Two letters to America
Nov 16, 2008 Rantings
In the days following the win of US Presidential-elect Barack Obama, I waited for the euphoria to die down so that I could get to the analysis stories. Being a news junkie, I am interested to listen to different takes on the historical event.
Now, I don’t know if it’s from lack of time due to my extremely busy past couple of weeks (and therefore, not being able to find many stories), but I was quite dissapointed. Most of the ones I read were the same old, same old - they could have been rehashed stories from his Democratic nomination win, for all I know.
Today, however, I came by two interesting articles related to the US Presidential elections - both on the same page in The Star - Page 3 of StarMag. Both were by StarMag’s regular columnists - Wide Angle by Huzir Sulaiman and Stray Thought by A Asohan.
Huzir wrote an open letter to Americans, congratulating them on a good choice of President-to-come - especially after the disaster that was the past eight years under the ‘W’ administration. He talks about how, although we’re not Americans, that our lives are so much influenced by them. He invokes the names of Pollock, Warhol, Miles Davis. B. B. King, David Sedaris, House of Pain - all such a global force.
Huzir wrote about Obama’s 2004 Democratic Convention keynote speech, and the latter’s talk about small miracles.
We looked around our own part of the world, and we wanted those small miracles for our own countries.
We wanted them so badly for ourselves, America, that it hurt all the more that you could enjoy them at home and yet behave in the way that you did abroad.
Then there is Asohan’s piece, a reality check of sorts. Yes, his was similar to others I have read which talks about numbers - Obama got 43% of the white vote as compared to John McCain’s 55%. And McCain’s 5% compared to Obama’s 95% of black votes (according to BBC exit polls).
But it was the last two paragraphs that resonates the most.
But the world’s declaration that America has looked beyond race in electing Obama is naive.
It is an important first step, sure, but America will only have transcended race when a white man votes for a black man, and a black man votes for a white man, without giving a damn what his skin colour is.
I don’t know if many people would agree with the two of them - if Americans will give us that wee bit of ownership of their talent, or if people still think that we’ve got a long way to go in terms of “looking beyond race”.
But for me - a Malaysian who believes in the ideals of the United States, who grew up with a lot of American influences and who followed painstakingly, the election just past (and the couple of elections before that) - it is certainly food for thought.
And that is why I love the post-europhia/buzz articles.
11.20am Malaysian time (+8 GMT)
Tags: A Asohan, america, Barack Obama, Elections, huzir sulaiman, John McCain, politics, Presidential Elections, United States
