CAN/CAN’T IS ONE THING, WILL/WON’T IS ANOTHER
I woke up in the middle of the night due to a dodgy pizza yesterday.
I couldn’t get back to sleep so I turned on the TV just in time to see somone being lionised.
All this talk about change and what did I see?
I saw a highly stage-managed event. I saw a priest/minister person come out and say a prayer, then someone sang the US national anthem then the man who was being lionised came out and praised a country that is currently attacking several that did not attack it. People were crying and waving USA flags.
Didn’t seem like much had changed to me.
He talked about the people who made the constitution of the USA which talks about separation of church and state, then he said ‘God Bless America.’
That didn’t seem like a change either.
He praised the soldiers fighting around the world.
That didn’t seem like a change to me.
Here are some quick facts…
- Obama has not promised to withdraw completely from Iraq
- Obama said “ “We must lead by building a 21st century military…. I strongly support the expansion of our ground forces by adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines.”
- He didn’t visit a single mosque in his campaign but did go to many churches and synagogues
Try these for some more information
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/19317
http://www.counterpunch.org/nader11032008.html
I really hope I am wrong, but I remember the elation after the New Labour victory in 1997 and even Clinton so there is previous for all this hullaballoo.
Too right. You have brought into sharp focus why many of us seem to have more than a vague sense of unease despite the fact that the Dubya reign is almost, finally, over.
It was far more satisfying watching ordinary Americans and what I perceive as the more authentic emotions and responses among Obama’s supporters than from Senator Obama himself on his victory speech.
i agree with you about watching the people.
however the name on the door is about to change but the name of the game isn’t…
Every twenty-four hours, thirteen million tons of toxic chemicals are released across the globe; 200,000 acres of rainforest are destroyed; more than one hundred plant or animal species go extinct; and 45,000 humans (mostly children) starve to death. Each day, 29,158 children under the age of five die from mostly preventable causes.
I just haven’t seen much evidence that Obama is the person to seriously deal with those issues.
like i said, i seriously hope i am wrong.
Plus he picks some of the worst people for his underlings – doesn’t bode well.
indeed, but are they his underlings or overlords?
Those things bothered me too. The mass rally, the formless emotion, the unthinking hero worship, the mindless patriotism and ritual religion, the adulation of the military, the invocation of “our enemies”, all of it the same and all of it used for no good.
I was one of the fewer than a million who voted for an alternative to endless war and destruction of the earth. Boy, am I depressed.
hi there
and well done for voting or one of the other people.
Hmmmm yes well………….OK Obama is a politician and the hopelessly unrealistic burden of expectation on him is well er…unrealistic.
However I do think he is quite probably the best we could hope for in America at this time. Lets enjoy Bush’s demise and have some hope, even if it is possibly of the faux variety.