Nov 15 2008
The US rejoins the world community
Wow. What a phenomenon to participate in the US election and to watch reaction to it at every level, from my own open heart, to the community level where people are clustered in coffee shops and store aisles and on emails talking, talking, listening to each other’s stories of what just happened. And then to watch and listen to the voices of ordinary people juxtaposed with television news pundits, to see clips of people celebrating around the world expanding this conversation and reaction.
And what is it we are watching? Well, at the Storycatcher level, we are watching America choose a new story.
We are watching US citizens say to ourselves that the old guard and the established interests have failed us, have betrayed us, have no further right to claim power. We are saying at the ballot box that we are courageous enough to jump out of our entrenched thinking and try something new—try someone new. We are saying that we will override all hesitance in order to have leadership that can frame the challenges before us and help us move through them. We are acknowledging the absolute necessity of having a leader who is capable of negotiating with all the conflicting interests that want to hold onto power and money, and to turn to the people over and over and help us create a story of who we are now, and what America is now.
A few years ago, when teaching in Europe, I asked my Danish colleague, Toke Moeller, who is a master invoker of questions if he would send me home with a good question to ask Americans. He looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then pronounced, “Ask each other–what else could America be?”
Watching Barack Obama become President elect Obama, standing on the stage at Grant Park last Tuesday, I thought to myself–here is something else America can be: a country admitting its multi-racial, multi-ethnic roots, seeing our melting pot history in the face of a melting pot man who will bring us/US into the 21st century to join an interconnected, melting pot world. And now that he has made it into this question, we need to keep asking each other this and other questions in an ongoing dialogue of creative invention. What will America be now? How will we respond to the next crisis now? How do we discover our unity and recover from the polarity that has been drilled into us?
I don’t know–but I’m heading with excitement into a dialogue to find out!
Copyright ©2009 Christina Baldwin. All rights reserved.
election results- a new president
America has a different face-
a face which radiates
hope and peace,
which bears the mark
of inner calm and
strength, of values
forged in the fires
of both prejudice and love.
America has a different face-
a face which is both
young and old, which is
African-American, Caucasian,
Hispanis, Asian, Native American
all at once, which is born of
the pride of races and genders
and ages united in one hope,
one purpose.
American has a different face-
a face which looks like
you and me, like every
sister and brother living
in this land- a face made
beautiful by triumph over
adversity, by unity in
spite of strife.
And so, America, let ring from
the mountains, roll across
the prairies, from seat to
shining sea, the new anthem
of hope and purpose and
oneness-
Yes, WE can!