Yes He Did! Adios to My Beloved US President Barack Obama

Yes He Did! Adios to My Beloved US President Barack Obama

Mangaluru: “This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other. And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too. That’s the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we’ve already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. We can change America. Yes We Can!”- this was just a portion of the victory speech that US President Barack Obama gave on 4 November 2008, after his triumph win, and I was there. And now that he is exiting after 8 years serving as the President of USA, Obama’s “Yes We Can” turned out to “Yes He Did!.

As a naturalized US citizen, and also proudly having a dual citizenship here in India- and even though I am thousands of miles away from America, I have been always keeping in touch as to what’s happening in the US through CNN news channel every single morning, when I wake or before I go to bed. When I come upon something special and interesting about US President Barack Obama I can’t resist watching it on TV or the Internet or newspaper-only for the reason is that, Obama is my President, whom as a US citizen had voted for him twice in the US Presidential elections- and both the times my votes got useful, as Obama won twice as Commander-In-Chief/President of United States of America. And if he had contested again for the presidency, I would have surely voted for him again.

Although twice I had close encounters with Obama when he had attended town meetings as a Senator then (before he became US President) in Chicago suburbs, I had attended the session as free-lance reporter for a local daily, I should have clicked couple pictures with him or selfies- but who knew that this senator would someday be the President of World’s Powerful Country. Also at the big celebration that was organized at the Grant Park in Chicago on 4 November 2008, when Obama became the First black President of US (Chicago is Obama’s hometown), I was in the front row with other journos to have a close glimpse of this great US President. I still have sweet memories of this occasion, which I will cherish forever. But I am the proud owner of one of Obama’s memorabilia- a white cap with Obama’s signature on it, where only a few were custom made. (see the last pic in this report where I am wearing it)

There is something that I liked very much about Obama, although there had been two other US presidents, namely Bill Clinton and George Bush during my 23 years in the US. I loved Barack because of his incredible oratory because he voiced the vision of what all Americans believed what they wanted America to be. And after serving as the 44th President of Unites States of America for 8 years, Barack Obama steps aside. He succeeded in dramatically lowering unemployment (despite many millions leaving the work force), he put together a health plan that helped some but was far from universal and he wept lots about gun violence while being able to do nothing about it. He won marriage equality and killed terrorist leader Bin Laden. He danced with TV talk show hosts Ellen DeGeneres and others, to become the coolest person on the face of the planet. He failed to reign in the racist American Police who murder blacks with a regularity that is sickening.

He bailed out the corporate banks in 2007 and 2008, rewarding their greed and never recovered from the anger of the ordinary people who ultimately paid the price for those bankers greed. Their revenge came last year when they elected Trump. Internationally, he signed up to a Paris climate change agreement that meant nothing, he finally forced America to be an adult about Cuba, he failed to close Gitmo, he increased drone strike assassinations, he green lighted the arrest of Kim Dotcom in an attempt to extend US jurisdiction into cyberspace, he tried to push through the TPPA which would see American Corporate Hegemony grow, he empowered the 5 eyes for more mass surveillance and he couldn’t stop the military industrial complex from continuing with its regime change butchery. Ultimately, Obama showed Americans that no matter who you put in charge of the death machine that is America, you can’t change the horror that it is.

Watching President Barack Obama, a thoughtful man of unwavering decency, saying goodbye on Tuesday (10 January) night in Chicago as his final address to the nation to the nation he has led for eight years, he did so as only Obama can, with a cadence measured yet soaring, a voice rich in warm compassion and cold truth. His words were those of a man looking both behind and ahead, purged of illusion but fortified by hope, and delivered with a humility born of hard-won wisdom. As the president he reminded Americans, inequality, racial division and political partisanship are among the greatest threats to democracy.

Obama knew that progress is never a straight path, and so on his farewell speech Tuesday night he tried to shepherd the people toward the most promising route: “Regardless of the station we occupy, we all have to try harder; we all have to start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just as much as we do; that they value hard work and family just like we do; that their children are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own.” Maybe over the years many Americans could have disagreed with him on matters of policy or felt as though he was part of a liberal elite looking down its collective nose at rural, conservative America. Maybe for eight years, they all saw a man at odds with their principles. May be political opposition slowly turned to personal hatred. And so when it came time to pick a new president, Americans chose a man who could not be less like Barack Obama. But if you watched Obama speak that Tuesday night, I hope Americans saw the man I saw – at least for one night.

There he was, the still-young leader of the free world speaking to every man, woman and child in America like a proud father. After two turbulent, frustrating terms in office, the nation’s first black president was more convinced than ever of the potential of the American people to achieve the promise of this still-young democracy. Greatness, he suggested, doesn’t exist in some bygone moment but in a future that the people themselves craft. Even though many Americans didn’t always agree with Obama, but they/I will certainly miss him. For eight years, many of us said “The president is a good leader and an even better person.” For eight years, it was true.

So farewell Mr President, your speeches were remarkable, your works were great, and you allowed us all to hope that you could change America and “Yes You Did!” This is America, and it’s what it always was. May God bless the United States of America!