I just finished listening to the amazing speech of Barack Obama on healing the divisions between America and Islam.
As someone who has lived in the West Bank and Gaza, and for that matter in rural USA I know of those divisions. As someone who has studied philosophy, I know the power of words. Change begins by talking and speaking new ideas. The is no where else in the world where words of peace and oneness need to be spoken. Today, Obama has sent out compelling new ideas with words and by his very presence.
Just by talking in Cairo, at the heart of the Muslim world, a message was made. By quoting from both the Koran and to the Bible a message was made. Canadian philosopher Marshall McCluan writes: “The Medium is the message.”
Blogger Arsalan Iftikhar writes: “From beginning to end, President Obama’s speech was a concert of enlightenment compared to President George W. Bush’s famous farewell news conference in the Muslim world (which resulted in two Iraqi size-10 shoes being boomeranged toward his head).”
Obama’s theme that trully excites me is his emphasis on the interconnectedness of not just Americans and Muslims but of all countries and people in the 21st century. Now this is important.
“Recongnizing our common humanity is the beginning of our task.”
“If we understand that the challenges we face are shared and that the failure to meet them will hurt us all. “
“The interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.”
“For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations,” he said. “When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. And when innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings.”
Noting that there are people criticizing the speech around the web, I gladly blog about this and echo my enthusiasm and accord for the ideas, words, and momentum that now build behind this grand gesture of peace and oneness.
Someone who was at the talk wrote: “President Obama’s charisma is unquestionable, but it’s the substance and depth of his speech that made the hall roar.”
