Driving my car to the city centre, while the sun is rising and the morning-dew is still lingering on the vineyards on the mountain slopes. The gorgeous almost idyllic sight is not the only thing that makes me feel good. I am listening to the radio, I hear the news that Barack Obama has won the elections. A historic moment, which I definitively welcome with a big sigh of relief.
Why is this event, for a culture-person as I am, of any significance? It's not just thinking of being a global cosmopolitan world citizen. There's a bit more to it:
First of all, it is the awe, to witness that a nation, which has known segregation still back in the 1960s (remember reverend Martin Luther King?) has had the courage to vote en masse for a coloured politician to become its president. This fact should definitively not be overlooked. While Hillary Clinton, as women-politician, was not able to make it to receive her nomination as persidential candidate, Barack Obama made it to the very end. And I must admit, fearing that perhaps old prejudices or political apathy would prevail at th every last moment during the elections, I was a bit surprised. The bottom line was; the people want change. It was still a change against a failing republican Bush administration, but a change that overcame those very prejudices and apathy to vote. This was not "too close to call" as in the unfortunate and dubious election results of 2000, this was a massive landslide victory!
Why it made my day, this very morning while driving to town? Well, although America has lost its glamour for me a long time ago, it still maintains a considerable influence in world happenings. And many do see it as an example. Going back into history, the pride of this nation lies concentrated in its Declaration of Independence. How unique it may seem, it was a rough copy of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands, who declared itself separated in 1581 from the tirannical rule of their Spanish monarch Philips II. The conclusion was, that if a ruler abused his power, the people were having the right (if not being their duty) to leave his rule. And thus it happened in 1776 as well, as the American colonies severed all political ties from the British motherland. And the patriotic Americans recite this Declaration of Independence by heart ... with pride.
You might ask yourself by now: what is he talking about on this culture blog, so back to my business: as cultural institutions sigh and moan under the hanging sword of Damocles - because of governments not wanting to support, and many feel the threat of being abolished - why staying then so passive? We have a job, if not a profession (in an art gallery, orchestra, museum,...) and it is a contribution to the society as a whole. If we feel that we're not able to breathe any longer because of dried-up funding, why not get out of the lamenting-mood and vigorously lobby to convince politics of our right to exist? After all, it is our money they subsist on. We elected them, we pay them. If we want a change, then we have the right to say so. It is us that are the initiators of change, and perhaps not the politicians after all.
MS
Why is this event, for a culture-person as I am, of any significance? It's not just thinking of being a global cosmopolitan world citizen. There's a bit more to it:
First of all, it is the awe, to witness that a nation, which has known segregation still back in the 1960s (remember reverend Martin Luther King?) has had the courage to vote en masse for a coloured politician to become its president. This fact should definitively not be overlooked. While Hillary Clinton, as women-politician, was not able to make it to receive her nomination as persidential candidate, Barack Obama made it to the very end. And I must admit, fearing that perhaps old prejudices or political apathy would prevail at th every last moment during the elections, I was a bit surprised. The bottom line was; the people want change. It was still a change against a failing republican Bush administration, but a change that overcame those very prejudices and apathy to vote. This was not "too close to call" as in the unfortunate and dubious election results of 2000, this was a massive landslide victory!
Why it made my day, this very morning while driving to town? Well, although America has lost its glamour for me a long time ago, it still maintains a considerable influence in world happenings. And many do see it as an example. Going back into history, the pride of this nation lies concentrated in its Declaration of Independence. How unique it may seem, it was a rough copy of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands, who declared itself separated in 1581 from the tirannical rule of their Spanish monarch Philips II. The conclusion was, that if a ruler abused his power, the people were having the right (if not being their duty) to leave his rule. And thus it happened in 1776 as well, as the American colonies severed all political ties from the British motherland. And the patriotic Americans recite this Declaration of Independence by heart ... with pride.
You might ask yourself by now: what is he talking about on this culture blog, so back to my business: as cultural institutions sigh and moan under the hanging sword of Damocles - because of governments not wanting to support, and many feel the threat of being abolished - why staying then so passive? We have a job, if not a profession (in an art gallery, orchestra, museum,...) and it is a contribution to the society as a whole. If we feel that we're not able to breathe any longer because of dried-up funding, why not get out of the lamenting-mood and vigorously lobby to convince politics of our right to exist? After all, it is our money they subsist on. We elected them, we pay them. If we want a change, then we have the right to say so. It is us that are the initiators of change, and perhaps not the politicians after all.
MS
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