The Content of His Character

December 1, 2008

by Larry Sakin

It hadn’t hit me until I saw it in a comment to a recent article. “I never believed we could elect a black man president in my lifetime” wrote the commentator. From this I derived that she felt that now, in America, almost anything could be accomplished. Then a couple of days ago, I read in the Harper’s Index that Jesse Jackson believes not only that the election of a black American history making, but that a whole new chapter to the Bible could be added to chronicle the event.

Perhaps I’m missing the point here, but it seems to me that focusing on President-elect Barack Obama’s race is kind of an insult to the idea Dr. Martin Luther King set forth in his “I Have A Dream” speech; in which he envisioned a day when his four children “were not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

From my vantage point, it’s difficult to say exactly what the content of Obama’s character is right now. No doubt he has many challenges coming his way after he takes the oath of office and how he handles those challenges will inform us all of his mettle. Of course, I hope that Obama can change things in our country and the world for the better. Considering his choices for cabinet and staff so far, it doesn’t look as if the kind of change Obama spoke of during the campaign will actually happen. If I’m wrong, I’ll happily support him for a second term. Not because he’s black but because he is doing the job he said he would.

I wonder: If Obama turns out to be a worse president than George W. Bush, will anyone think he is a better president just because he is black? From this standpoint, it seems to me that celebrating the election of the first black president as ‘historic’ may actually be a little sad. Until all of us can look past skin color, either positively or negatively, we won’t truly have achieved something historic.

Maybe the celebrants are just trying to enjoy the moment a little longer than is necessary. The defeat of a political mainstay like John McCain is pretty overwhelming, considering Obama’s lack of experience in either domestic or foreign policy. Throwing out the old guard and bringing in the new is a common theme in American elections, even though the electorate grows frustrated quickly if their needs aren’t met right away by the new administration. This will be one of the tricky rivers Obama will need to navigate as president and it’s unlikely his heritage will be advantageous to him in this area.

So as we consider the next president, perhaps we need to look deeper, attempt to mine his soul to understand what kind of leader he will be and how he will deal with some of the more treacherous aspects of the political world. How will he define his relationship with Congress? What will he do if the Russians retaliate against being surrounded by NATO forces? And how will he be able to quell the rise of Islamic fundamentalism throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan? Can we all rely on his race for these answers? Can he?

So on January 21, 2009, let’s stop celebrating Barack Obama as the first black president, and start peering into the content of his character as just another president. If he is a man of integrity, true to himself and others, we will know his dealings will be fair, disciplined, and our country will benefit as a result.

But if he is a man without integrity, simply interested in promoting an agenda that profits the few, and lessens his brothers in this nation and others, he will not be the person of character Dr. King so fervently dreamed of, and his racial background will become all but moot.

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Written by Larry Sakin · Filed Under A Moment of Clarity

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Letter to the Editor: Good Cars need Good Teams - by R. A. Letcher, PhD

Good cars need good teams -- designers, engineers, line workers… and learning-oriented managers by Robert A. Letcher, PhD [Author’s note: I submitted the following as a letter to the editor of The New York Times, after that paper carried an article under the headline, "To Fix Detroit, Obama Is Said to Drop Plan for ‘Car Czar’", 02/15/2009.] It is widely accepted that you can't win a horse race without a good horse. Of course, it helps to have a lot of money and a good plan for spending it. But, you still need a good horse. The authors reminded me of this when they wrote: “The companies’ plans are required to show progress in cutting long-term costs as a condition for keeping their loans.” I doubt GM and Chrysler can win this most important "automobile race" merely by having better accountants and more muscular negotiators: they still need a good "horse". That means the companies will have to show that their teams can still design and build cars that people are drawn to buy and willing to pay for: winners. I doubt they can. The problem isn't that they didn't know how to; it's that they don't know how to break out of the group-think that ensnarled them, their managers, their whole organizations, decades ago. I would be more optimistic, had the government also required the companies to include plans for transforming themselves into learning organizations. Aye, there’s the rub: learning entails risk-taking, not “yes people”.
Bob's Bail Out Plan by bobl-tlm
Fiscal Therapy - Getting the economy back on its feet, giving taxpayers a break, saving your retirement fund and your kid's college tuition? Done. And it won't cost you a penny.

For years now, whenever I've been invited to lecture students on how our tax system works, I have asked a simple question: What is the purpose of the United States of America? The most common answer, be it at prestigious universities, elite prep schools, rural community colleges, or crowded urban high schools, is this: To make people rich. This should come as no great surprise. For anyone born after, say, 1970, the world has been shaped by Ronald Reagan's remaking of government's relationship with private interests—a vision of lower taxes, less regulation, and maximum economic leeway for those at the top. In this view, the pursuit of wealth is the warp and weft of America; everything else will follow. By contrast, the preamble to the Constitution tells us the nation's reason for being in 52 words that can be reduced to six principles: society, justice, peace, security, commonwealth, and freedom. Individual riches don't make the list. They are a product of American society, not its guiding purpose. Progress, then, must begin with a return to the best of the values that created this Second American Republic—one born, it's worth remembering, from the failure of the Articles of Confederation, whose principles (weak government, unfettered capitalism) found their resurrection in the economic policies of the past three decades.
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