Hoping Audaciously

Today, on the twentieth day of the year two thousand and nine, one prominent thought will emanate from the bosom of the earth and envelope all its beings in a warm, assuring embrace: Hope. The reason for the thought will take the Presidential oath for the highest office in the nucleus of world power: America. The reason: Mr. Barak Obama.

Hope. America. Obama. Can this combination change the world? Today is the day to hope daringly and to flaunt that we can hope! And why not, we have good reasons to! What a historic victory that was—the first colored man chosen as the head of the state in a land that abolished slavery not very long ago!

In his last address to the nation, Mr. George Bush said that he did what his “conscience” told him is right. I’m afraid that in saying so, Mr. Bush hasn’t at the slightest got the real meaning of the word, “conscience”. Conscience—simply translated into having a sense of right and wrong comes from a deep voice within—that one hears only when one listens to the heart. The (His) heart couldn’t have told Mr. Bush to launch an assault against Iraq and Afghanistan killing thousands of its civilian population, loot the world’s natural resources by exploiting the less powerful nations, militarize the world with deadly nuclear weapons, bully countries to become partners in committing global crimes, ravage old civilizations, obstruct free media, promote economies that makes people hapless consumers without scruples, and many more! Sorry Mr. Bush, beg to defer there, it wasn’t your conscience that led you, it was simply your greed for power—a deathly sickness of the mind that you must really consider looking deeply into. Therefore, Mr. Bush, if you think its your “conscience” which guided you to drop illegal weapons on innocent civilian populations and make their lives miserable for generations to come, then it is not difficult to see what kind of people you had envisioned (hardly the right word for your scary designs) would inhabit the Universe.

Finally, I want to ask Mr. Bush when he said in the same address to his nation that he had to take some “tough decisions”. If that were so, then why do we hear that the Taliban has spread its fangs and its militants are a few kilometers away from our closest border with Pakistan? Mr. Bush, you tried to strangle the spirit of Sufi Islam, your policies have given rise to Jihadi Islam and made Muslims all over the world insecure than they ever were before! Why weren’t some real “tough decisions” taken to dissipate the Taliban movement? I’m afraid Mr. Bush has got it wrong again; I don’t mean “tough decisions” are equated with “mindless violence”!!

Hope. America. Obama: Can the past be redeemed…. today, as Mr. Obama takes oath, I’m sure many of us will listen to him with a lump in our throats and we will believe every word he utters. Today, we will hope audaciously.


Footnote: The title of this post is inspired from the title of the bestseller, “The Audacity of Hope” by Barak Obama, published in 2006.