"We will support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year’s summit with a global plan to make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time.”
These are words that President Obama spoke at the United Nations last month. They inspired Bono to write an op-ed in last Saturday's NYTimes:
"these 36 words are why I believe Mr. Obama could well be a force for peace and prosperity — if the words signal action. "
Bono's insight into our culture is interesting as he cites our fatigue and malaise with the recession and wars. Interesting, the opinion that American can no longer afford to "pay" for the rest of the world, and"our bucks stop here" was voiced by Alec Baldwin on the Bill Mahr show last Friday. I'm amazed how artists are often first to give voice to a growing sentiment. Sometimes, their thoughts and art seem prescient.
Bono goes on to write that America needs to be rebranded, and that he believes Obama and the people who he has surrounded himself are trying to do just that.
"But an America that’s tired of being the world’s policeman, and is too pinched to be the world’s philanthropist, could still be the world’s partner. And you can’t do that without being, well, loved. Here come the letters to the editor, but let me just say it: Americans are like singers — we just a little bit, kind of like to be loved. The British want to be admired; the Russians, feared; the French, envied. (The Irish, we just want to be listened to.) But the idea of America, from the very start, was supposed to be contagious enough to sweep up and enthrall the world. And it is. The world wants to believe in America again because the world needs to believe in America again. We need your ideas — your idea — at a time when the rest of the world is running out of them."
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