We are Obama’s agents of change
Al’s
Loupe
We
are Obama’s agents of change
By
Alvaro F. Fernandez Read Spanish Version
alfernandez@the-beach.net
We
are living in interesting times. Barack Obama is the new president of
the United States. Everyone seems to be writing about him — and what
he may represent for the future of the U.S. and its relationship with
the rest of the world. Take a look at the past few weeks of Progreso
Weekly. There are a number of our contributors (some who live in
Cuba) who have dedicated lengthy columns, or a series of them, to the
new president. This week you’ll find more.
In
my opinion, the Progreso-Obama phenomenon is healthy. We’ve created
a marketplace of constructive opinions regarding the pros and cons of
the new president of the United States. They are varied, for sure.
Max
Castro, for example, has high hopes for Obama. The new president has
already taken steps that were included in Max’s suggestions he made
in last week’s column. (I wonder if Obama reads Progreso Weekly…
because he should.) Saul Landau took a different approach. This week
he is critical of the fact that in one of his first acts as
president, Obama telephoned Middle East leaders seeking solutions to
the problems in Gaza — but left out Hamas. In Cuba, one of our
newest contributors to Progreso Weekly, Eliades Acosta Matos, a
highly respected Cuban writer and thinker, questions if Obama is
simply more of the same but marketed differently. He refers to his
way of doing things as one of using “soft power.”
Interestingly,
and in their own way, I would say that they are all right. But
there’s something missing in their argument, I believe. We tend to
easily overlook the fact that Barack Obama, one of the most unlikely
candidates to become president in what was a large field of
Democratic Party hopefuls just two years ago, is today the president
of the United States. And as Acosta Matos rightfully mentions in his
column this week, you don’t become president of this the richest
and most powerful country on earth without making concessions to
those who have been in positions of power for much longer than Obama.
That’s
why I insist that you listen one more time to President Obama’s
inauguration speech (you can still read it or see it in last week’s
Progreso Weekly). Obama again reaches out to us — as a block we
demonstrated we were more powerful than the richest, transnational
corporations in this country who seem to control our politics. Before
his election he convinced a majority of the voting American public
that he was an agent for change. That with him as president, there
was still hope in achieving that elusive “American dream.”
By
creating that hope and feeling that “Yes we can” as he repeated
over and over again throughout his campaign, he asked each and every
one of us to help him achieve “our” dreams. The results were
revolutionary when it came to presidential politics. More money was
raised by Obama than all the other candidates put together. And part
of that dynamic was achieved through small $20, $50 and $100
contributions made by voters like you and me.
The
campaign also empowered people all over the country. They organized
their communities in whatever ways “we” thought was best. The
results were fascinating. Because it’s not so much how many more
people voted for president this time around, the winning formula was
how many millions of new
people (young and old) became engaged in the process and voted for
the first time. But the winning formula dealt with ordinary people
taking the reins of power (the vote) and pushing forward a candidate
few gave any chance of winning not too long ago. And most of these
accomplishments achieved with the help of the Internet —
communications and information not necessarily controlled by the
traditional large corporations.
As
president, Obama is asking us for even more now. I don’t doubt that
the president understands that without the help of the American
public much of what he wants to achieve is impossible. So he is
asking us to push him and those who surround him into making the
right choices. To some it might be fuel efficient automobiles, to
others it might mean out of Iraq and the Middle East, and still for
others it is renewed relations with Cuba.
Whatever
it may be, I ask that you read into these words offered during
Obama’s inauguration speech:
“For
as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith
and determination of the American people upon which this nation
relies.
It
is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break; the
selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a
friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.
It
is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke,
but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally
decides our fate.
Our
challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be
new, but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and
hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty
and patriotism — these things are old.”
Folks,
the message is quite simple. He’s talking about hard work. If we
want change, he says, then we better start doing something about it.
Because if we continue to sit, watch TV and complain, expecting
others to do the hard pushing for us, then we will surely end up with
more of the same. That is why I venture to guess that President Obama
is prodding us, telling us that if we want to build a better system,
a more efficient democracy, then there’s a lot of hard work still
to be done.
So,
I ask you, what are we waiting for? Let’s get going!
