Like so many others, I have been listening to the President's Cairo speech, and reading and listening to various commentaries on it. I was moved by the compassion and courage of the speech, aware that it was not strong on details, but recognizing that details were not its purpose.
I saw a President who not only changed the rhetoric of the Bush years, but also brought a totally new world vision to the issues. He was able to support Israel and the Palestinians both in their aspirations and in their pain. He recognized the impact of colonialism on the Muslim world, and this freed him to name U.S. complicity in the 1953 coup in Iran as a legitimate piece of baggage, as is the taking of the embassy hostages during the Revolution.
Iran may doubt his sincerity, but the acknowledgement of grievances on both sides is huge. And if there is one advantage Obama has over all previous Presidents, it is personal experience with the effects of colonization on the Third World. It is important not to forget this.
I recently wrote a book review on Dreams From My Father. I had not previously read the book, and it was difficult not to see the present in Obama's early descriptions of his struggle with the country's power structure and its impact on people's lives. He was buffered from the extremes he encountered because the White Man was not a faceless concept, but had the faces of his mother and his grandparents, people he loved.
Obama structures the book between descriptions of his grandparents' lives, beginning with his Kansas grandparents, and ending with his African grandparents. (I know he begins with learning of his father's death, but I found that more of an introduction, with the main story told in flashback.) These bookends to the story show a recognition of the effect of life on both men.
But the piecing together of his father's life benefits from his experience of another man he loved, his Indonesian stepfather. As a young child he witnessed the change in his stepfather from the idealistic man he remembered in Hawaii to the cynical, defeated man teaching him how to get by in life, and heard at some point of his breaking by the post-colonial Indonesian government. Later came the recognition of how colonialism and a kind of forced modernization influenced what came after.
So when he finally visited Africa and met his Kenyan relatives, and experienced the place and its culture, he recognized certain elements. The story told him by his aunt about his family history, and the lives of his grandfather and father in their encounters with English people and colonial rule was familiar. He was able to see these men within their lives and their times and places.
This is a richness of personal experience that allows him to recognize these same effects in the world he has to deal with as President, and uniquely qualifies him to do so. Perhaps this is what he meant when he said empathy was so important for his choice of Justice. He had no fear of acknowledging American colonial attitudes, because he can see with a true historical perspective. So when Senator Inhofe said he does not know which side Obama is on from his speech, he is responding to this lack of the self-justification that has been such a powerful force in American international relations.
This is what I find so hopeful in the Cairo speech. Obama in one hour could peel away a century of colonial thought, and pay tribute to those on the other side. He does not need to justify past actions and perpetuate our past role. He can say, this is all true, the good and the bad, and we can carry on from here. He recognizes the assault on the dignity of the Palestinians by the occupation, while retaining a friendship for Israel.
Let's hope we and the world are able to take advantage of this man.