Obama being elected president was a big deal here in liberal Boston. I went to bed hearing hoots and hollers of celebration from Mass Ave. In the morning I went to work and my coworkers were all Obama supporters, and all abuzz with pride. Things like “I actually feel proud of my country now” were said, echoing a sentiment Michelle Obama was vilified for. That following Thursday Lynn and I went to see The Decemberists, who made frequent references to Obama’s election and hope and change. The band led the crowd in chants of “Yes we can” and “Yes we did” as a life size poster of president-elect Obama was passed around the auditorium. They closed the night with their own song of hope, “Sons and Daughters,” with around 30 audience members singing with them “Here/hear all the bombs fade away.”
This past Wednesday at an AIDS in Africa Symposium put on by the Harvard School of Public Health, two speakers expressed their excitement of Obama’s victory, both of whom were from outside the States: France and Uganda.
That same evening I went to go hear noted MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky give a talk about what Obama’s election means and what will change. Chomsky said, based on Obama’s recent Cabinet appointments, he does not expect politics to change much. His Cabinet has been made largely of Clinton-era politicians, who some blame for the roots of the financial crisis. Chomsky however did acknowledge that his victory is momentous and a historical one. He credited the election of a black president, and the viable candidacy of a woman, to the efforts of the activists in the 60s. Had the 60s “liberals” not taken the risks and organized, this year’s election would have been very different.
Chomsky made it a point that Obama is not an agent of change, but he is an indicator of it. We can’t depend on politicians and governments to instigate change. Progress and change comes from activism. What happens in the future is up to us.
“What happens in the future is up to us.” Amen.
i agree that grassroots action, not voting, is real politics. but as a christian, i would disagree with chomsky that we’re self-determining agents who push history towards completion. it sounds too much like the myth of enlightenment progress. i think actors for social change are more like patient martyrs, such as the assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero who wrote these words: “We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”