We Need a President of America, Not a Policeman of The World

By Abdul-Majeed Azad

The well-choreographed apology of Senator John McCain in Memphis for voting against the Federal MLK holiday, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Dr. MLK's assassination sounded hollow, was too little, came too late and reeked of near-nauseating hypocrisy.

In stark contrast to Dr. King's stand to raise awareness and seek justice on behalf of the down-there-at-the-bottom-of-the-human-rung garbage workers, one cannot but simply reject the poignantly out of place platform of Senator McCain whose only offer to war-weary America is his unwavering resolve to haughtily follow the perilous path of continued hegemony in foreign lands, no matter what.

We are yet to hear him talk about the widening cultural, social and economical divide between the Whites and the Blacks. Perhaps that's what happens when you are obsessed all your life only with the 'Yellow Viets', 'Islamic terrorists' and 'Jihadists', have made Iraq the center as well as the top, bottom and rear piece of your presidential campaign, and, gauge your success by the 'surge'!

What is more pathetic is that come November 4, more than 50% of the country will blindly buy into the flimsy and protracted but carefully crafted fear syndrome and line up loyally behind a man, who undoubtedly would make an excellent Commander-in-Chief. But the question that we as the American citizens should be asking is: would he also make a good president?

In 2009 we need a president who will NOT appoint himself as the chief policeman of the world, a president who would NOT be globe-trotting under the pretext of nation-building elsewhere when his own country is fracturing everyday under the crux of economic downturn, healthcare breakdown, acute social inequality and racially-motivated injustice. A president who would be bold enough to emphatically say NO to the future Bear Stearns, a president who will NOT short sell the struggling homeowners over the mighty mortgage banks and home builders and, a president who will NOT become the tacit mouthpiece of hate-mongering Hagees and Parsleys.