November 6, 2008

Moving forward

I have been pouring through article after article, enjoying the energy of forward moving change.

I am a personal fan of the Italian journalist Vittorio Zucconi who has been in the US for many years and carries a particular insider/outsider voice to his reporting for La Repubblica newspaper. True to form, his front page article highlighted unique characteristics of the American people. In this case, their ability to come down from the electoral high and get on with daily life, while both political sides shake hands and wish each other well. A new day is dawning and we had better get some rest. A spontaneous group formed in front of the White House to sing, "Bye Bye George." There was no need to cry victory and denigrate the other side. In any case, they will be back, when the time is right. American's pragmatic civility in politics is what catches him off guard from his European perspective.

In my readings, my favorite comment on Barack Obama was from Henry Louis Gates Jr, a Harvard scholar of African - American history,

"People don't see him primarily as black, I think people see him primarily as an agent of change."

and that is the way it should be, seeing people for who they are and what they stand for.

God bless America.

a domani,
E

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Elizabeth, We talked via our blogs once before (about ruptured appendixes... goodness, what IS the plural of appendix?)

Your posts are well written with a scholarly edge that I appreciate. I hadn't heard that some people sang a "Bye Bye George" song in front of the white house. Is that a specific song?

Here in Boulder Colorado there were masses of people in the streets cheering and when they ended up blocking a street, the police gave up trying to keep it clear and just closed down the street!

I left a short post on my blog about the Obama win (couldn't help myself even though my blog has nothing to do with politics!)