Last week, on our way to the Inauguration, the American customs officer asked Natasha and I why we were traveling to the U.S. He seemed a bit puzzled when we told him. “You’re Canadians. Why are you interested in it? I mean, I know why we’re interested, but why are you?”
His question caught me by surprise. I had to think a bit before lamely coming up with something about how it was an inspiring moment in world history. Natasha was more to the point: she wanted to see the back of Bush.
The guard wasn’t the first person to ask us that question. When a clerk at an Inauguration-souvenir store a few blocks from the Capitol hit us with the same question, I fell back on platitudes, despite having had several hours to come up with a decent answer to an obvious question.
This question bugged me for the rest of the trip. At first, I didn't have a good answer to why we'd dropped a couple thousand dollars on airfare, hotel rooms and souvenirs (so many buttons!) to stand in the cold and witness, via Jumbotron, the inauguration of the 44th American President? There's the whole Bush-is-gone thing but it’s not like we’d worked on Obama's campaign or anything.
I don't think it was a case of celebrity worship: we watch the Oscars to see who won, not who’s wearing what. I also don't think it was simply a matter of wanting to watch History Being Made. The Inauguration, as stirring as it was, wasn’t the world’s victory party; it was an American moment. Talking with Americans during the Inaugural celebrations, it became obvious to me that although everyone in the world understands that Obama’s inauguration is Important, non-Americans really can’t get just how much a President Obama means to so many Americans.
After the Inauguration, we chatted with an African-American woman from South Carolina. As a student, she had lived through the integration of the schools. On top of the black-white tensions, the texts in black schools were several years behind those of white schools. While the smart students did fine in their new schools, others weren’t able to keep up. She, and so many others, could hardly believe that this day had come.
Tom, a UPS worker from New Jersey, white, who we met during the festivities, told us that he’d previously been to Washington twice: in 1963, where he witnessed King’s “I Have a Dream” speech; and in 1968, when he had been “detained” while protesting the Vietnam War.
These stories were humbling to listen to and gave us, as outsiders, a brief glimpse of the massive social forces Americans have overcome. You can’t help but admire the millions of Americans who worked to make this day possible, on the campaign trail and during the preceding years of struggle. This was their day: a chance to celebrate how far they’d come, even if they still have far to go.
Theirs, and Obama’s, stories are intensely American, reflecting the possibility of renewal inherent in the idea of the United States, an idea realized not just in Obama’s presidency, but, more importantly, in the grassroots campaign that got him elected.
But it’s not a uniquely American story, or it need not be.
Which brings me, in an incredibly roundabout, overthought way, to why we went to Washington.
I think part of the reason that I became so invested in Obama’s campaign was because I wanted to witness the triumph, if just this once, of millions of anonymous citizens working to elect a worthy man with honourable priorities. To see what it’s like when people come together in support of a good cause, to change their society for the better.
And then to bring this American spirit of optimism back to Canada.
Canada has been very lucky in its history. While we have never produced an Obama, neither have we had to: with the exception of Canada’s ongoing inexcusable treatment of the First Nations peoples, no original sin blots Canada’s soul as slavery does the Americans’.
Still, we have many challenges to overcome. The stillbirth of our last Parliament demonstrated that we are no longer served well by our current leaders or our outdated system of government. Our Parliament is listing toward a fully realized “friendly dictatorship,” demonstrated by the Prime Minister’s success at suspending Parliament, with the acquiescence of a figurehead Governor General who has yet to justify her actions to Canadians.
Our leaders have yet to come to grips with the seismic changes that will continue to rock our economy, to say nothing of the reality of climate change. Despite the current absence of a national-unity crisis, the country seems held together more by inertia than any positive sense of we-feeling.
For me, the hope inherent in Obama’s victory is not that everything will be fine with the right leader. It’s that if millions of Americans can work together to overcome hundreds of years of racism and slavery, surely we can create a more just, prosperous and representative Canada.
There’s a lot to do, and if Canada is to deal with these crises – if Canada is to change for the better – much of the burden is going to fall on ordinary Canadians becoming involved in the life of their city, their province and their country.
For Americans, Obama’s election was, at the very least, a giant downpayment on King’s dream. For this Canadian, it's more like a starter’s pistol at the beginning of a marathon: there’s a long way to go, and it’s time to get started.
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