Ronald Reagan, in a speech long ago, referred to the United States as the shining city on a hill, a beacon of freedom and democracy that shone so brightly over the rest of the world. That was back in the late '80s, when communism and totalitarian regimes were collapsing and it truly seemed that the power of democracy (and capitalism) was triumphing.
Fast forward to the present.
Our country has been engaged in a war for 7 years, the result of the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive invasion. It is a mis-directed war, as the terrorists responsible for 9/11 remain at large in another country. Further, that war and our aggressive militant, attitudes have fostered and nourished a vibrant anti-American sentiment across the globe.
Moreover, we hold thousands of enemy prisoners in makeshift prisons around the world. In blatant disregard of the Geneva Convention, the Bush administration has advocated and authorized their torture, placing our own soldiers in greater jeopardy where ever they patrol today.
We have ignored the Kyoto Protocol aimed at controlling greenhouse gas emissions and censored our own scientists when they have reported on the reality of climate change and man's role in enhancing it.
We have dallied about Darfur, largely abandoned the front in Afghanistan.
We no longer hold the moral high ground. Reagan's city is dark and neglected. That shining beacon he spoke of has been dimmed by nearly 8 years of cavalier decisions and bad judgments.
Whether you are Republican or Democrat or Independent, can you consider these past 8 years a success in any way? We arrive at this time and place burdened, shouldering a staggering debt – of money owed, of trade imbalances, of environmental degradation, of dead and wounded soldiers.
But there is one candidate, who, by his election alone, would send a clarion signal to the rest of the world, that times have changed, that the course of this great ship of democracy has been muscled to a new path. Can you imagine – in the plains of South America, the high hills of the Himalayas, the streets of eastern Europe, the savannah of Africa, the sands of the Mideast and in each and every corner and overlooked place in this world – can you imagine what message it would send to the people in all of those places, if a black man by the name of Barack Obama was elected president?
I can.
I imagine a beacon lit once again.
I picture a bright shining city on a hill – and men and women and children throughout the world once again looking to this city – with hope in the place of hate.
I see the future.
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