In dangerous, clangorous times, the idea of America rings like a bell (see King, M. L., Jr., and Dylan, Bob). It hits a high note and sustains it without wearing on your nerves. (If only we all could.) This was the melody line of the Marshall Plan and it’s resonating again. Why? Because the world sees that America might just hold the keys to solving the three greatest threats we face on this planet: extreme poverty, extreme ideology and extreme climate change. The world senses that America, with renewed global support, might be better placed to defeat this axis of extremism with a new model of foreign policy.
That is one paragraph from a powerful op ed in today's New York Times. The title is Rebranding America The author is Bono.
Bono has long been dedicated to making the world a better place. He has been able to involve statesmen and politicians in his effort. Bush Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill traveled to Africa with the U-2 front-man. As you will learn in the op ed, people like current National Security Advisor James Jones, as he was stepping down from NATO, contacted Bono, who tells us
The general and I also found ourselves talking about what can happen when the three extremes — poverty, ideology and climate — come together.
In his conversation the General offered an equation, Stability = security + development, and noted that in a situation of asymmetrical conflict America had to try to conform its foreign policy to that equation.
Bono sees that happening under Obama, noting the President
has put together a team of people who believe in this equation.
That team includes Jones as National Security Advisor, a Vice President who was chair of Foreign Relations, the Republican Gates at Defense and a Secretary of State
with a long record of championing the cause of women and girls living in poverty, who is now determined to revolutionize health and agriculture for the world’s poor.
Adding a Congress that seems willing to go along, and
From a development perspective, you couldn’t dream up a better dream team to pursue peace in this way, to rebrand America.
Bono has a one-liner that helps encapsulate all of this:
The Nobel Peace Prize is the rest of the world saying, "Don’t blow it."
But that is a challenge not only for the President, but for all of us. On all issues - hunger, climate change, disarmament - these will
take international cooperation and American leadership.
And then, pushing the limits of fair use, the conclusion to Bono's peace:
But an America that’s tired of being the world’s policeman, and is too pinched to be the world’s philanthropist, could still be the world’s partner. And you can’t do that without being, well, loved. Here come the letters to the editor, but let me just say it: Americans are like singers — we just a little bit, kind of like to be loved. The British want to be admired; the Russians, feared; the French, envied. (The Irish, we just want to be listened to.) But the idea of America, from the very start, was supposed to be contagious enough to sweep up and enthrall the world.
And it is. The world wants to believe in America again because the world needs to believe in America again. We need your ideas — your idea — at a time when the rest of the world is running out of them.
But the idea of America, from the very start, was supposed to be contagious enough to sweep up and enthrall the world. For all our criticism of American exceptionalism, how often the world has been willing to look to us. Perhaps that is why Obama received such an incredible response overseas, even before his election. The idea of Hope is infectious, it inspires people to try yet again to address the world's problems.
I chose for my title one line - the idea of America rings like a bell - because it is one we can find in our own history, in the words of poets like Whitman - "I hear America singing" - or Hughes - "Let America Be America Again." We may not have always lived up to it, but there are markers - Bono cites the Marshall Plan, whose impact is still remembered across Europe, as the efforts of Peace Corp volunteers are in Africa, Asia and South America.
As we struggle at home with serious issues - on health care, labor rights, finance, jobs, nutrition, education, and so many others - we should not forget that we have a responsibility beyond our borders, if for no other reason than other nations still look to us.
Read the Bono. Reflect on it. Perhaps offer your own thoughts in response.
But remember that Bono is not alone in believing that the idea of America rings like a bell
Peace.