SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY

For the first time since the creation of the world, the sun rose on the United States of America at night. That was the triumphant night of Nov. 4, when despite the desperate prayers of flocks of evangelical Christians, God made Barack Hussein Obama, a black man, the 44th president of this benighted country. Eight years ago, an election was stolen by the most malignant, malevolent, evil gang of terrorists and thugs ever to hijack a country. With all the accoutrements of technology and under the cover of fundamentalism, they robbed us of our rights under the Constitution, and they robbed thousands of young people of their lives. With Orwellian propaganda, they convinced the unthinking populace that to be patriotic, you had to kill people and to wear flag emblems. Any intelligent person knows you don't have to wave a flag to prove your love of country-indeed you must distrust anyone who claims to be a patriot as you would distrust a man who wears an "I love my wife" sign. Obama is on a road strewn with death, decay and destruction-a seemingly impassible road with booby-traps set to blow up the unwary. Expectations are high that this 47-year-old will be able to rebuild and restore our country to the vision we all have for it. A short poem by Yeats, paraphrased, is applicable to our situation: A man came down the road and saw a man breaking stones Ireland will get her freedom, he said, but you will go on breaking stones That means that despite high hopes and the cheers, our lives will not change that much. The minimum-wage worker will go on breaking stones. The idiotic yap about being the best country in the world will not stop. When was the last time you saw a sign that read "God bless South Korea"? You see, God has to be careful the blessing does not leak over the border into North Korea, just as he has to be sure his blessing on America does not accidentally get over the wall into Mexico or snuck into Canada. Anyway, Obama will have his work cut out for him. First he will have to fumigate the White House. He will have to tear down the walls that they built to keep us from contact with other human beings. The only wall that needs rebuilding is the one between church and state. Teach the people that all humans are created equal, no matter the disability: be they sightless, legless, deaf, afflicted with conservatism or victims of poverty. Obama must restore the beacon of light that was the U.S.A., the one that destroyed the tyranny of kings, popes and dictators so that hope and trust will flourish again. Tell God, "Don't bother us. Go and bless those who need it." Check my website [malachymccourt.com] and read Malachy McCourt's History of Ireland.