A Promised Land

Not sure whether I bought it for Nora, or she for me, but one of us received "A Promised Land" by Barack Obama for Christmas, 2020.

I am sure I meant to read it before recently, but am glad that I waited.  Like so many books which are autobiographically in nature, this one being a recount of Obama's life from before he entered politics through his first term interspersed with glimpse of his childhood, it is often much more interesting for there to be some time having elapsed.  Considering all that has happened in our political world, the 2016 and 2020 elections, and the insurrection on 1/6/21, just to highlight a few, it was an amazing read.

Of course, an autobiography, by its nature, will mostly emphasize the positive parts of one's life.  Very few people spend money and time to tell the world what a jerk they were, or detail all their failures.  And Obama certainly presents his life with Michele, before and after children, the early part of his political career, the sudden rise to national attention, and his first presidential campaign and term in office, as an inspirational story.  

But he also expresses uncertainty, not with his family, but in some of the choices he had to make as president.  He reminds the reader that, as president, even one who may win a 55 to 45 percent decision, still must face the knowledge that whatever his policies, a significant number of Americans will disagree with his choices.  Not to mention, as the first Black President, nothing he does or says will be accepted by that small percentage of the electorate that holds onto the Jim Crow version of America that would never accept him, not even as an equal man, let alone the president.  Nor did it help him that outright falsehoods of his birth country were spread by influential members of the GOP.  While we know from our history that political partisanship was not invented during Obama's terms, political ideaological differences combined with our difficult racial past, does not equate to an environment of cooperation and compromise. 

But be assured, "A Promised Land" does not dwell on obstacles as much as on the perceived accomplishment of Obama.  From expanded healthcare coverage availability through the ACA, to the successful discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden, Obama details the inside workings of his time as president.  Even more importantly, and in direct contrast to his successor, Obama doles out much praise for the men and women who helped him accumulate and analyze the data towards making those difficult decisions.  From Michele to Vice President Biden to the innumerable public servants who served in his cabinet and other elected and appointed positions, Obama makes it clear that a successful presidency is as much about the team as it is about the President.  He acknowledges the achievements by naming those who helped them occur, and laments the disappointments without demeaning those who chose not to help him, with the understanding that American democracy requires all view points to be considered.  Those opposition leaders who blocked his policies did so because they represented the millions of Americans who did not vote for him, not just because they did not love America, as some people say when faced with opposition to their proposals.

It is impossible to know how the Obama Presidency will be viewed in 20, 30 or 50 years.  I expect he will fall in the middle somewhere, not one of the best, not one of the worst.  But I hope that all candidates for the office, and especially those who are elected to serve in the White House, spend some time reading his book.  His perspectives related to the seriousness of leading a country as diverse as America are priceless, as is his understanding of how such diversity, and the viewpoints that can be gained from seeking out opinions other than one's own, makes a leader as well as our country stronger. It is a lesson that seems to be on the decline in American government today

One thing for sure, Obama was ahead of his time.  Too bad not enough Americans realized that during his tenure, and since his departure from the presidency.  Let's hope that both parties can find someone with vision, future not backwards vision, so that we have a real choice, as opposed to the less bad of two poor options choice that we may have again.  I have often said that we need a Next Greatest Generation to bring us out of our current political morass.  In fact, I wrote a story about just such a generation in 2014.  (See below).  

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-next-greatest-generation.html   

I am hopeful that just such a generation will not only produce leaders who emulate some of Obama's best traits, but demand such leaders. Only then, as with MLK's vision, will the promised land for all of us become more than just a book title.

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I posted once before about Obama.  See the link below.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2020/07/obama-or-trump.html

Different VS Special

I was thinking about how seemingly easy it is for certain politicians and pundits to assign blame for the problems that confront us to segments of the population that are different.  Of course, this is not a new ploy, rather it is a strategy with known success, having been utilized by all kinds of leaders; dictators, autocrats, populists, even popes.  Simple in its genius, identifying those that are different due to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc, supplies the majority with, not only an easy target to dehumanize, but also justification for avoiding self reflection.  

When it is someone's else's fault, we don't have to engage in that all too difficult exercise of analyzing what we might have done wrong, or where we might be off base in our own thinking.  

Yet, what is the difference between different and special?

For those of us in our more mature years, we remember when people with low IQ's were called retarded with all the negative connotations that were associated with that word.  It didn't matter that people born with low IQ's were created that way, by the same god that created those of us with normal IQ's, those people were different.  Now, I won't go into all the horrific things that were done to people born in the earlier part of the 20th century, forced sterilizations, etc, but it doesn't take much to remember that calling someone in the playground or neighborhood a retard, was not a compliment.  

Fortunately, great strides were made to remove the stigma from those that god created with a low IQ, so that now, while there can still be obnoxious behaviors exhibited towards those with this trait, there has also been real progress in labeling them special.  I can't imagine any better example of humans treating other humans properly than the fact that we have Special Olympic events occurring in thousands of towns across America, in an effort to bring this segment of society back into the fold of humanity.  

Special rather than different, or worse, retarded.

All which makes me wonder about some of the other groups that have been dehumanized in an effort to make the majority feel better about itself.  Clearly, there is a resurgence of hateful rhetoric about the LGBTQ community, specifically driven by certain religious groups who are using the theory that God doesn't love these people even though they were created that way, by God.  It is no wonder that religious affiliation among those 35 and under has continued to drop when they see that all that talk about being the best you can be and being true to oneself and making the most of your gifts were all bullcrap if one's best self didn't conform to a distorted vision of God's mercy and love for her creation.

But, Joe, I have been asked, what if everyone decided to be gay?  Our civilization would cease.  Well, I can assure you that no guy I ever went to high school with would have willingly chose to be ridiculed and bullied for being different.  So, clearly, while more people can finally feel comfortable with identifying with their own particular sexual preference, there are far more men who are still afraid to admit their "from birth" preference than those who are "choosing" to open themselves to the difficulties that are still ingrained in many cultures and religions today.

But I digress.

The main point I really wanted to address is how come some groups of people that are "different" are elevated to the level of "special", and some do not.  For instance, while I can attest to the fact that there were nuns who forced left handed children to learn to write with their right hand, we generally don't actively discriminate against left handed people.  While I put nothing past a populist looking to blame any minority to gain votes and power, I haven't seem anyone openly calling left handed people rapists or murderers, even though only about 10 percent of people are left handed.  In fact, if you can throw a baseball accurately or quickly, you can have moderate talent in relation to other baseball pitchers and still make millions of dollars a year, if you are left-handed.

And, speaking of sports, what percentage of Americans are over 6 feet 4 inches?  For men it is about 1%.  For women, only 1% are over 6 foot tall.  All these people are different, yet most are looked up to 

(ha-ha) at worst, glorified,if they can shoot a basketball.  Not to mention all the mesomorphs who, if they are special in that they can block or run or tackle might be millionaire football players.  

In essence, all successful athletes are different, yet are treated as special.  

People with IQ's over 130 represent only about 2% of the population, even less than the percentage of people that are born gay.  Now, granted, there are certain politicians who bash the "elite" while pretending to be everyday people (although almost all of them occupy the top few percentiles in intellect, talent, wealth, social class etc, all the attributes of elite), in general we seek advice from those with higher intelligence, seek stock tips from those with wealth, even, at time, seek approval from those with higher social status.  

Obviously, there are many other examples of those who different being treated as special.

One could even go so far as to way that, while the desire to be normal, to conform, to be like everyone else, certainly creates a boatload of stress and anxiety in our culture, the desire to be different, to stand out, to be unique, also does the same.  To me, it is the ability to balance those two desires that makes a person happy with their life.  We strive to be recognized as the individual we are, while bending our nature, here and there, to be part of the group, to avoid being labelled different.

I have said this before, and will say it again.  Somehow, someway, humanity needs to evolve to a point where diversity among the miracle of the creation of humankind, becomes more than just words in a declaration or on a tablet or in a holy book.  It needs to be the stuff of epic poems and songs and dare I say it, political movements.  We need to stop pretending that we are grateful for the myriad forms of life which exist on Earth, including the amazing diversity of race, culture, and perspective, and actually glorify whatever god or deity or supreme being we worship by acknowledging that diversity.  While I do not believe that the universe was created solely for us, I do believe that such a magnificent achievement, whether for us or to be shared with other beings, demands that we start treating each other as special because we all possess some type of trait that makes us different.

If interested, these two links address the subject of prejudice as well.

 https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2018/07/muslim-demographics.html

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2017/02/hidden-figures-not-so-hidden-prejudice.html