[rollei_list] Re: Happy MLK Day
- From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:01:13 -0500
At 06:39 PM 1/19/2009, marvin0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>Congratulations Americans on electing the first leader of your country
>who is a man of colour.
>In a glowing testament to American this is something that could only
>in my opinion happen in the USA. As a British person of Jamaican
>decent I could not image England electing a "darkie" under any
>circumstances and as for a major European county electing a darkie,
>there is more chance of the particle collider in Switzerland opening
>the way to an alternate universe.
Thanks! Your comments are most
interesting. Interestingly, there is a segment
of the US Black populace who are a bit
stand-offish about Obama as he is both half-white
and as his father was a Luo Kenyan (for that
matter, born a subject of either King Edward VIII
or King George VI, that "Last Emperor"), meaning
that Obama has no direct link to US slavery or
the US Civil Rights movement. Those questioning
his status as a "real" US Black are few, but very
vocal, and we are deluged with Op-Ed columns and
talking heads so opining. Bear in mind that
Obama's popular-vote margin was not that great,
only five per cent or so, but those who did not
vote for him seem anxious to see him do a proper
job, as his success will mean, of course, success
for our nation. None of us want a Carter, Version 2!
What is even more reassuring is that this will be
the 54th time we have sworn in a President as
called for by the Constitution. (Tyler,
Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Arthur, Teddy
Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and
Lyndon Johnson all were sworn in when their
predecessors died in office. Of these, only the
last four sought re-election, and then only for
one full term of their own.) The US has always
enjoyed an orderly transition of office, without
rebellion or revolt or coup. (Well, several were
contemplated over the years, but none ever got
far.) We have had a functioning representative
republican governance in place since 1776 and are
the oldest such polity in existence today I believe other than the Swiss.
My only immediate complaint is that Obama didn't
take his earliest significant supporter, Virginia
Governor Tim Kaine, with him to
Washington. Kaine would pray to have approval
ratings as high as those of Congress (9%) or
George W Bush (pushing 30% the last time I
checked). Oh, well, we cannot expect everything
to happen all at once: Kaine is term-limited
this year, so he'll be gone though he does have
an additional year to trash Virginia.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
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