A new sheriff is coming to town

Ethiomedia | June 9, 2008

Watch out, petty dictators! A fierce wind of change is blowing across America. A new sheriff is coming to town. His name is Barack Obama. He does not carry a six-shooter. But he carries a law book. And he’s laying down the law for all the tin-pot dictators of the world: “Y’all better shape up, or Barack’s Posse will be right on your tail. That goes for the outlaw Meles Zenawi and his gang of murderers and bank robbers, too.”Well, that’s pretty much the word Barack put out on the street to warn all tin-pot dictators when he clinched the nomination for the Democratic Party last week:

Change is realizing that meeting today’s threats requires not just our firepower, but the power of our diplomacy – tough, direct diplomacy where the President of the United States isn’t afraid to let any petty dictator know where America stands and what we stand for. We must once again have the courage and conviction to lead the free world. That is the legacy of Roosevelt, and Truman, and Kennedy. That’s what the American people want. That’s what change is. (Emphasis added.)

Of course, the Meles Gang will have to “get the hell out of Dodge” before sundown if Barack becomes the next president of the United States. We believe, we pray, he will. Juts imagine, Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America.Petty Dictators: America Stands for the Ideals of Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights!

When Barack talks about “where and what America stands for”, he is talking about the American ideals of democracy, freedom and human rights guiding American foreign policy in a world menaced by a motley crew of nasty tin-pot dictators, petty tyrants and bloodthirsty thugs. In July, 2004, Barack said:

In every region of the globe, our foreign policy should promote traditional American ideals: democracy and human rights… It is our commonality of interests in the world that can ultimately restore our influence and win back the hearts and minds necessary to defeat terrorism and project American values around the globe.

In August, 2006, when Barack visited Kenya, he declared there can be no democracy and freedom where corrupt and degenerate African dictators destroy the lives of their people like the Bubonic plague:

Like many nations across this continent, where Kenya is failing is in its ability to create a government that is transparent and accountable one that serves its people and is free from corruption. The reason I speak of the freedom you fought so hard to win is because today that freedom is in jeopardy. It is being threatened by corruption…

In December, 2007, on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Barack said the “world needs renewed, principled U.S. leadership” that defends freedom, democracy and human rights.

The Universal Declaration was a radical document in its time… Although Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not live to see the enactment of the historic Declaration, it enshrined his “four freedoms”– freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from fear… The Declaration was born of the recognition… that “what is pain and humiliation for you is pain and humiliation for me… [F]or nearly seven years, President Bush has ignored Franklin Roosevelt’s wise counsel about the corrosive effects of fear… and the void left by our lack of moral leadership. The hundreds of thousands killed and two million displaced by the genocide in Darfur; the shell-shocked Buddhist monks in Burma; the political opposition in Zimbabwe; the imprisoned independent journalists in Russia; the brave human rights lawyers and judges in Pakistan – they do not know where to turn internationally… For all these reasons, the world needs renewed, principled U.S. leadership. (Emphasis added.) Let us add the people of Ethiopia to the list of those who “do not know where to turn to internationally.“

What is so wonderful about Barack is that he understands the seductive power of America’s founding principles and the timeless vitality of its sustaining documents. So when Barack says to the tin-pot dictators “our foreign policy should promote traditional American ideals,” he is drawing deep inspiration from the Declaration of Independence which in 1776 announced to a “candid world”:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”

He is telling all the tin pots that as president he will be guided by the spirit of the U.S. Constitution, liberty: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,… and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Barack wants two-bit dictators to know that he is impassioned by and is following in the footsteps of a fellow Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, who proclaimed in the Gettysburg Address: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” That’s what Barack is talking about. Liberty for all. Governments established by the consent of the people, not government by dictatorship. The protection of the God-given individual rights of life liberty and property, and not massive human rights violations. Equality and justice for all, not just for criminals, thugs and mercenaries.

Barack Obama Understands Our Pain and Humiliation

Barack Obama is talking our language. Barack supports H.R. 2003 and the principles in it. He has told us exactly how he feels: “What is pain and humiliation for you is pain and humiliation for me…” Barack is the one man who is uniquely situated to understand the profound suffering of the African people — the Ethiopian people — and empathize with their deepest hopes and yearnings for freedom. His vision for America is to use the great American ideals to conquer the hearts and minds of the people of the world, and not to build up and militarize vicious dictators to repress their citizens.

Tin-pot dictators and thugs, listen carefully. Read the writing on the wall. “Barack will stand against you as long as you keep slaughtering your people, jail your innocent citizens by the hundreds of thousands and starve the rest by the millions. Barack will turn you back when you come to America’s doorsteps panhandling for military aid so that you can declare war on your people, and destroy your neighbors. Barack will not listen to your BS about democracy while you mercilessly crush legitimate democratic opposition, destroy press freedoms, disregard the rule of law and flout international law. Barack will not be scammed by your foolish threats of imaginary terrorists just so you can trap America in a regional war. No brownie points for offering to fight a needless destructive war in the name of America.”

Let’s Spare No Effort to Get Barack Elected President

Last Tuesday, Barack said, “America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.” Well, Ethiopian Americans, this is our moment too. This is our time to turn the page on tin-pot dictators. This our time to secure a new direction for the country we love as well. We can do it with Barack’s help. Let’s give him whatever we can enthusiastically– money, time, energy and our votes.

If It Is Good Enough for Barack…

If the American Declaration of Independence is good enough for Barack Obama, a Kenyan American, it is good enough for us Ethiopian Americans. We believe, as does Barack, in the core principle of the Declaration “That all men are created equal… that governments are instituted among men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…” (Emphasis added.)

Saddle up tin-pot dictators,
Pack it in.
A new sheriff is coming to town, posse in tow,
Blow….