist. Almost communist.”
My reply? Actually, you don’t know me at all because “communist” or “socialist” or whatever, I sincerely believe in what I’m saying. If what I just told you is socialist or communist, please call me so because I’m dead serious about what I just said. Who created this “system” that is used to justify this twisted and blood-sucking type of arrangement? Why is this “system” so sacrosanct, so set in stone that it cannot be changed? What is wrong with trying to change a system that clearly only benefits a tiny fraction of the US population?
Things started going downhill when they began to tell me that because I was born and bred in Africa only to come to the US to “make it” in a relatively short time, anyone born in America can “make it” if they want to. This is the biggest claptrap the so-called Conservatives throw around. It is also a deliberate attempt to set “new” –especially colored Americans, against their more native American brethren. The fact is, immigrants always generally do better than their hosts everywhere. With the so-called Conservatives, though most of them inherited their privileged lives, and went to good schools because of Legacy or Blood Ties, they spew out drivel that all those at the bottom of US society are there because of laziness, by choice, or lack of initiative. This is hypocritical nonsense. George W. Bush went to Yale not because of his SAT Score, but because of his parentage. As did most of the crowd representing the moneyed class in present day America.
At the personal level, I know for a fact that my success in school has as much to do with nature as it does with self discipline. It’s true, I push myself like crazy. I had a mission, and was clear about how to accomplish it. But it’s also true that I spend less effort on books than most in order to pass required exams. In fact, that has been a permanent feature of my school life. I have always been a notorious Talkative or trouble-maker in class, hardly ever paying attention to what my teachers were saying. Yet, I never had issues outperforming most of my classmates, some of who were spending inordinate amounts of time book studying. In college, I double majored at the undergrad level while employed in a physically taxing job in a grocery store. But my struggle was almost entirely financial. Tuition payment was such a problem for me that it eventually affected my academic record as well. So when I received my BSc, it was in an anticlimax mood. I was just glad to have made it. But I went on to breeze through a graduate program, and capped it with a professional certification that several people told me I cannot take on my own. That I need to sign up for a Review class that costs around three thousand dollars. I did no such thing. Other than the four-part exam fees, I bought used CDs from someone for 10% of the full price, and closed that chapter of my life on my own. But also important in my US journey, I always had a fallback plan if the US didn’t work for me - an Exit Strategy if you like.
So what would make me a template to judge someone born in America, especially those still reeling from centuries of deliberate racial, cultural, or social disorientation? Many are boxed in, constrained by forces they are neither aware of, nor fully understand. Unlike some of us, they have no Plan B. This is it for them. Their not “making it” has much to do with “the system” that is clearly rigged against them at birth. It’s not an accident that colored people in the US excel mostly in areas where their performance is not determined arbitrarily by someone else. What is wrong with government giving such people a helping hand without saddling them with life-long debt?
Like I told you, the conversation did not go well.
But these types don’t bother me. Obama does. Now, granted, the brother has had to navigate a very treacherous political terrain with some wily crocs in his own party like Sen. Joe Liebermann of CT, who dislike him as much as any of his openly hostile Republican opponents. But even after cutting the brother some slack in that area, he still falls short of expectations by my reckoning.
Obama understood how twisted things were in his country and around the world when he set out to change things. People that look like him – not just in Chicago’s South side, but across the planet have had a raw deal for long. It was our hope that Obama would make a real effort to correct some of the messed-up arrangements he found. On trade, agriculture, mineral extraction, or oil exploration and marketing, the so-called Third World continues to be forced to subsidize the West. Like many of us, Obama knows exactly how this is being done. But Like I stated earlier, we are still waiting for Obama to attempt making any change in these areas. On Africa in particular, Obama’s record thus far is simply disgraceful.
In fact, on the current trajectory he is on, Barack Obama would have less substantive impact on Africa than George W. Bush had. Symbolism is ok, but it could only take one so far. Bush made a remarkable impact in the health sector especially as it relates to the fight against AIDS. In his drive to appease his detractors, decreasing funding for that program has been one of Obama’s less “controversial” choices. I suppose it’s because there’s no Africa lobby he is afraid of. Also, since we Africans have a tradition of signaling to everyone that we are fools that are easily satisfied with symbolism, Obama sees no fear in taking us for granted.
To the contrary, despite all the austerity measures he is advocating, the annual aid to Israel, whose PM not only openly defied Obama on several occasions, but in one case, deliberately sought to humiliate him (Netanyahu waited for VP Biden’s visit to announce expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands – something the Obama administration oppose,) not a cent of their aid is cut. But Africa? We are not even on Obama’s radar.
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