I've recently been fortunate to make a brief visit to the US. San Francisco in fact. Again. It's always exciting to visit the states of course, particularly there. Home of so much of our culture from films to music to literature. I ate a burger in the diner where "American Graffitti" was shot, and was more excited than almost anywhere else I can remember eating.
But at the same time it always depresses me immensely though. America can be so horribly heartless and miserly which I always find sadly ironic for a country which attempted to institutionalise love for one's fellow man at the core of its constitution.
Every visit I see something that makes me angry about the way the poor and unfortunate are alienated and maligned in the world's richest country. On this occasion it was the dual issues of Healthcare and tax reform. In short, the Republicans were successfully fighting to preserve George Bush's regressive tax cuts for the rich of 2000; while at the same time Failed Presidential Candidate Sen Huckabee was running a massive campaign to repeal Obama's healthcare reform, which I consider to be one of the most progressive pieces of reform in a generation.
I am completely dumbfounded why so many people there can be so selfish and cruel in the way they exclude so many other people from the wealth and success the nation has enjoyed for so long. However I was tremendously heartened by an event I was lucky enough to attend during this visit (courtesy of the Salesforce Foundation.)
While at times a little corny, cliched and even cringe-worthy, Stevie Wonder's words were very moving as he sought to remind a 15,000-strong audience in The Moscone Centre of the following:
"I am grateful for the gift of being blind as it allows me to see the world without colour," he said. "Pain is the same no matter what colour we are. There are far more similarities [between us] than not. We need to get beyond our differences. We cannot allow negativity to come between us...we have to move forward...every single one of us has value."
His words put me in mind of Martin Luther King, some of which are in fact inscribed on a monument to the great man not a stone's throw from where Stevie spoke. It also put me in mind of JFK's important words, "our most basic common link is that we inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's future, and we all mortal."
However, the words that gave me even greater hope and optimism were said by the esteemed speaker who followed him. Amusingly he opened his speech with, "after a lifetime as a mediocre musician, I never thought Stevie Wonder would open for me!"
I always think that in my lifetime it was Bill Clinton's term of office that offered the most hope, not only for America, but for humanity. During his reign the world seemed to be on the up. The past seemed just that, passed. His term saw unprecedented peace in the world, witnessed the explosion of technologies that have revolutionized the way we live, and saw great reform and progression.
Railing passionately against inequality, former President Bill Clinton also reprised JFK's vision, this time that of a rising tide that lifted all boats, not just some. He talked about how the banking and finance sector had enough money in its reserves to pull the nation out of recession and improve life for those that are suffering from record unemployment, property repossessions and poverty - but instead go cap in hand to the government, which in turn was forced to bail them out at the expense of programs that could help those same poor and needy. He spoke also of healthcare, of education and if course climate change and how very meekly the US stacked up against so many other countries' efforts to to tackle them.
He spoke for a good 90 minutes, both in a speech and then in Q and A. (With Stevie's segment, I was in the hall for a total of two and a half hours. I stood for almost all of it. I was happy to.) He said many things that were inspiring, enlightening and moving. While Mr Wonder had very poetic and I guess Wonderful things to say, it was Mr Clinton who actually drew a picture of how things should be:
"We've got to be in the business of tomorrow," he said towards the end. When asked what "tomorrowland" would look like he said that it would be a place of community, diversity and fiscal equality, and with a sensible attitude to immigration.
I liked the sound of it. I wondered if I would ever be able to visit that America instead. And I wondered (pardon the pun) if the delegates at Congress could begin to vote in reforms that would start to move towards tomorrowland instead of busily denying the disadvantaged any of the advantages they desperately seek.
Or at the very least perhaps they could repeal the law passed after Roosevelt limiting presidents to only two terms, because I can tell you, that hall in San Francisco was on its feet clapping and cheering for the longest time!