NEW DAY REFLECTIONS

Shujon

Dear Reader, it has been several weeks since I last wrote to you; weeks in which I
enjoyed the American spring with my son and wife, weeks in which I worked and lived
in what was once “home” and which now is my second home, with my feet and soul
planted firmly back in the lychee and mango fragrant first home of Dhaka. In the last
few days, however, my thoughts have been lassoed back to the events taking place
in America; the historic Democratic presidential primaries between two very
intelligent, driven and dedicated politicians (adjectives which I would not use, even
on a good tax break day, to describe the present occupant of the White House);
primary battles which, prior to the intra-party bloodletting and the misogyny and
racism emanating from certain pundits and supporters on both sides, adrenalized the
political junkie in me and others much younger than me. The culmination of the
Democratic primaries in the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic
Presidential nominee fills me with pride; a sense that the America that I have always
believed in, the progressive America so far shackled by lobbyists and the anti-elite,
anti-intellectual glorification of ignorance, may be ready to rise phoenix like from the
ashes of the conservative conflagration of Junior’s 8 years in office. Obama’s
nomination as the first mixed race Presidential candidate of a major party in America
is momentous, more so considering his youth, his exotic name, his origins and the
fact that he won the primaries against the favoured Clinton name and machine.
Some of the reactions to Obama’s win, however, are not as affirming as my reaction;
the derogation of him as an “empty suit” (an “empty suit” who was the editor of the
Harvard Law Review, a lecturer at University of Chicago Law School and a State and
US senator), as an “affirmative action” candidate, as someone who does not deserve
the nomination reminds me of the Swift quote that "when a true genius appears in
the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy
against him." (as a side note, I came across this quote while looking for a book which
I read a long time ago and which I recall as majestic, both in its prose and description
of quirky Americana, John Kennedy Toole’s “Confederacy of Dunces”—if you find a
copy, read it).

Although many may not agree with me that Obama is a genius or that he is truly an
agent for change in America (especially now that Obama, in what is an obviously
opportunistic political move, recently pandered to AIPAC, the extreme right wing, pro-
Israel/Likud lobbying group), I believe that many of us can at least relate to Obama’s
journey and aspirations and be inspired by him and his candidacy. I read tonight a
blog post by a friend of mine, a Bangladeshi doctor in Milwaukee, who shares that
Obama is a revolutionary who has taken the “first steps in alleviating the disgusting
ethnic segregation in American society I watched with horror during my initial days in
USA.” (http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/godspeed-barack-obama/).
Although I share this view, I find something else about Obama’s journey to being the
Democratic Presidential nominee more inspiring; his ability to have risen above the
limitations of his past and ethnicity, ignored the absence of his father in his life,
recovered from his youthful indiscretions with drugs, learnt from his mistakes; to
have risen above anger and self-defeating resentments to become a good husband,
father and leader. I find Obama and his journey inspiring not only because of what he
has achieved, but also because of the assaults he has endured, which assaults have
not left a blemish of negativity on his Teflon like visage. I find it most inspiring that
every time Obama has fallen, he has picked himself up and continued on his journey.

As I think of Obama and how he inspires me, I also think of and am inspired by my
friend who one day found his father in prison, left with the responsibility of taking
care of the business and paying of its debts, which responsibility my young friend
now sees as a blessing and not as an obligation, for it his contributed to his growth.
As I think of Obama and his ability to withstand the assaults of negativity, I think of
and am inspired by another friend who was put in prison for the crimes of another
and who, upon his release from prison, does not allow anger or bitterness to cloud his
disposition, to negate his belief in the goodness of man or that again he will be
successful in business. As I think of Obama and his ability to pick himself up after he
has fallen, I also think of the thousands of people who are wrongly imprisoned, taken
away from their families for crimes minor or imagined; I think of them behind bars,
and I think of their families suffering, and I pray that the wrongly imprisoned shall be
soon released, that they and their families too shall pick themselves back up and
rejoin life without the chains of resentments and thoughts of vengeance holding them
back.