Do you know, it's only just sunk in properly that Obama is actually the US President? I listened to the inauguration speech on the radio while doing the washing up, in the dark of evening over here, and then progressed into the lounge to watch it on TV (having to close the door because the digital signal of the television digi-box was slightly behind the analog radio that sits on top of the fridge, to which Andy was still listening). I liked it when he said: '...to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation...'
As the citizen of a different nation, I appreciated the feeling behind the statement. I have to confess sometimes it feels like America oh and the rest of the world but this speech did not make it feel that way. Even when talking about the leadership of America it was not put across in a condescending fashion.
Here in Britain the headlines dwell on recession; not being very economically minded I feel ill equipped to offer much comment except to do what I always do: quietly observe events and wait to see what happens next. I find my not-very-economically-minded brain* trying to get to grips with the whole idea of economy in the larger sense - asking such stupid questions as - where does the money come from- I mean, where does it start? Who are we borrowing from? I feel like a child at the back of the classroom who has somehow missed the first lesson and doesn't know how to catch up, worries about looking stupid if she asks - and probably wouldn't understand the answer anyway.
I glaze over with the comebacks and criticisms of opposing parties: I honestly do not know who is right, and frankly it has come to the point where it appears that whatever one does, the other will burst a blood vessel over it. To me, and perhaps others of us 'little people' trying to make sense of things, the parties and leaders strip each other down for the sake of stripping each other down - so right and wrong seems to recede in the face of simply shouting each other down. The many people who are jaded with politics are fed up either with hypocrisy and suchlike or simply the amount of labels being bandied back and forth - like arrows aiming for weak spots in armour, so any real governing is either disguised or delayed or disrupted by a constant battle.
To me, me who would never make any kind of politician, I am simply reminded that we are all so terribly human, with all our weaknesses. No matter the label or the party. But we are, still, wonderfully human, with all our strengths, and thus I try to take an interest and not become jaded. But so often the media is swamped by minutiae and the bigger, more important issues lie untouched, or unseen.
Perhaps it is just me.
* As in, not good at understanding economics. Not 'ooooh I want to spend loads of money!'
Today: 5/10, medium
2 comments:
I appreciated your comments...and loved the story of the wedding day. I think we are far more alike than different.... at least most people are. We ponder and mul things trying to make sense of them, sometimes we do and sometimes... it escapes me completely.
I, too, am encouraged by the willingness Obama is showing to work with other countries instead of just having the US going about business on its own. It's a breath of fresh air to have someone in office who recognizes that we're a global community, and we have to work together.
The economy is in all the news here, too. I don't know where all the money comes from, but I do know that the US is such a consumerist society (is consumerist a word?) that with more people being laid off, there's less spending at the retail level, which means less money coming in, which means more people being laid off, which means less money being spent...it becomes a vicious circle. What happens when everyone is laid off? Ugh. Hopefully, the politicians can get their act together and DO something for a change!
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