Americans are expected to deluge the polling booths on Nov 4. In a society where no one is required to vote (and not voting may be considered a political statement) , the electoral system may not be able to handle the record number of voters. The blurbs report that for some senior citizens,this will be their first time to cast a vote!
The rest of the planet is "voting" too. Even in Russia's Siberia people are either for John McCain or Barack Obama. However aside Georgians who are for McCain, many people interviewed are for Obama. Indians are for Obama. Residents of Obama, Japan are for Obama, subarashii!
It isn't just Obama's skin colour that matters but for many it is the disaster that George W Bush's leaves as a legacy. As of this moment, Bush has entered history with no victory against the terrorists and a destroyed financial sector. Bush is the president that destroyed the United States of America.
For us Pinoys we can't cast a ballot (though wansapanatym we selected a delegate for the Republican and Democratic national conventions) but we are very interested and as Manolo Quezon says "American presidential politics has begun to look like Pinoy politics". With hard up Pinoys our colonial baggage (and probably leftist propaganda) has conditioned us to believe that even who ever gets elected, our situation here will remain the same. This isn't how the rest of the world thinks. Under an Obama presidency, the situation will improve. Thus Obama is the Messiah!
Our fatalistic view is typically Pinoy and reflects that the ruling elite despite their tryst with anyone in the Oval Office, just benefits them and them alone. I think we have to cast away this colonial baggage and use democracy to make these ruling elites history. This is the lesson of this year's US presidential derby. After all did Martin Luther King even consider this day has come, so soon? He did when he had a dream. Jim Crow is still in living memory in the American south. Those who had to sit at the back of the bus when they were kids are now in their senior years about to witness a black American become President. Those kids who had the National Guard escort them to a newly integrated school are still around as grandparents in a kinder United States.
So allow me to quote the Reverend King's famous lines
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."
This is the dream that Bush lost sight of!
The rest of the planet is "voting" too. Even in Russia's Siberia people are either for John McCain or Barack Obama. However aside Georgians who are for McCain, many people interviewed are for Obama. Indians are for Obama. Residents of Obama, Japan are for Obama, subarashii!
It isn't just Obama's skin colour that matters but for many it is the disaster that George W Bush's leaves as a legacy. As of this moment, Bush has entered history with no victory against the terrorists and a destroyed financial sector. Bush is the president that destroyed the United States of America.
For us Pinoys we can't cast a ballot (though wansapanatym we selected a delegate for the Republican and Democratic national conventions) but we are very interested and as Manolo Quezon says "American presidential politics has begun to look like Pinoy politics". With hard up Pinoys our colonial baggage (and probably leftist propaganda) has conditioned us to believe that even who ever gets elected, our situation here will remain the same. This isn't how the rest of the world thinks. Under an Obama presidency, the situation will improve. Thus Obama is the Messiah!
Our fatalistic view is typically Pinoy and reflects that the ruling elite despite their tryst with anyone in the Oval Office, just benefits them and them alone. I think we have to cast away this colonial baggage and use democracy to make these ruling elites history. This is the lesson of this year's US presidential derby. After all did Martin Luther King even consider this day has come, so soon? He did when he had a dream. Jim Crow is still in living memory in the American south. Those who had to sit at the back of the bus when they were kids are now in their senior years about to witness a black American become President. Those kids who had the National Guard escort them to a newly integrated school are still around as grandparents in a kinder United States.
So allow me to quote the Reverend King's famous lines
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."
This is the dream that Bush lost sight of!
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