A Change Is Gonna Come
Today is one of the most significant
days in American history. Millions will gather in Washington to
witness
Barack Obama become the first African American
president.
Today also marks the start of a
radical shift in the perception of a country that has suffered a
spot of bad PR.
When I was growing up I saw America
as an aspirational place where, to quote Disney, dreams really do come true.
As I got older and more aware of the
political and social attitudes of the place, I began to see it as
an isolated, insular country that still maintained a huge influence
on the rest of the world.
The election of Obama demonstrates, among other
things, the importance of a charismatic, trustworthy and ultimately
believable spokesperson.
He hasn't had a chance to
implement any changes in America, yet already perceptions are
changing and there is a new found confidence in a country that is
still fundamentally the same, just from the knowledge that he is
taking the place of the monumentally inarticulate George Bush.
Change doesn't happen overnight
and there is a lot riding on the next 12 months, but I am
interested to see if Obama can return America to the place it has
always claimed to be, if not quite the Disney Land I used to think
it was.
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