Fast Forward

The piece below is by a very good friend of mine. Hope those reading enjoy. Thanks S.B.

On election night, my host brother Richard from Akrofonso (a small village in the middle of Ghana) called me to express his elation that Obama will be the next president of the United States. I recalled the discussion that we had together five years ago that black people are inferior to white people. He said, "The abruni (white man) is intelligent. the babini (black man) is not" as he chopped the top off a coconut for me with his machete. I told him that was ridiculous. He said, "then why do we live like we live, and you live like you live?". I then went into a twenty minute history lesson on Colonialism and the historical construct of subjegation by the Europeans to force African countries to be weak and dependent. Not surprisingly, this drew blank stares from Richard because only basic english was to be used to communicate and I certainly violated that rule. Needless to say, we changed the topic. As I spoke to him last Tuesday, I couldn't believe how much his English had improved. I said enthusiastically, "Richard, your English is great!" He said, "I'm like Obama, a black man with intelligence!" Without question, Obama's election is a remarkable, progressive step for our country - and the world.

With that said, the Obamania that has ensued is slightly concerning. I hope people are celebrating the significance of his election versus the anticipation of him being a deus ex machina for our country's problems. The question in my mind is whether Obama will become a great man or just a great politican. A great politican is like a Bill Clinton (sex scandal aside), in that we will always associate him with good times, but at the end of the day he did not make any fundamental changes to our dysfunctional system. Since disparaging George W. for his idiocy is cliche these days, I will say one thing, that he followed his own moral compass and made decisions (that just so happened to all be bad ones). I hope that Obama will do the same though, except make the right decisions and bring real change to this country. Unlike the election of Bush where many American's voted for someone that was a "common man", Obama was clearly an election of the "best of us" and therefore we should listen to him, not him to us.

Our government is dysfunctional regardless of whether we are less dysfunctional than everyone else. The special interests that run Washington lead to a misallocation of our resources and poor regulation. Our tax code makes no sense, taxes too much, and is way too confusing. The electoral college is archaic and needs to be reformend. Our military should be used with more restraint and focus more on the protection of our country instead of as the military for the world. The financial crises that is going on today has just begun to effect the economy. Much more pain is on the way. This pain is necessary - as an example the reduction of housing prices to reflect the true value - is necessary. However the government does not subscribe to the philosophy of "short term pain, for long term gain". Instead they temporary "fix" problems that effectively postpone and increase the magnitude of future problems.

Obama is in the unique position to be a truly great man for this country and execute reform. As Andy Dufrain said in a letter to Red at the end of Shawshank, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing dies". I'll choose to hope for change and believe in Obama. But the realist in me knows that the status quo is the more likely end result.

The Tactician