Random Muse Change
Sachitra Mahendra
In lines that stretched around schools and churches, in small towns
and big cities, you came together as Democrats, Republicans and
independents, to stand up and say that we are one nation. We are one
people. And our time for change has come.
- From Barack Obama's victory speech.
Many American dictionaries including Merriam Webster's should now
have another room for the word change. The word has been a catchphrase
for US President-elect Barack Obama ever since the inception of his
campaign. The just completed election shows how a particular word can
stir up the minds.
Even before being nominated for presidential run, Obama had been
using this particular word.
'Our time for change has come' is one of his slogans, which might
have stirred up the traditional mindsets of white Americans too. Any
close observer of Obama's campaign should have doffed their hats off to
me when I say this catchphrase was used oftentimes.
How did this particular word appealed millions of mindsets? America,
like any other western country, is dominated by white elitism, which now
seems to be fading out fast. Even in today's Britain, there is hardly
any room for racism.
Change is a multi-layered word. Literally speaking, the traditional
white US presidency changed hands into an African American. Policy-wise
speaking, Obama has pledged support for gay marriages and other
revolutionary issues. Interestingly Sarah Palin publicly loathed
homosexual marriages just to go by the conservative ways.
However Americans placed faith on Obama, perhaps looking forward to a
revolutionary change.
We never know whether this 'change' will be restricted just to a
word. None the less, Obama is not a man of miracles to make the world a
far better place or turn it back to what it was earlier, either
overnight or over the forthcoming four/eight years.
But students will have a new chapter in American history to study -
that is the change Obama has taught the world.
One more item to go. We can well recall Al Gore's scornful reaction
to George W Bush's victory. Gore named his rival's victory as the
temporary imprisonment of democracy. George W Bush was even anagrammed
as 'He bugs Gore'. It's quite contrariwise to see the speeches of their
succeeding candidates.
They both admire each other's qualities. John McCain notes that 'he
had the respect to call Senator Obama', and Obama has upright adjectives
when making a mention of his opponent. We are familiar with words such
as speechwriter and ghostwriter which are primarily linked with
politicians.
In Barack Obama's case, he has a first-class strategist ghostwriter.
So change has been with Obama throughout his campaign, and the word
was loyal enough to get him into the most powerful seat of the world.
Now it's the turn of both Americans and non-Americans to be all ears
whether the change is actually going to happen! |
