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.)

Op-ed: Are you suffering from Election Dysfunction?

Are you suffering from Election Dysfunction? Oct. 2008

Many of you may not be aware, but Canada just had an election. Don’t feel too bad, I’m Canadian and just recently heard about it myself. Unless you were watching a lot of Canadian television over the past thirty-seven days, you wouldn’t be privy to the campaigning that resulted in re-establishing and strengthening Stephen Harper’s conservative minority government. Of course, the Canadian conservatives are barely distinguishable from American Liberals, so everyone here can remain blissfully ignorant that nothing has changed for your neighbors to the north.

The Election passed like a mild fever in Canada. A few people were vaguely aware of its effects on them. Some were mildly nauseated. Others simply confused it with the abnormally warm weather over the Thanksgiving (Columbus Day) weekend. A few were genuinely caught up in the political fever, but it’s a relatively mild malady, especially in comparison to the veritable plague sweeping this great nation.

The day of the last debate between presidential hopefuls, Senators Obama and McCain, was the day after the Canadian elections. I tried to find the outcome on the msn.ca webpage but there was more new media coverage readily available on the elections here, still weeks away, than those counted at home hours before.

If the Canadian campaign passes like a fever, then the American is more like Malaria. Few of us here are familiar with the disease that grips vast percentages of the world’s populace with cyclic fevers, chills, sweating, malaise, headaches, dizziness, anorexia, fatigue and should the disease pass the blood-brain barrier, eventually death. However, it is estimated that malaria is responsible for ½ of the deaths in the history of mankind; the way the rest of the world views America’s politics you’d think we were vying for the other half. Estimates approximate that 300-500 million people are exposed to Malaria every year, with 1.5-3 million cases proving ultimately fatal.

American politics incites heated conversations, frigid attitudes, pains in necks and, well, other areas, plenty of cold sweats, migraines, loss of appetite, depression, and should card-carrying voters cross the adversary’s demonstration lines, let’s just say their health insurance better not be in arrears. It seems like American politics effectively reaches billions, and while the resulting fatalities are still being tallied, they are generally the result of secondary causes and complications involved in the pseudo-democratic process of a two-party system.

Malaria is a disease carried by the female Anopheles mosquito. Due to its extinction in North America, we’re generally unfamiliar with preventative measures such as mosquito netting, clothing, and sprays all resulting in avoidance of contact, or the varied prophylaxis and their relative effectiveness that is rote for the rest of the world. Meanwhile, the rest of the world has little means of defending itself from the relentless attacks of the American media, politicos, pundits, and populace in their struggle to overcome this bi-annual ailment carried by Washington’s elite, nor do they know about the power button on our remotes, the volume dial on our radios, the mass quantities of alcohol we consume, especially on our college campuses, as the foremost inoculation against this disease passed on from our elders. It’s frightening to think that apathy is the only apparent treatment that is readily available and easy to come by in abundant supply.

Perhaps that is the light at the end of the day, or the end of yet another election: that there is hope on the horizon. There is change in the future. It lies buried, like a seed. The growing disillusionment of the up and coming generations, their seeming immunity to the stings and the venom and the other modes of infection flying around unabated during daily news casts, scheduled debates, blue and red signs littering the autumn countryside, and in voting booths, too-oft-tampered and miscounted to trust, is evidence that there is hope of a cure. The cure is apathy. We caught it from Canada.

(Side effects of apathy include restlessness, depression, anxiety, headaches, ennui, nausea, partial or total paralysis, stagnation, and a lack of targets to relieve pent up aggression, scorn, ridicule and hatred for all the problems that still won’t go away.)

B.F. Burden

(http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/facts.htm)