Goodbye Obama

“I want to take a look… one more time,” said America’s 44^th president after being sworn in. “I’m not going to see this again.” As Obama left the inaugural site, he paused to turn back and see the 1.8 million crowd chant ‘Ob-ba-ma.’ It was exactly eight years ago on a freezing morning of January 20, 2009. Never had America witnessed such a rhapsodic flag-waving sea of people cheering for the first black president whose middle name was ‘Hussein.’ Elegant in speech, dignified in carriage and humble in grace, this man today hands over power to a 70-year-old boorish billionaire who vows in one fell swoop to wipe out the Obama legacy! Well aware that power indeed is transitory, Obama knew that eight years down the road, he’ll be waving goodbye to America before walking into the sunset of anonymity.



Eight years from today, a young, handsome man stood at Capitol Hill as he looked out at the exhilarated groundswell and said: “On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.” What an irony of fate that these same words of this youthful president on that icy January morning would play a pivotal part electing his successor, the man who made his political career on divisive politics, falsehoods, tethered to his loathsome Twitter feeds! Donald Trump and the 60 millions who elected him fit Shakespeare’s description of irony at its best: “O, wonder!/How many goodly creatures are there here!/How beauteous mankind is!/ O brave new world,/That has such people in’t!” Donald Trump sold his dystopian dream to Americans saying that everything in their country was broken down and hopelessness ruled. “I alone can fix it,” he said and make America, the Brave New World, “Great again.” The voters believed him just as they did eight years ago when they heard Obama speak of “Audacity of hope” and “Yes we can!” Messages of these two presidents were polar opposites and yet they appealed to different segments of society.

That’s the beauty of America. It’s a melting pot of black, white, brown immigrants of all ethnicities, religions and races who pool their skills and talents to make this country the most powerful in the world. A black president leaves office with one of the highest ever approval ratings while a white president enters with the lowest ever approval ratings! Say whatever you want, but the nostalgia for the old times has permeated the US media, except Fox News. We’ve seen interviews and profiles of the First Couple and their days in the White House, wishing never to wake up to a four-year nightmare that begins today! Many are freaking out with Trump’s arrival, while half of America is jubilant today with Trump in the White House.

Do men cry? I once asked my male friends. Yes, they do, was the chorus I heard back. Hours before Obama won the White House in November 2008, news of his grandmother’s death came. He was at a campaign rally. Barack Obama spoke of her death from cancer. The viewers saw a teardrop streaking down his face. Calling it a “bittersweet time” in his life, there was dignified sadness in his voice and face. It was a poignant moment: the woman who raised him, dying just hours before her beloved grandson became the president-elect. “She is gone home,” he told the rally.

Madelyn Dunham’s life as told to us by his grandson is exemplary. “She was somebody who was a very humble person, a very plain-spoken person,” said Obama. “She is one of those quiet heroes we have all across America, who are not famous, their names are not in the newspapers, but each and every day they work hard. They look after their families. They sacrifice for their children, and their grandchildren. They aren’t seeking the limelight. All they try to do is do the right thing. And in this crowd, there are a lot of quiet heroes like that who have worked hard and sacrificed all their lives. That is what America is about.”

Readers may shrug off this grandma story as an old-fashioned tale. No, it isn’t. A person’s character is moulded by the kind of home environment he or she gets when growing up. Just think what ingredients must have gone into making this black — half and half — mulatto into the man who led America for eight years. It was Obama’s white grandma, who instilled in him the virtues that characterised his leadership role in the world. She laboured hard to run her frugal life and that of her two grandchildren abandoned by their mother while young. Read a book called Half and Half -Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural and you will get the full picture of what indignities Obama must have faced as a biracial. Think of how this white woman must have waited at the door to hug this child of mixed marriage, each time someone broke her grandson’s heart and called him “Mulatto.” Take your mind to the times when in a small family home in Hawaii, Obama’s grandma must have suffered her neighbours’ indifference. White people don’t like mixing with blacks. Madelyn was white as was her husband, but their grandson was black. Still the grandparents doted on him. Think of those long hot summer evenings when Obama must have sat on his desk slogging away to earn a full scholarship to Harvard Law School. Not much is known of his lonely journey while growing up.

Goodbye Obama.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2017.

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