President-elect Obama rolled out his national security team the other day, and if you ask me, there was someone missing. Who is going to run the United States Information Agency? Oh...right. It doesn't exist anymore.
Laugh if you want...but America the brand has been diluted if not outright damaged by the current administration. While the new team is a good start towards repairing that damage, this needs to be a coordinated effort. Luckily though, as hard as they tried to destroy it, they failed. As my friend Bill says, "There is only one American dream. There is no Chinese dream, there is no German dream and there is no French dream."
Come January 20th, we get a do-over. A chance to once again re-assert America as the place to be. It's time to replace the big ugly bouncers in wrap around sunglasses behind the velvet rope with a Wal-Mart greeter. Come on down.
We need to let the world know that the last 8 years were just a bad dream. Yeah, we got a little paranoid after 9/11, and we over-reacted but could you blame us? We'd never been attacked like that before. It was like we were the prom queen and we discovered that not everyone likes us. Oh my god! But we're better now. Really.
That's why the person that the new President puts in charge of Public Diplomacy had better have a real understanding of the world. It needs to be someone who has spend time living in different countries. Not someone who has served in multiple U. S. missions abroad and who's only contact with locals has been the people who come through the consulate doors.
No we need someone who has not been a part of the U. S government. Someone who shopped in the markets and hung out in the bars. Someone who has ridden public transportation regularly, someone who has had contact with the local cultures. Someone who has coughed up 5 yuan or ringits or rupees to buy that grilled "thing" on a stick and then spent the next five hours on their knees praying to the porcelain god while that "thing on a stick" worked their way through their body. Hey, that's how you learn about local culture. It's also where you hear what people really think about the U. S.
Right now, folks aren't happy with the U. S. But we can fix it. We may have to eat a few more "things on a stick" but it will be worth it.
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I pick Valvur for the job. I was thinking Bob Dole but he claims his power is no longer soft, though one wonders why Elizabeth wanted another 6 years out of the house.
There. I think I've raised the level of this colloquy to something we can all understand,
And so to bed.
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