Dave's Progress. Chapter 9: A New Hope?

It is Wednesday morning and it is very early and the reason I am awake and writing this blog is because I've just found out that Barack Obama has won the US election. This is, then, a momentous occasion- the first African-American to make it to the White House. I often talk about the prejudice and stigma of mental health on this blog, so I thought why not extend that principle a little because this decision on behalf of the American people is indeed an historic one. Just think, for example, how far things have come since the early days of Booker T. Washigton and W.E.B.DuBois, or for that matter from the later civil rights movements of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, when America seemed truly divided along the lines of race. It just shows that things have truly progressed and I'm sure many not just in America but across the world will see this decision as a new ray of hope. Indeed, it has come at a time when America's popularity in the world has been waning and its credibility as a world leader was questioned by many- Iraq, Guantanamo, water-boarding, etc. all added to the feeling that America, to paraphrase Nietsche, had become a monster in seeking to destroy monsters itself. In fact, I wrote a poem about all the negative feelings I had about the US during what I felt were some of America's unfinest hours. It was called "The American Adventure", was one of my more serious efforts, and goes as follows:

Was it Columbus or was it the Chinese,
Who found the continent that aims to please?
The place where man must have held his breath,
When first setting eyes on its endless breadth.

Cowboys,
Indians,
Myth-making with no end,
History reborn out of opium dens.

CIA,
FBI,
Corruption, Intelligence,
Endless lies.

Slavery,
Migration,
The very own holocaust,
Of the most united of nations.

Did you just call me a nigger?
Civil rights,
Political correctness,
Now a weapon of the right.

Vietnam,
Columbia,
El Salvador,
Afghanistan.

Rather be dead than red,
The yellow peril,
Paranoia sets in,
Things begin to unravel.

JFK,
FDR,
Lincoln and Washington,
Don't know who they are.

Did we forget the constitution?
Legal loopholes,
Satellite peepholes,
We'll find a way round it and build babelic steeples.

Corruption,
Insanity,
Plastic profanity,
It's only skin deep, that mentality.

McDonalds,
Wall Mart,
Their story not told,
Corporation overload.

And now it creeps in,
Silent and serious,
You can't see it happening,
It's so mysterious.

Media manipulation,
Well it is a free market,
Just protecting my interests,
Selective information creates political contexts.

So is there a madman in the White House?
A Texan with a gun,
Not caring where he points it,
Hey, folks, we're just havin' fun!

But now the "Texan with a gun" is on his way out, thank God, and I think we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. I do not hope my poem comes over as too negative, but as I say it was written during a time when all my bad feelings about America were at their height. I still admire America and think it is a great country and this has been proven by the election of Obama. Also, I think there is the distinction to be made between The US government and its people. My vitriol, as you can see, was mostly for Bush. I'm just hoping that my new blogging friend dcrelief will not find my sentiments too anti-American.
So, that's all for now folks. Wishing you all in our little blogging community wellness and peace on this great ocassion- from your normal, average paranoid and delusional man.