Presidential Scarlett Letters
About 20 minutes ago, Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech as the President-Elect of the United States. I, an Obama supporter, felt incredibly patriotic. I looked at the faces of the people in the audience crying, I listened to Barack’s words as he addressed our country, and I couldn’t help getting a little emotional myself knowing that I was watching history, watching change, waiting expectantly to see how the future will play out.
I also realized, however, that I’m looking at Obama with rose-colored glasses. I got on facebook and was FLOODED with updates from others about how disappointed they were in the election, how they’re moving out of the country, how they can’t believe we voted in socialism, etc. etc. But I couldn’t understand any of this–I couldn’t understand how anyone could be disappointed right now.
Then I thought about something David Dark said in his book, The Gospel According to America. There’s one point in the chapter entitled “No Celestial Railroads” that Dark gives a brief description of Nathaniel Hawthoren’s The Scarlett Letter, describing how Hester Prynne’s scarlett letter made her the scorn of the people, the object of hatred, loathing, and judgement; at the same time, though, Arthur Dimmesdale is forced to carry his guilt and shame in silence, putting his good face forward as the town’s minister and never revealing his connection to Hester or her scarlett letter. Dark’s point is that no matter what we’re doing, we must be honest and truthful about our faults or shortcomings. Dark states that the best step for any community is to be truthful, to be honest. He states that we, as any political and/or religious community, WILL destroy ourselves from within if we refuse to be truthful.
This was one of my biggest frustrations with George W. Bush by the end of his time in office. I feel like we made a mistake going into Iraq–I feel like Americans were led to believe non-truths about the war and about why we were going into Iraq, which is why there was such a huge backlash after America had been in Iraq for a while. If Bush had admitted his mistake, if he had even been able to acknowledge that he was wrong at first (even if he still didn’t think it was time to pull out), my views of him would have totally changed. But because he refused to admit any misunderstandings, misleadings, or mistakes on his part, I became untrusting and frustrated.
I’m trying to remind myself right now that Obama WILL make mistakes. He WILL do things that I don’t agree with, and he may very well end up “messing up” in some way, like the three presidents immediately preceeding him did. But I hope that he is wise and truthful enough to understand them, to admit those shortcomings, and to seek to rectify them. If nothing else, THAT would definitely be a change (and a welcome one!) in American politics.
This entry was posted on November 5, 2008 at 6:01 am and is filed under Politics, election 2008. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: Barack Obama, David Dark, George W. Bush, Hester Prynne, Politics, President-Elect, The Gospel According to America, The Scarlett Letter, the War in Iraq
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November 5, 2008 at 6:23 am
Yes, any human will make mistakes and I have no doubts that Barack Obama will make his share, but I think that he is strong enough and smart enough to learn from them.
It’s a great day in American history.
November 5, 2008 at 7:11 am
I agree completely.
November 5, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I too celebrate Obama’s victory, but I’ll have too wait and see for a while before I cheer too loud. I believe he is a change to the better but I still find his rhetoric infested with American exceptionalism, and don’t like his trigger-happy comments about Pakistan.
I am particularly concerned about the role of the US in the World and urge the church to push Obama hard to work for peace (by peaceful measures, not ever more soldiers); work for a responsible economic system regulated so that greedy capitalists won’t be able to hurt poor and middle class people; work with the UN and the international society to relieve poverty; and work for America to take full responsibility for their share of causing global warming.
It is time the US stop believing the huge lie of manifest destiny and think they can exploit the World. So far Obama has been a wuzz when it comes to confronting this, and I realize he wouldn’t have been elected if he were tougher, but the church should work hard to make Obama change for the better.
November 5, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I agree– now is the time, in my opinion, to tell Obama to be more radical than the election allowed him to be. I think he shares some of the same ideals (though not necessarily all of them) that we do, and if he believes he has the support of the American people, he might pursue such a direction more faithfully.
I also want to point out that in the midst of all the “do we idolize Obama too much?” talk, we often forget that it’s Michelle Obama that has frequently called us out and tried to make certain people realized how human her husband is. I have really respected that and don’t think he wants to be anyone’s Messiah–just another imperfect person trying to make the world a better place.
February 15, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Bush doesn’t need to apologize for Iraq, because it wasn’t a mistake. Iraq was a strategic geographic asset to divide and control the region. It provided more oversight to protect Israel, suppress nuclear proliferation and weaken muslim extremists. Look at a map. You need a port to access a land-locked country from the sea. You may not have bought the whole WMD argument, but the Congress (including your now VP and Sec of State) knew better. Of course, you would hope they knew better, otherwise they are supremely stupid. You folks have been so spun out of control. Obama will continue a US presence in the Middle East, because there will always be a threat of terrorist attacks both domestically and abroad. As long as the US has any association with the Middle East and of course, there’s the little matter of Truman establishing the state of Israel – that’s a battle we’ll always fight, as long as it exists.