Well, now I've heard it all. Embarrassing. Nauseating. If JWH wasn't the Prime Minister of a sovereign nation, Senator Obama wouldn't even have to bend down to wipe that shit off his shoe. Alas...
The central fact is pure and simple: surely, those responsible for a catastrophe should not lecture others on how to avert one.
Mr. Obama is of a completely different political species to John Howard; he is of the breed that is, in fact, the only thing that prevents me from harbouring all-out anti-Americanism.
I am well aware the US has both the best and the worst. At the very top end of the spectrum, the US produces the type of politician that is found nowhere else... enterprising, deeply ethical yet not sententious, courageous but without the bravado, understanding, firm but not heavy-handed, intelligent, purposeful, tolerant, eloquent. Obama is all these and more, of the highest order of human being, in my estimation, the type of person who should be the leader of the free world.
(If you haven't already watched his DNC speech from 04, click here. (My favourite part is from 7:00 - 7:50). And when you've finished, watch part 2.)
Howard is, of course, pretty much the opposite. Obstreperous, recalcitrant, arrogant, narrowminded, intolerant.
So Obama can calmly, but firmly brush away the flies. He's well-prepared specifically for this type of rubbish. When I first saw the video linked above, mid-way through last year, I unfortunately thought, 'that's the way you talk if you want to get shot in the US'.
After teaching Julius Caesar last year, I got to thinking that, of all the bullets fired in the twentieth century, the sound of the one that got JFK echoes the loudest - a case of the US knocking off it's own brightest star, the very epitome of its greatness, the embodiment of its core principles found in its Declaration of Independence.
I pray that my generation doesn't ever hear that particular sound.
(Thought I'd add this photo, for good measure)
1 comment:
What scared me about that fool Howard's comments was that in a Sky poll carried out today most Aussies AGREED with him! AAYYAA!
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