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Obama in Berlin
Speaking to an Overwhelmingly
Friendly, International
Crowd
By
Victor Grossman
July 25, 2008
I attended the big rally with Obama in Berlin
Thursday evening, not as a press representative
but as one of the crowd. And what a giant crowd
it was! The news reports counted "over 200,000"
but to someone sandwiched in so tight I could
hardly lift my hand to scratch my itching nose,
much less applaud, it seemed like a million! The
predictions had been for "anywhere between
10,000 and 100,000" and the official start was
at 7, so I stupidly arrived at 6.30, too late to
find anything but a tiny spot to stand on (when
the pushing ceased), so far back from the
monument where Obama spoke that I couldn't even
see the big screen. I saw only the heads and
backs of those in front of me.
The crowd,
overwhelmingly friendly, was amazingly
international; partly, no doubt, because the
speech was only in English with no translation.
I saw countless African-Americans,
African-Germans as well as Africans carrying or
wearing flags and banners from Kenya, Angola and
other countries. Among those sandwiched in next
to me were a very tall French-speaking African
fellow (just in front of me), a father and son
from Dublin, Ireland, three young women from
Italy (one little student too short to see even
the heads in front of her), also a Frenchman,
two Californians and a young man of possibly
Arab background. All the same, I guess the
majority were of German background. I would
guess that 90 to 95 percent of the crowd could
be classified as "youth" under thirty. The event
resembled a giant pilgrimage.
Most came
to cheer and applaud, and cheer they did—and
applaud when, unlike me, they could move both
hands. Barack Obama is immensely popular in
Germany, about 80 percent detest the present
president and this is even more intensely true
of the young people and the international
community so well represented at the rally
Obama spoke
freely, without notes or prompter, and as
eloquently as ever. He was constantly
interrupted by the cheering, but it gradually
became apparent that the cheering varied with
his message and with the varied views of the
listeners. In the first large section of his
speech Obama - like so many political orators in
Berlin—dealt at length with the Berlin Wall and
the western air lift to West Berlin and Berlin's
great victory over tyranny and communism.
Probably because so many in his audience were
neither originally West Berliners nor even alive
during the air lift of 1948-1949 and either
unborn or very young when the Berlin Wall came
down, their enthusiasm for such sentiments was
nothing like what it had been for a Kennedy or
Reagan when they spoke in West Berlin years ago.
Only a few old-timers like myself will have
noted that when Obama spoke of "the bullet-holes
in the buildings" still visible not all too far
way he ignored their meaning, the struggle to
free Berlin from the Nazis waged by the Soviets
at an
incredibly heavy cost; in fact, he carefully—or
tactfully—avoided any mention of Germany's Nazi
past, while his words and sentiments about
(West) Berlin's fight for freedom had been
repeated so often they may have become clichés
to many.
There was
even less enthusiasm when Obama said: "My
country and yours have a stake in seeing that
NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is
a success. For the people of Afghanistan and for
our shared security the Afghan people need our
troops and your troops. We have too much at
stake to turn back now." Despite the positions
of all major German parties except the LEFT,
close to 80 percent of the German people oppose
sending German troops to that country, and very
few clapped at these remarks. All posters and
banners had been banned from the rally at the
request of the Obama campaign committee, but
near me a young woman handed up a banner she had
been hiding to three young men who had climbed
to the top of a street lantern. When they
unfurled it we could read its message, "No
troops for Afghanistan", and on a smaller
poster, "End the death penalty". Not many in the
giant crowd saw this, Obama certainly couldn't,
but one TV channel did show it the next day.
And there
were more doubtful nods than loud applause when
he stated: "In Europe the view that America is
part of what has gone wrong in our world rather
than a force to help make it right has become
all too common."
A leading
member of the right-wing governing Christian
Democratic Union summarized the speech by
saying: "Except for personal nuances it could
have been made or almost made by John McCain."
This certainly applied to many of Obama's words
about the past but also those regarding Iran and
free trade.
But it did
not apply to some statements, and these were the
ones which received the loudest applause and
cheers. We must "stop the spread of nuclear
weapons", he said, "This is the moment to begin
the work of seeking the peace of the world
without nuclear weapons."
He got
cheers for "We must support the Israelis and
Palestinians who seek a sure and lasting peace "
and loud approval when he stated: "Let us
resolve that all nations— including my own -
will act with the same seriousness of purpose as
has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send
into our atmosphere."
It was hard
to judge, but the cheers seemed loudest to me
when he demanded that "we reject torture and
stand for the rule of law," that we "welcome
immigrants from different lands and shun
discrimination against those who don't look like
us or worship like we do and keep the promise of
equality and opportunity for all of our people."
I heard
varying impressions from those who walked off to
find their bicycles or find their way through
the wooded Tiergarten, Berlin's Central Park, to
the nearest stations of the el, the subway, bus
or tram. I heard no one speak against him; a
tiny group of US Republicans had waited
uselessly in back of his hotel, but represented
almost no one but themselves and a few right
wing politicians in leadership positions,
possibly including Angela Merkel.
Some of
those I heard in the el seemed thoughtful,
however, and occasionally disappointed at the
many clichés, while others justified their use
as required by the campaign for president and
his guest status in Berlin. I heard one woman,
the American wife of a Berliner, saying that
even if Obama wins a lot of pressure will be
necessary, not only in policies toward
Afghanistan. She would certainly vote for him,
she said, explaining to those nearby, "In the
USA they used to talk about 'a Great White
Hope'. After eight years with Bush and the
danger of more years with McCain, we think of
Obama as our 'Great Black Hope'".
I think
that summed up the feelings of most of the
quarter of a million people of Berlin, more or
less, who jammed into the park that hot evening
to hear the man they hoped would visit in coming
years as US president.
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A World that
Stands as One
Berlin Obama Speech (excerpt)
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama (as prepared for
delivery)
July 24th,
2008 / Berlin, Germany
In Europe, the view that
America is part of what has gone wrong in our
world, rather than a force to help make it
right, has become all too common. In America,
there are voices that deride and deny the
importance of Europe's role in our security and
our future. Both views miss the truth - that
Europeans today are bearing new burdens and
taking more responsibility in critical parts of
the world; and that just as American bases built
in the last century still help to defend the
security of this continent, so does our country
still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the
globe.
Yes, there have been
differences between America and Europe. No
doubt, there will be differences in the future.
But the burdens of global citizenship continue
to bind us together. A change of leadership in
Washington will not lift this burden. In this
new century, Americans and Europeans alike will
be required to do more - not less. Partnership
and cooperation among nations is not a choice;
it is the one way, the only way, to protect our
common security and advance our common humanity.
That is why the greatest
danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us
from one another.
The walls between old
allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot
stand. The walls between the countries with the
most and those with the least cannot stand. The
walls between races and tribes; natives and
immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot
stand. These now are the walls we must tear
down.
We know they have fallen
before. After centuries of strife, the people of
Europe have formed a Union of promise and
prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built
to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of
a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down
in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast,
where Protestant and Catholic found a way to
live together; in the Balkans, where our
Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage
war criminals to justice; and in South Africa,
where the struggle of a courageous people
defeated apartheid.
So history reminds us that
walls can be torn down. But the task is never
easy. True partnership and true progress
requires constant work and sustained sacrifice.
They require sharing the burdens of development
and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They
require allies who will listen to each other,
learn from each other and, most of all, trust
each other.
That is why America cannot
turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn
inward. America has no better partner than
Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges
across the globe as strong as the one that bound
us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join
together, through constant cooperation, strong
institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global
commitment to progress, to meet the challenges
of the 21st century. It was this spirit that led
airlift planes to appear in the sky above our
heads, and people to assemble where we stand
today. And this is the moment when our nations -
and all nations - must summon that spirit anew.
This is the moment when we
must defeat terror and dry up the well of
extremism that supports it. This threat is real
and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to
combat it. If we could create NATO to face down
the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and
global partnership to dismantle the networks
that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London
and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we
could win a battle of ideas against the
communists, we can stand with the vast majority
of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads
to hate instead of hope.
Obama Berlin Speech
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Response
Hardly
Innocuous
The pundits on MSNBC and CNN asserted
universally that Obama's speech was
"innocuous." How obtuse can those idiots be? Obama made several courageous references to the
need to "tear down walls."
The
obvious references
were to those walls currently being erected
between the US and Mexico and Canada, and
between Israeli settlements and the Palestineans.
These are actual, physical, ugly walls, not
metaphors.
Obama showed courage by referring to these real
physical walls. He will be punished for doing
so. It is now absolutely certain that Obama
will not be elected. Today, Obama deliberately sacrificed the
presidency in order to tell the truth.
Obama's speech in Berlin was the clearest proof
so far of his character and his courage. He is
indeed cosmopolitan.
Senator William J. Fulbright and General George
C. Marshall (Marshall Plan) were also guilty of
this crime, which is the greatest crime that any
American, regardless of race, can commit.
That crime is—COSMOPOLITANISM!—Wilson
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The Courage and
Character of Obama
Given
before a quarter million people, the Obama
speech in Berlin was indeed a great one,
delivered with great sophistication. He makes
the Race proud. He's a charmed man, who has a
capacity in voicing the views and hopes of the
right and the left, of peaceniks and warmongers
and freedom lovers, of capitalists and financial
marketers and naive environmentalists, of
imperialists and nationalists and jingoists,
etc. But is charm indeed "courage"? Or is it a
deceptive artifice. The devil is always in the
details, McCain will rightfully respond.
The "tear
down walls" phrase was not used in Israel or on
the Mexican border. The Palestinians would have
cheered him and made him a saint if he had
sounded such words. So too would millions of
poor in Mexico City. If he had been so
courageous, the Israeli government would have
politely shown him the door and alerted their
American lobby.
If he had
uttered those words in Israel I quite agree with
you that Obama was quite willing to sacrifice
the presidency for truth. What is clear in Obama
speech making is that nothing is “obvious” and
certain. Contrast those mincing moments, the
different kinds of cadences, when he's
interviewed on the suggestive points of his
speeches.
Rather than
sacrificing the American presidency, this Middle
East and European campaign tour has indeed
secured his election as our next president.
Check the change in the AOL poll ratings and
other online polling on the trust that has
arisen for Obama in foreign policy. They have
reversed in his favor. As Shelby Steele has
pointed out in his New York Times OP
piece, at this stage in the general election
campaigning, Obama is running only against
himself.—Rudy
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Con
Men & Bullies
By Rudolph
Lewis
We have no exit by which to escape
his charms. His magic words of youth
have us waving flags of hope,
wearing
signs on our foreheads—we held in
his
embrace, a circle around the sun.
With
financial packages, stealth planes,
ships,
in his right hand, democracy and
bibles
in the left, the new kid on the
block will
be home next week from a tour of
zones
of war. He stuck a folded prayer in
one
hole at a wailing wall, ignored
another,
praised the fall of another. Like
Joshua
before a multitude, he said, we’ll
tear
down more walls. The sun did not
stop.
His fans boarded the el, peddled
home,
dazed. In the cold winter, bright
spring
I dealt with my kinsman like a
brother.
Today’s victories always require
black
body & soul, first. Now he wants
more
troops to carry on a war in
mountains
of poppies and hashish. “Fear,
tricks,
and brute force” are always the game
of empire. Terrorists must be
defeated
for the well-lit mansion on a
Chicago
hill. This cowboy is a dude dressed
in
immaculate dark suits, silk shirts,
blue
ties. His bosom allies they are not
us—
me, you. Yet
he’s our Great Black Hope.
26
July 2008 |
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Obama Prayer
"Lord,
protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins,
and help me guard against pride and despair.
Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just.
And make me an instrument of your will."
Maariv Daily
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Your poems
are really great. I enjoyed the one about our
new boy on the block. Let’s hope that he will
not go the way of all of them. I think that he
has something great in him. He seems to be the
meeting point of so many positive dynamics that
America and the world need at the moment. He is
like an aggiornamento. American politics
in the last decade has been terribly polarizing.
Those who
accuse him of being messianic may do well to
know that hope has never been the province of
cowards. Cowards draw the blinds of life and
expire. They commit suicide because they are
afraid to live. That this man is peddling hope,
resonates with the most ancient dynamics of our
nature, which bid us escape from the black holes
of our solipsism to conquer our world and make
it habitable.
Obama can make it. The burden of history is on
his shoulders. We should all pray and support
that brother. You Rudy can help elect him the
president of the United States of America. Such
leaders come once in a lifetime. If Americans
due to their pettiness miss this opportunity,
they will forever live to regret not letting
this Joshua lead them to the promised land of
felicity and opportunity.
I salute your courage.—Franklyne Ogbunwezeh
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* * * *
Franklyne,
I am rather in the gray about Obama. Yes, in
ways, he's preferred to McCain. One man seldom,
however, changes life significantly for the
better. Usually, in possession of great
power, it is for the worst. That's the danger.
Under his reign, America will retain its
imperial markings, and advance. That's what
patriotism means in the USA. We have little
inkling of his personal limitations or his
resistance to pressures from the corporate media
and their bosses.
But I look forward to the racial symbolic
difference his presence in the Oval Office will
make. On the whole he's a scapegoat and we place
too many burdensome expectations on his back
because life has sunken so low in the last
several decades. The communities of resistance
to the corporate state are fractured, so they
cannot be a sufficient counterweight.
Though he's a "unifier" in his words, I expect a
greater polarization, a deepening of
ressourcement. What
will be to his credit is that one cannot be more
crushingly cruel than his predecessor without
great effort.—Rudy
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Obama
Dazzles Old Europe while McCain cries "No Mas"!—Barack
Obama proved yesterday why November's
presidential election will end in a 50-state
sweep. John McCain has no chance. It's like
George Bush climbing into the ring with Mike
Tyson; one thundering left hook and the Crawford
Caligula would be sprawled across the canvas in
a pool of his own blood. "No mas"! The same fate
awaits the crabby senator from Arizona. The
polls are skewed to look like there's a
political horse-race going on. There isn't. It's
a complete rout. There's one well-toned
thoroughbred striding from venue to venue
electrifying the ever-increasing throngs, and
one doddering, old mare limping towards the
glue-factory. Someone should put a stop to it
before McCain gets hurt.
Yesterday, at the Victory Column in Berlin's
Tiergarten, Obama extracted Old Glory from the
burn-pile and gave Brand America a desperately
needed shot of adrenaline. 200,000 ecstatic
Germans jammed the streets in what turned out to
be the political shindig of the year. Many of
them were waving American flags and chanting,
"Obama, Obama, Obama". It was like Jack Kennedy
had risen from his moldy sepulcher and made his
way across the pond for one last rousing
ovation. Obama has the very same affect on
crowds. Its a gift and he knows how to use it to
great advantage. . . .
McCain, on
the other hand, is the perfect embodiment of his
party; a rusty, broken-down hulk that's been
stripped of its engine, its fenders and all its
moving parts. Even the steering wheel is gone.
It's a dead-loss; nothing is salvageable.McCain
is in way over his head. This election is going
to be a real embarrassment for him. It's too
bad. He should be back at the Phoenix Rest Home
shooing kids off the front lawn instead of
waiting for the ax to fall in November. It's a
rotten way to end a career.
Information Clearinghouse
posted 27 July 2008
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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The Persistence of the Color Line
Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency
By Randall Kennedy
Among the best things about
The Persistence of the Color Line
is watching Mr. Kennedy hash through the
positions about Mr. Obama staked out by
black commentators on the left and
right, from Stanley Crouch and Cornel
West to Juan Williams and Tavis Smiley.
He can be pointed. Noting the way Mr.
Smiley consistently “voiced skepticism
regarding whether blacks should back
Obama” . . .
The
finest chapter in
The Persistence of the Color Line
is so resonant, and so personal, it
could nearly be the basis for a book of
its own. That chapter is titled
“Reverend Wright and My Father:
Reflections on Blacks and Patriotism.”
Recalling some of the criticisms of
America’s past made by Mr. Obama’s
former pastor, Mr. Kennedy writes with
feeling about his own father, who put
each of his three of his children
through Princeton but who “never forgave
American society for its racist
mistreatment of him and those whom he
most loved.” His father distrusted
the police, who had frequently called
him “boy,” and rejected patriotism. Mr.
Kennedy’s father “relished Muhammad
Ali’s quip that the Vietcong had never
called him ‘nigger.’ ” The author places
his father, and Mr. Wright, in
sympathetic historical light. |
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* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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