Op-ed: Through the Eye of the Storm: From Bush to Obama

Through the Eye of the Storm: From Bush to Obama

(Jan. 23, 2009)

I am decidedly a-political, if there is such a thing, at least concerning American and Canadian democratic systems. I do not believe myself to be of the Republican Conservative Right, nor the Democratic Liberal Left. Instead, I prefer to hold my ground, not in the center, but on a different platform altogether.

The last eight years have been trying years in America. My time in the States has nearly coincided with Bush's presidency. In that time I've known ardent Democrats, die-hard Republicans, and very few people in between. Ive learned one thing about politics: there are few greater divisive forces that incite more hatred, vitriol, and malevolent behavior in otherwise peaceable people, than these: Politics, Religion, and Nationalism. (Heartache, too comes to mind, but for different reasons.) The world has watched the American political dramedy unfold these past months and years before the backdrop of economic crises, natural disasters, wars on terror (on multiple fronts), terrorist attacks, attacking terrorists, terrorists torturing, and torturing terrorists. We've seen the President succeed and fail, falter, and flail. Mostly, I feel that I've seen an age through an aging man.

For all that Bush is and all that Bush was, I do believe him to be a man of certain principles that he struggled to uphold in the maelstrom of circumstances he was deemed responsible to lead a country through. He looks tired to me. He's aged. He's stuttered, stumbled, fallen, but he's continued to lead regardless of the pundits' followings. He's earned the same respect from me I'd offer anyone of such experience, no matter how much we differ in the end. We did not arrive on the other side of his legacy perfectly clean, unscathed, or unchanged - it would not have mattered who led America through these years - things would have changed regardless. Better or worse is a moot point. The point is that things have changed. It is a new world that we're waking to. It is a new country being led by a new man.

Obama has proven that Obama can inspire, but Obama cannot change anything that we ourselves are unwilling to change. If God is unwilling to sway the hearts and minds of mortals, how then can Barack? If the same burden placed on Bush is laden on Barack Obama, he too will quickly find that he's tired, aging, and bound until he sheds his mortality. Both will be recorded in annuls for the future's past, but I believe both will carry on in spirit too, and not unlike each other.

I honestly believe that the only politics we should be concerned about are our own personal politics. Call them morals, ethics, or principals, call them commandments, rules or laws, whatever you call them, these governing ideas and ideals are what will change the world. We can't agree on all, but we can all agree on some. We can agree that we have certain unalienable rights, endowed by God, or if you prefer, innate in our shared humanity, to life, liberty, and certain pursuits (I would not say property or happiness, perhaps not even freedom, but certainly a choice in who we will serve). We can agree that there are more important things than ourselves in our lives, at least, most can. We can agree on a handful of rights and wrongs. Ok, maybe two or three. Or just one. Just one? Any one? Anyone?

We cannot vote to end racism, we can only abolish it in ourselves and pray that others follow suit. It is high time to abolish racism, in all its forms, including "black" and "white". However, having visited countries and continents where I am a minority it's easy to see that we're far from a universal solution. Recognizing the problem seems to be the first step. We're still struggling through the rest. Why? We keep looking for reasons to divide, contrast and compare ourselves from our neighbors instead of seeing all the reasons we should love them as ourselves.

I don't think I'm truly a-political. I care. I care what side of my principles I stand on. Thankfully, my leadership doesn't ever change. I can't vote a new power into place. I can only continue to try and serve and learn, and serve and learn, and learn to better serve and love through widening my perspective to include more and more people into the outstretched arms awaiting them. God is love.

Perhaps that is the most divisive belief of all - more than all the world's politics, religions, nations and heartaches (heartache still being the closest thing I have to relate to division in my life) - that God is love. Some will not want to stand to read it. Yet, I do and will believe it. I believe too, that in believing such, I can still get along with you.

At the end of this term, I want to apologize for hurting those I've hurt, forgive all who hurt me too, thank all of you who've helped, and hope and dream in turn for all that is to come. I'm looking forward to the next.



(Sorry for the repost, but I wanted this in writing too.)