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America - The Whole Package
Colin Powell had better watch out or he'll become the conscience of a nation. That's a title he doesn't seek. It's already claimed anyway, by Rush Limbaugh.
Powell recently said that his party, the Republican Party, was listening too closely to voices like Limbaugh's and heeding its "lesser instincts rather than its better instincts."
Among those are intolerance and barely subtle race-based appeals.
On cue, Limbaugh's rambling defense asserted among other things that Powell supported Barack Obama because of his race. Maybe that's how some of Limbaugh's constituency assigns its affections. But if Powell has demonstrated anything in his long career, it is that he's not a one-note instrument.
Powell also derided a campaign appeal beat into paste by Sarah Palin - that rural islands of small-town homogeny represent America values while more diverse urban centers do not.
"Most of us don't live in small towns," Powell told CNN's Fareed Zakharia last weekend. "I was raised in the South Bronx, and there's nothing wrong with my value system from the South Bronx."
The ‘Real America'
This statement, and the false dichotomy that exalts red-state sameness as the "real America," comes to mind with a wonderful anecdote from a man in New York who got to introduce a Russian couple to America.
Rick Stevens lives in upstate New York. But he was in the Big Apple at JFK International last March to welcome Igor, Ina and their son to the United States for the first time. They were blown away.
The beauty: "We were driving over the 59th Street Bridge into Manhattan. The sun was just starting to set and all the lights were on. Even as a jaded Manhattanite with 25 years living on the island (I now live in upstate NY), I was still spellbound by the sight."
The plenty: At an ethnic restaurant, the waiter brought salad the visitors ate with great relish, then a beef barley soup. "They ate that and were stuffed. When the waiter brought the entree - beef goulash over buttered noodles with sauteed string beans on the side - they looked quizzically as though to say, ‘So, what's this?'"
They had thought the soup was the entree. It was more than enough for them.
Stevens recounts the couple's astonishment at the quality and variety of food. At an Italian bakery in the East Village, Ina was "almost in tears when she saw the pastries displayed."
But it wasn't just food and bright lights that left an impression.
"They kept remarking at all of the different people they saw on the streets: Caucasians, Asians, blacks, Hispanics," Stevens wrote. His guests "had been under the impression that Manhattan was only home to wealthy whites, with all of the other races relegated to positions of servitude."
This is the part of this feel-good story worth retelling. The essence of America in these people's eyes wasn't just the means of production, the means of getting around, the means acquired to survive and thrive.
What was remarkable also was the synthesis made out of difference.
As with New York City, America's president-elect embodies this - son of a mixed marriage, a black child owing much of his upbringing to a white grandmother. The appeal in the campaign used against his was a specious "he's not one of us." Of course, that was code for an "us" that never defined us, even back to this nation's colonial origins.
The vote tally Nov. 4 demonstrated that we can rise above our lesser instincts. A nation the world has come to observe with suspicion and derision can again be the model for civility and inclusiveness symbolized by a certain lady in a certain harbor.
31 Comments so far
Show AllI hate to burst bubbles, but Obama ain't 'one of us'. Unless you are a politician in D.C. or a corporate banker on Wall Street. Or a CEO of a corporation. Obama said he represents us, but to believe he is one of us and will change the system you are missing the boat. We have to change the kingdom, not just the king.
Hoa binh
There are still parts of the politico types that are just like ours. They have had the good fortune and the guile to go after what they want and get it. Some of us have neither, and dont desire the qualities, and still have gotten part of what we want. Some of us have both and not desired what they want.
Love
Zero
Seems that some people will never be happy, no matter who is in office. I find Colin Powells comments refreshing-honest, and much needed. Take a look at Obama's cabinet-looks pretty good so far...
Sioux Rose
In keeping with the must-shop spirit of our commercialized holiday season, this feel-good piece makes me want to fly to N.Y. just to EAT in Little Italy; but it makes me wonder how long all those goodies we Americans (many of us) can still indulge in, will even BE available? Dickens' tales of London may come to replace the cornucopia status NY currently holds. After all, it's ground zero for the financial explosion that continues to reverberate around the world. First 911 and the Wall St Towers, reminiscent of the tarot's struck-by-lightning-tower, come tumbling down and then a magical 7 years later, its whole fiscal infrastructure follows. Indeed, as was the I ching on 9-11-01, 23/splitting apart has lived true to its numerological call.
My dear Rose
Are you Libran?
I am not sure why you mentioned the twenty three - I guess you may be referring to the 9/11/2001 which all ads up to 23.
Very well said- I might add. Plus I think the signature part comes after your wisdom - it other wise seems like you are addressing yourself.
Thanks, and
Love
Zero
Sioux Rose
ZERO: Very kind of you. I do compute the "i ching" for each day, and the morning of 9-11 I was aware that day's I ching was SPLITTING APART. I never imagined it would play out so literally!
I have Saturn in Libra, thus a very refined sense of justice, as that is the sign of Libra's exaltation. But I am a strong Leo (sun-moon-Mars-Pluto there, with Mercury on the Cancer/Leo cusp.) Hence the desire to shine in the forum, and a longing for a return to a position in media. (I hosted my own TV show for 7 years in the Florida Keys, and did previous television in Puerto Rico. Plus lots of radio.)
What is your sign? You were right about Obama. Two Leo democrats in the past 2 decades, Clinton and now Obama... star quality evident in both, but will they guide from the heart, or pocketbook, or below the belt? Clinton's weakness, or one of them!
Sioux
Watch how it goes
Bill Gates/Buffet(Virgos)
Tom Brady/Federer/Clinton/Obama(Leos)
and, I am hoping after them my sign
Cancer.
It is a 16 year cycle, and I have yet to figure out where it is coming from.
Love
Zero
Sioux Rose
Hi ZERO: If you're a JUNE Cancer, the opposition of Pluto is not going to be easy, given it's a once in 248 year influence connected to endings that eventuate in new beginnings, the need for the phoenix to rise from ashes. The U.S. (July 4) is already seeing some of this influence precede itself. Saturn entering Libra on Halloween of 2009 to stay for more than 2 years squares the Sun-Cancer, as will Uranus bound for Aries in 2010. A cardinal cross is about to form, and I believe it will totally remake America...
Today I stopped in Ocala to have lunch and my favorite restaurant there closed shop. I was told SIX closed in the past few months.
I stopped at our local flea market to check on something I need, and ran into a woman who does inexpensive flooring. She figured out it was cheaper to set up a booth at the flea market, than have the usual overhead at a mall or shopping center. She told me that she put an ad for someone to help lay flooring and had calls from Georgia and Kentucky! People are desperate for work... yesterday's article about the fiscal doo-doo hitting not only newspapers, but the publishing industry was a venue I hadn't thought of. It's truly SCARY this falling of dominos, one by one, from the banks to the big insurance giant, to the huge car companies, to everyday shops, to home foreclosures... definitely the American landscape is in for a huge cathartic shift. You're in the sign that has a ringside seat... so I hope you've done what many Cancers do, stuffed some money away or made some decent past investments to hold you over the coming low tide.
Ugh! Another variation of the "only in America" US-exceptionalism screed!
I am really tiring of this notion that there is something uniquely American about plenty and variety in restaurants and shops and ethnic diversity in it's cities.
Apparently this Russian couple had not done much traveling, becaue they would have found as much or more beauty, economic vibrance and variety in any major European, Canadian, Japanese or Australian city. They would have found as much ethnic diversity in many European, Canadian or Australian cities too.
In European cities, they would also have found,
- Much more beautiful architcture
- much better and easier to use public transportation
- cleaner streets with much letter litter
- less automobile congestion
- far fewer poor homeless people on sidewalks and the heat grates
- far, far less crime and violence
- and in the case of Europe, their high living standard is achieved with less than half the per-capita carbon footprint
Mr. Young needs to get out of Waco and see some of the world.
---USAn---
And I'm completely confused as to this observation of economic equalty among various races and ethnicities in New York. This is nonsense! The differences in economic status between whites, blacks and Hispanics in New York, and most other US cities (DC especially comes to mind) is positively and manifestly stark!
Mr. Young, did you friend take the Russians to the south Bronx, or most of Queens?
Admittedly, through gentrification and brutal policies toward the homeless, many US cities have done a good job of hiding their poor and turning their restaurant, art and entertainment districts into Disneylands. Apparenly Mr. Young doesn't know this.
---USAn---
Well said- some people of Asian origin are still doing the dirty work, and Italian Mafia, among other mafias, still extort money freely in the lovely debauchery.
Siouxrose's point will come to fruition - the storefronts with their exorbitant pastries are out of reach for so many residents of the city, and are the symbol of the excesses of the executives that rape the bottom feeders. Some of these execs have already joined the ranks of the have nots, and more are to follow.
Love
Zero
Yes, and the idea that someone would be "brought to tears" by a selection of fancy pastries or other materials excesses is absolutely comical. It is almost a carricature the whole USAn mistaken belief that the US is the envy of the world - down to even it's pastries.
What about Paris or Vienna? And their pastries are made from far more wholesome organic, non GMO flour and sugar too.
But as fr as the race thing, when I visit my family in the DC area from the other side of the Alleghenies in the rust belt, I am stunned at the virtual caste system there:
Highly paid magerial workers in beltway defense industry - White
K-street lobbying industry - White
filthy rich from unknown sources and they don't work at all - White
Conienience store operators - South Asian
Construction workers - Mexican or Central American
A closed, self-contained economy all their own - Vietnamese, Koreans, East Asians
Trash collectors, janitors, or never hired at all - African Americans
---USAn---
The author is from Waco, TX but not all of TX is as bad. El Paso is far more liberal than upstate NY.
I grew up in upstate NY. What a shithole.
-- EKATON --
Austin is more "liberal" - it is sort of the Madison, Wisconsin of the Lone Star State.
Where exactly is "upstate New York". You mean everything north of Yonkers?
---USAn---
I'm from half way between Rochester and Syracuse, but I think most NYC people consider everything north and west of the city to be upstate.
-- EKATON --
But I agree that most of western New York, like other regions surrounding "rust belt" cities (if you don't mind me calling Rochester or Syracuse that), are quite conservative.
Why poeple living in these union-busted, de-industrialized areas - where the raw deal of Capitalism is visible for all to see, became so conservative - anti-public sector (except the military), anti-union, anti-tax, pro-pollution, racist, and fundamentalist-religious is something sorely in need of further study.
Here in the city of Pittsburgh limits there is progressivism and even the strongest anarchist community outside of Eugene, OR, but cross the rivers and go up the hill into the suburbs and surrounding rural areas or towns like Punxsutawny, or up through all the run-down Mon Valley towns, and attitudes are scary-conservative.
---USAn---
" ... "rust belt" cities (if you don't mind me calling Rochester or Syracuse that) ..."
Not at all. The truth is the truth.
"Why poeple living in these union-busted, de-industrialized areas - where the raw deal of Capitalism is visible for all to see, became so conservative - anti-public sector (except the military), anti-union, anti-tax, pro-pollution, racist, and fundamentalist-religious is something sorely in need of further study."
If you have time, read "Deer Hunting With Jesus" by Joe Bageant. Although written about life in the Winchester, VA, area, it applies directly to the western NY area as well, and most likely to the areas "up the hill into the suburbs and surrounding rural areas or towns like Punxsutawny, or up through all the run-down Mon Valley towns,".
I've lived in the Mechanicsburg PA area for the last 30 years and we have many of the same attitudes among people here. Its a very conservative locale.
There are many great essays by Mr. Bageant at www.joebageant.com
-- ekaton, aka d.k.shaw
Thomas Frank wrote a very good book explaining the cause of the conservatism of the busted out communities. The name of the book is "What is the matter with kansas."
Just finished it. Also highly recommended.
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
Upstate NY is the Catskills and the Adirondacks (theyre mountains) and it borders with Canada, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania. DUH!!!
That which you might refer to as "the southern tier" or "the finger lakes area" and west to Buffalo is also commonly referred to as upstate NY. Let me guess. You're from NYC, right?
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
"His guests "had been under the impression that Manhattan was only home to wealthy whites, with all of the other races relegated to positions of servitude."
Oh, sure. All those waiters and garbage collectors and cooks and cab drivers and store clerks and plumbers and carpenters. They all live in those Manhattan apartments at $5000 a month. Its great isn't it? I'm retired and have an income of $1250 a month after taxes. I guess its time to move to Manhattan. What a load of crap.
-- EKATON --
BV$H and his merry band of pirates have emptied the treasury and also managed to leave the rest of us and our kids a huge credit card bill on the way out. Obama can print all the money he wants but it won't fix the 30 yrs. of wealth transference form the 90% too the 10%. America is now a country with essentially 2 classes.
Can we please have ten thousand different pastries in the display case tomorrow? To hell with the rule of law. As long as the empire's victims remain out of sight, out of mind, we'll thrive! Buck-Churners For the Pentagon, UNITE!
PJD,
You forgot to mention cities in Latin America too, like Mexico City, Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires. They are as cosmopolitan, diverse and cultural as any other city in Asia or Europe.
I very much agree, but my argument was also directed at the false claim that the USA is the most uniformly affluent place on earth, and these cities also have much larger poor populations than European or US cities.
Correct me if I'm wrong, the only major Latin American city I've been to is Caracas in the 1980's - probably the most un-beautiful large city in Latin America.
---USAn---
all one has to do is:
REMEMBER NEW ORLEANS and KATRINA.....
THERE , right there, for the whole world to see was the TRUE UNDERBELLY of the United States of America:
and for all to see the TRUE nature of the USA society -- as a LIVING LEGACY of its beginnings -- SLAVERY , EXPLOITATION, VAST gaps in wealth, and its great instrument of its true nature:
CAPITALISM in its basest form.
in the terrible reality unmasked in new orleans BY KATRINA -- for the whole world to see
was the ESSENCE of American "society" and its domestic and foreign policies . =========inherently RACIST, DIVISIVE, EXPLOITATIVE, HUBRISTIC, CRUEL and DESTRUCTIVE.
how about another take on this "diversity" USA glorification?
attach the OBVIOUS: USA is the prime PIMP nation in the world,,,, spreading the principles of capitalism enslavement....
with: Diversity and what do you get?
USA has the most DIVERSE COLLECTION of Glorified and Unglorified SLAVES
, serving the "BIG BOSS -- Supernationalistic Capitalism" (words by General Smedly Butler, US military). ..that's the Personification of the LORDS of the UNIVERSE who tell you "you're in the land of the free" - Freed of your Freedom..into the Light of Darkness....if you're a scientist or philosopher -- you serve the BIG BOSS...if you work Wiping Old people's behinds...you serve the BIG BOSS...doesn't matter ....and DON'T YA FORGET IT!!
"RED WHITE AND BLUE,
STARS OVER YOU.
mamma said, papa said:
THEY OWN YOU"!!!
how 'bout DAT?
If you work for an hourly wage, if you live from paycheck to paycheck, if the boss tells you when to come and go, if you would face dire consequences if you lost your job, if you pay rent or if you are paying a mortgage, you are a slave, and don't you forget it, you do as you are told when you are told. You are bought and sold as much as any other slave in history.
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
correct. that's why , to me, america is really the greatest collection of Glorified Slaves.
it is called "freedom and choice" ...
but the OBVIOUS is never asked:
"REALLY? HOW so?"
what's that saying again?
"none is more truly a slave than believes he is free".
and NONE in the world believe they are FREE MORE than americans do. THAT"S why the "freedom" they believe has been so easy to use to ENSLAVE them:
credit cards, enslavement TO "credit worthiness", credit economy, country living on "borrowed'" credit, "credit of the law abiding citizen" - meaning OBEY, "freedom" to choose between working if you can find a meaningful job, or working even if you can't find meaningful job, or working if there are NO jobs , "freedom" to choose between the emergency room or fighting your insurance "provider", "freedom" to vote left or right wings of the SAME war party, "freedom" to pay or not pay your bank's or credit card's USURIOUS compounded interest upon interest, "freedom" to IGNORE the fact that your own government AND workplaces SPY on YOU, "freedom" to choose to :"support the troops as they fight for FREEDOM over there thousands of miles away against people YOU have no real gripes against". .....and on and on and on it goes.......