This Wednesday, November 14th, Barack Obama was greeted by over 5,000 people from around the Bay Area in San Francisco. Some 20 Lick students attended, as part of an even scheduled by the Social Justice Club. Though I could not make it, the Sacramento Bee wrote that Obama issued a “passionate call to end the war in Iraq, stop U.S. practice of torture and advance racial equality and gay rights in America,” which was received with “thunderous cheers.” For the full article, please click here.
I was also told by a student who attended on Wednesday that Obama also spoke fervently about stopping the genocide in Darfur. Immediately, I went to his website, BarackObama.com, to learn more about his plans and stance on this issue, as well as the rest of his plans for presidency. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the number one issue on his list is “Strengthening America Overseas,” and rebuilding America as a transparent and tolerant diplomatic government in foreign affairs. Along with ending the conflict in Congo and stopping nuclear terrorism, “stopping the genocide in Darfur” is also high on this list.
Quoting from BarackObama.com, “Senator Obama has been a leading voice in Washington urging the end of genocide in Sudan. He worked with Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) on the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, a version of which was signed into law. Senator Obama has traveled to the United Nations to meet with Sudanese officials and visited refugee camps on the Chad-Sudan border to raise international awareness of the ongoing humanitarian disaster there. He also worked with Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) to secure $20 million for the African Union peacekeeping mission.
‘Two senators from opposite sides of the aisle have joined together to call for increased U.S. involvement in Darfur. They are Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, and Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois.’-Gwen Ifill, Newshour with Jim Lehrer, PBS, February 16, 2006”
This is especially good news for those who continue to be in peril in Darfur as well as for the awareness of fellow Americans. However, as we know, the situation is extremely complex and protected, therefore it would be an ambitious task for any President to tackle.
One point that many other those opposed to Obama claim that though he presents ample “solutions” for some important issues such as Iraq, healthcare, and the environment, with no substantial amount of experience, it leaves room for doubt and mistakes, especially in a period in American history where mistakes and bad decisions are the last thing that our country needs. Some also say that Obama, in his campaign and speeches across the country, has spent too much time criticizing Bush and other candidates, and not quite enough explaining in more detail how he will accomplish all that he promises as president.
Therefore, I invite you to visit these sites, and read over some of the other platforms that other candidates are using in their campaigns for the 2008 elections. Afterwards, use this space as a forum, discussion or debate on your stance on the election, and in particular, what this election could mean for Darfur and other foreign issues that we have been discussing in this class.
And for those of you who did have the opportunity to see Obama this Wednesday, please share your experience as well.
5 comments:
I went to see Obama speak on Wednesday and this was the first time I'd ever been to one of these political rallies. It was fun and energizing and I encourage anyone who hasn't gone to one to attend.
When Obama finally came on stage, nearly two and a half hours after the doors opened, there was a lot of cheering and energy from the audience. Before going, I thought I was going to hear Obama speak on certain issues and what he was going to do to solve them. But in fact, he only listed the problems without giving any concrete solutions. Throughout his whole speech, Obama attacked President Bush many times. I think this is effective (seeing that almost everyone at this campaign is a democrat), but I felt it was too excessive. Instead of informing the public about Bush's mishaps, he should have focused more on his own plans. Obama made statements such as “I will ensure that every single American has quality health care.” While these assertions inspired much cheering and support from the 7,000 people that attended, I didn't feel like he was giving me a reason why I should vote for him in 2008. Maybe the point of these rallies is just to get people excited, but for the people who don't know how he going to improve healthcare in America, this didn't really help. But again, maybe I expected too much. I know that during the debates which are usually televised, candidates are asked to address issues and how they intend to solve such problems, so maybe he was saving this kind of talk for the debate he participated in on Thursday in Las Vegas. I watched some of this too and was more satisfied then.
Did any of you who also attened feel the same way as me?
Overall, this was a really good experience and I'm glad I attended.
to answer Aileens question on rallies, usually they are just for recruitment and excitment, hoping that the face time will win votes.
On Ting's question about the presidential race and Darfur, I feel that Darfur is being used as a rallying point by all candidates, each of them promising some sort of action or support for the refugees. (Obama promises action on his website). However horrible the genocide is, I hope the eventual winner is much more concerned with Iraq and internal affairs the sudanese genocide. These two issues are of much more importance to the U.S. people than the genocide, as american lives are directly impacted. Although it might be "in vogue" to stop the genocide in sudan, I would vote (if I could) for the candidate focused on Iraq first and America's internal woes second.
I too went to see Obama at the Civic Center but I had a different reaction to the event. I was really really scared. Maybe I've been learning through too many films in class, but I thought that fact that there were so many people gathered to see and cheer for this one person who they want to lead their country was very intimidating.
I'm definitely not comparing Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler, but when I went to the rally, I felt like I understood what it was like to feel so small and powerless when the rest of the crowd is so feverently in support of a new leader to right the wrongs of the previous political powers.
I went to see Obama speak as well and I thought it was really interesting to see first-hand, but I also know that it was a pretty insignificant speech and event. It was more to get people excited and to campaign for support in an area he already knows he has a large fan base, so there was not a lot of really heavy discussion or intense detailing of his policies.
I would highly recommend for people to watch the debates to find out more about the how and why of each candidates policies. The recent democratic debate on CNN was last Thursday, and while it's 110 minutes, I would highly recommend watching it, among all the other debates. (On Nytimes.com they're interactive!)
Here's the link to last Thursday\'s Democratic Debate
and here's the link for
Oct 21 Republican Debate
Also the Youtube debates are really cool because people submit videos to ask the candidates. The Democratic one already happened and you can find that online, and the Republican one is coming up soon.
I have a major qualm about the U.S. physically going in to stop the genocide in Darfur that maybe someone can resolve: What would stop it from becoming another Iraq with no end in sight?
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