Of course one needs to have sufficient knowledge and courage to ask the right questions. Sometimes people get so carried away by media and existing socio-cultural norms that they just can’t think clearly, and as a result can’t ask the right questions. It got into my mind pretty intensely when it came out in the media that our most likely future president’s middle name is Hussein. When the word came out, the Right Wingers complained Obama is a Muslim, and the Democrats went out of their way to prove that he is not a Muslim.
Of course, everyone with little knowledge of American politics knows Obama is a Christian and the son of biracial parents.
Yes, Obama’s personal story is as unreal as it could be – almost like a myth. It’s only in America that a mythical storyline has a platform to see the real world.
The story came out as if having an Arabic/Muslim name does not qualify one to become U.S. president (however qualified he or she is).
All this misleading gossip took a very dignified turn when Gen. Colin Powell on NBC’s Meet the Press demanded that the right question is not to ask if he is a Muslim or not. The right question would be, “What’s wrong with a Muslim becoming a U.S president if he or she is qualified?”
There are roughly 5 million to 8 million Muslims in America. As Powell has emphasized, it’s not right for a 7- or 8-year-old child not to dream to of becoming president because he or she is a Muslim.
Stereotyped thinking and ignorance lead to an irrational mindset, which generates unnecessary fear, and leads to asking the wrong questions. We need to go above and beyond the narrow and hollow thinking.
Lately, the McCain campaign is accusing Obama of wanting to “spread the wealth” and misleadingly using Joe the Plumber’s vague understanding of tax rates to confuse average Americans.
Of course, 95 percent of the Joe the Plumbers will be better off with Obama’s tax plan. My question is: What’s wrong with spreading wealth a little bit (if one is blessed with a lot), especially among the people who are needy?
Is that not what America is supposed to be based on – fairness, equity and social justice?
There are lot of needy people in America within all groups. The Right has no problems in spreading wealth among the rich and wealthy; they have problem in spreading the wealth among those who really need.
Of course, America has become an unequal society in a very dysfunctional manner over the years.
Thirty years ago, America’s top richest 1 percent owned 8 percent of the wealth, whereas currently they control 20 percent of all the wealth in America.
Thirty years of “trickle down economics” and shameless deregulatory movement led by the American Right made the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Wealth spreading has taken a wrong direction. Obama’s little wealth spreading from the people who make a quarter million dollars and above (from 35 percent tax of current level to 37 percent) is rather sensible for improving social inequality that has resulted from the last 30 years of trickle down economics.
Yes, McCain is a war hero and was a maverick, but he looks at the world with the lens of the Cold War.
Unfortunately, he resembles the best of America in the past, but the future belongs to Obama generation.
The world has changed geometrically over the last decades. McCain has not adjusted with the change. McCain looks at the world in a black/white manner (almost like the Reagan-Bush mold).
The new global world is rather gray and needs new insight and new vision, and of course, new and creative right questions.
I strongly feel my 14-year-old daughter Saraf and 9-year-old son Sarfraz (yes both have Muslim names) will be better off under an Obama Administration.
Obama’s leadership and “generational change” message inspired millions in America and around the world.
Obama has transformed American politics to a new direction, and American politics will never be same. Obama’s campaign (read movement) is forcing us to ask the right questions.
As you know, if you can’t identify the problem, you can never solve the problem. American is better and brighter with an Obama.