Must have felt great to be an american today
12 Comments Published by Kenza January 20th, 2009 in Mes p'tites vites.
U.S. President Barack Obama delivers his inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Tuesday. (Ron Edmonds/Associated Press)
Je viens à peine d’écouter le discours inaugural du nouveau président Barack Obama et pendant que j’en savourais chaque moment une seule idée me venait en tête: le sens de cet espoir qu’Obama incarne.
Bien que ce renouveau apporte des promesses à bien des niveaux, il me semble que cet espoir a un goût particulier pour nous, une génération qui depuis qu’elle a atteint l’âge adulte, n’a connus que des désillusions: face à des guerres qu’elles a de toutes ses forces refusés mais par rapport auxquelles sa voix a été ignorée; face à des changements climatiques qu’elle n’a pas engendrés mais auxquels elle se retrouve confrontée, impuissante; face à une montée de stigmatisations, de relants de racisme que tout le monde pensait irradiqués à jamais et qui se révèlent encore tapis et prêts à reprendre du service, face à une crise alimentaire de plus en plus globale à des guerres et des conflits qu’elle pensait d’un autre temps, face à une crise financière qui mine ses projets et son avenir…
Oui j’en convient, il faudra à Obama bien des baguettes magiques pour changer tout cela, mais ce n’est pas de cela que je m’emeus: Depuis bien des années, au moins une bonne dizaine sinon plus, n’avons nous crus en quelque chose de grand, de beau, de sertis d’idéaux élévés et l’avons vus se réaliser. Aujourd’hui c’est à un tel moment que nous assistons.
Oui aujourd’hui cela devait être bon d’être américain…
12 Responses to “Must have felt great to be an american today”
- 1 Trackback on Aug 10th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Chère Kanza,
It felt great being a world citizen. It felt great because since the famous speech Martin Luther King Jr. gave on the steps of Lincoln Memorial almost 44 years ago, millions of people were hoping to witness such a day. It felt great, because despite the hurdles the last administration have left inside a broken economy and the atrocities it caused in Iraq and elsewhere in the world.
It felt great because his speech was as hopeful as Franklin D. Roosevelt to be read here: http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres49.html
But beyond all this, I was moved by the man, his wit and what he represents. By the sight of his wife and daughters, by the sight of his sister, her husband, their daughter, by the sight of diversity that will be in the White House. It felt great, because he represents today and tomorrow. He represents the mix. So for now, I rejoice and yet my only regret is that those men and women who fought hard, who have been humiliated, emprisoned, killed for the simple reason that they thought everybody should be equal are not here today to see this milestone reached.
Tomorrow, Obama will face many challenges, but there is hope, there must be hope, there should be hope because the future of the next generations depend on us as the human race but he could be a different architect.
Martin Luther King finished his speech with Free at last, well the United States of America is only starting to emancipate itself and let’s hope this is only the beginning.
Come to think of it, I should start writing speeches
Bisous
I have no comment as far as this inauguration, I will just wait and see.
He mentioned bridging the gap between christians and muslims, but it was all talk, where was he when Gaza was under siege? why didn’t he even bothered uttering a word? in my VERY humble opinion, he’s just like the rest, big words, grand speeches, but in the end, it’s the same c..p.
Just for the record, I VOTED for him, and it was the VERY first time EVER I voted for anyone, I am too cynical to believe in speeches, as someone said before “Your actions speak so loud, I can’t hear what you’re saying!”.
Good luck for those that believe in fairy tales, you are in for a VERY rude awakening, but in the meantime, we can ALL dream a little.
@Anonyme: I think that a lot of people are just going to wait and see, and as I said he needs more than words to achieve even some of the challenges before him
But still my point is that it is the first time we hoped for something ”promising” and it had happened
We hoped that Bush wont be re-elected and he was, we hoped that the war in Iraq wouldn’t take place, we even believed in it, but it did; we hoped that some kind of peace can be achieved in the middle east and it couldn’t, we hoped that genocides in Africa are behind us but they aren’t and the list can go on….
I just became cynical for the last 10 years or so, but this time something I hoped for (and didn’t believe in it fully due to my new cynical nature) just took place… and it is something that counts a lot for me
And beside that
I learned never to underestimate the power of words on people 
Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you fight shadows?
Do you live in a desert?
Do you scream and no sound comes out of your mouth?
Do you watch unspeakable horrors, powerless?
Do you try to stop the flow of time?
Do you live in past glories?
Do you yearn for long gone warriors?
We all do,
In different ways.
Life is nothing but a moment,
Stretched out through memories,
Time escapes our grip,
Like water, like sand,
But we dream,
For life is nothing more than that,
A mirage,
A fleeting instant,
We dream,
Where are my heroes?
Where are my fighters?
When courage was at the edge of a sword,
When we ruled the world,
We dream,
And dream,
And hope,
Raiders,
Razzias,
Hooded warriors,
Running through the night,
Spreading the word,
But we have become,
Our worst enemies,
We place our hopes,
In strange hands,
And we pray.
And we pray.
And we pray.
I am not trying to make any sense when I write stuff, I just let the words come out, I picture images, of long gone glorious days, indeed, we ruled the world, but we live, in the trash bins of history.
Are you censuring the stuff I wrote?
I would be very curious to know what pushed you to take that little “kalam” out completely.
Correction: it’s “Censoring”, as in “Censorship”.
@Anonyme: je n’ai rien censuré c’est mon anti-spam qui a bloqué ton commentaire
c’était l’une des raison pour lesquelles je t’avais demandé de choisir un autre pseudo que anonyme
PS: tu as un jolie pseudo pour ton email pourquoi pas celui là
OK, dorenavant, je serais “Mouka-f-Slouka”
Un subtil melange de berbere et d’arabe qui compose notre chere Darija.
Savais tu que “Mouka” est un mot berbere? (Talmouket en berbere, le Ta est un indicateur de genre, dans ce cas la , Talmouket est un nom feminin, la plupart des mots feminins en berbere commencent par Ta… or Ti…, les noms masculins par A…, ex: Argaz, Abrid, Adrar…etc) on sait tous ce que mouka veut dire (Hibou).
“Moukates” sont reputees pour leur sagesse dans les contes classiuques, meme les contes berberes, en fait c’est un oiseau tres interessant, j’ai ajoute Slouka pour faire un peu plus dramatique, c’est une expression assez commune chez les “garcons” au Maroc.
Kenza,
En effet d’aussi loin que je me souvienne je n’ai jamais entendu parler que de la crise, qu’elle soit pétrolière, financière, alimentaire, energétique, et meme morale ou spirituelle.
Quand je vois Obama des fois je me dis que c’est trop beau pour etre vrai