Can We Try Peace For A Day… Just For A Day? Find A Common Cause? It Hurts So Much Less Than Anger And Backstabbing

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi gives a big thumbs-up as he drapes his arms around President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

Notice not only Berlusconi’s big grin, but the American and Russian presidents joking around together. Earlier in the week, the former Cold War adversaries agreed to a continue reducing their nuclear arsenals.

G20 leaders below: Saudi King  Abdullah Bin Abdel Aziz, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Thai Prime Minister and chair of the Association of  Southeast Asian Nations Abhisit Vejjajiva, U.S. President Barack Obama, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and New Partnership for Africa’s Development Meles Zenawi.

The world likes him, America. Why can’t we? Can we try, just for a bit, to stop listening to hyped up propaganda and consider that maybe… just maybe… Barack Obama is a good man who honestly has the best intentions for this country at heart? A idealistic man who has found the hard way that sitting in the middle trying to please both sides can not work in a country as divided as we have become. A country so divided that we have lost sight of common goals and the betterment of all. A country divided, not by real hard facts, but by websites and posters calling the black president so many are now terrified of a communist… socialist… Muslim… or the Antichrist.

And before this goes any further, what makes so many Americans think that Muslims are inherently evil? Why has this term so effectively been used against our dark skinned leader? Does no one see how badly the government scare tactics of the past decade have backfired?

We have become a nation in fear. It started long before Barack Obama. Yet it is so easy to blame it on our first president of color. Too easy.

Denial. Self delusion. Look up those terms, Americans. Because all that too many of us are missing… is the white robe and pointy white mask.

Change is always hard. And Obama has certainly brought change with him from day one. From the color of his skin to health care reform to major institutional and educational overhauls… this man has brought change.

But he is just that. A man. Like any of us. A man standing his own against a country in turmoil and doing so with outward confidence and grace. How many of us ‘mere people’ could do better with the world in the state it is in?

One has to wonder how many sleepless nights our leader endures. Yet day after day he trudges on without complaint of the personal attacks against his character and/or self.

Can we try for peace amongst ourselves? Can we try it for our future? For our children. For our own peace of mind? Surely it’s a better option than the personal and political health concerns that come with hatred, stress and the revolution this country is heading toward like a freight train at this very moment.

We are Americans. Stop now and smile with the remembered pride that comes with that claim and all it took to get us here. Americans. The power of that word alone should be enough to make us stop in our tracks and remember who we are, where we’ve come from and just exactly what we stand for.

In the words of John Lennen… give peace a chance. It doesn’t hurt. Really.