Web Letters: What Obama Means to the World

By Gary Younge

This article appeared in the February 2, 2009 edition of The Nation.

January 15, 2009

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As a black man and American citizen, I have an uneasy feeling about this political time in our history. I have never ever been accused of being a conspiracy theorist, but I truly do believe that the economic destruction that the American economy underwent in September 2008 was calculated. There is an anti-capitalist sentiment that has always existed in this country. Capitalism is the most freeing economic system in the world. It allows for "individuals" to live free lives unencumbered by government. An economic system that allows individuals to succeed or fail based on their own ambition. Where else can you have a Bill Gates and a Jay Z? The crash of the free marketplace allows this liberal government to step in under the credo of socialism--"out of chaos we seize our opportunity."

I see the federal government becoming more prominent than it should, more prominent than is healthy to individual rights. There are still many Mussolini-style thinkers that believe that the government should be all and dictate all to all. I am not one. I see the future where the federal government will be the nation's employer. We will all work for the government, which will control the economy. There will be no business competition because the government will control business and the markets. Who would be able to compete, or better yet who would be allowed? Incidentally, I don't hear anything in the news about the NAU. The NAU constitutes the end of the United States, as "we" know it. It would mean the end of America as a sovereign nation. It would make us one with Canada and Mexico. It's projected to come together by 2020. I "hope" I'm wrong, because I really love this country.

Brian Peters

Newington, CT
01/19/2009 @ 10:28pm
I don't think anyone in America would ask you where you are from. Despite our checkered past, it would be assumed, until you spoke, that you are American by birth. I was stationed in England during the late fifties, and any black face you saw at that time was probably an American airman. They had no trouble dating British girls. For Europeans, different racial backgrounds in their home country is a relatively new experience. and it may be some time before they stop asking you silly questions. However, silly questions are better than the long climb to the top by African-Americans. I must confess to being a big fan of Martin Luther King. Coming from the South myself, I can fully appreciate his courage.

I would like to see Obama be a success, but his economic advisers are part of the problem and not a solution. The Ivy League is overrated.

Pervis James Casey

Riverside, CA
01/17/2009 @ 2:43pm

Web Letters: What Obama Means to the World

By Gary Younge

January 15, 2009

Newington, CT

Riverside, CA

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