[I slightly altered the following piece written a little while previously in honour of a true hero of all of ours, and so here I humbly place it before whoever’s eyes and minds it may encounter.]
Barack Obama has a new book coming out called The Bootcamp Years. Oh no sorry, a quick look reveals its actual title is A Promised Land. The mix-up was both understandable and excusable. Other titles of his I see include, upon this quick fact check, Dreams From My Father, The Audacity of Hope and of course Of Thee I Sing - A Letter to My Daughters. There is also Be Vigilant But Not Afraid.
What an arsehole. Has he no shame? “No, no! It’s so beautiful!” Yes, yes, the fault I see is mine. It’s just so unusual, so unexpected to meet with such unashamed, unironical and remorseless integrity of spirit, this vision of virtue in human motion - and so, all in all, I lacked the purity within to accept such purity without. You may criticise me but you may not judge me. Anyway, arising from my shame and contrition, I will try to work some of his inspiration into future conversations. It’s the least I can do.
“Blah, blah, blah, blah...”(in lieu of imaginary words)
“Yes, we must be vigilant but not afraid.”
“Oh my God, you’re so right! You have infused within me the audacity of hope!”
“Yes, and with this audacity we may some blessed day reach the promised land!”
“Yes, yes! And in this future bliss, with dreams of our fathers playing in our minds, we will write letters to our daughters of how all this came to pass!”
Unfortunately, as you’ll have noticed, even when under the exalting influence of Obama’s own words and many hours of meditation, I was still unable to ascend my spirit to the sufficient pitch to be able to plausibly work in the ‘Of thee I sing’ bit. And just to say that while, for some odd reason I can’t quite put my finger on, I haven’t read any of Obama’s output - maybe an aversion to literary vomit - if I was to begin with one of them, then, yes, it probably would be hard to look beyond Of Thee I Sing - A Letter to My Daughters. I’m actually getting emotional even just thinking of reading it - and I don’t easily get emotional.
And remember, if you ever have any niggling and unusual doubts as to the merits of Obama, this is the man of whom no less an authority than Joe Biden said back in 2007 was “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean.” I see by the way the current version of Biden is claiming that the biggest threat to the US is white supremacism. Have you any idea where we might find some of these white supremacists, Joe?
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