Letters to the Editor
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What's Sometimes Mistaken for Arrogance, imho
Maybe off-topic, but I'd like to offer to friends of Hillary this piece of why I'm a friend of Obama.
I don't see arrogance. I do see something very unusual. He is sensitive. I think he has an introverted personality, and he's spent a lot of his life reflecting on the meanings of cultures and divisions and opportunity (and the lack of it). He's absorbed a great deal more than average of how people react to other people, based on skin color, cultural habits, assumptions. I think his personality is reserved but his observations, perhaps his "emotional IQ" is quite high.
That's not the same as snobbish or arrogant. He just has a core quietness and faith. To me, his demeanor doesn't say I'm Better Than You. It says, I'm here about you.
Personally, I think that some of the business of politics isn't natural to him. No face-clawing, and little that's below the belt. But he's human, not an angel, so he'll do some snark now and then.
I just offer these thoughts in the hope that people who assume he's arrogant might take a fresh look. Is it possible that Obama is an unusually fine person? And is it okay with you for someone "fine" to represent our country?
Is there any desire to have him be shamed by his ambition? As though he has no right to be as fine at moving and engaging and inspiring as he actually is?
What if you just set aside your anger and regrets and considered him as a somewhat introverted man who has learned to speak from the same place in him that first registered with the public...that amazing speech at the Democratic Convention?
I know when I first heard him, I immediately said to myself, I wish he were my president. Nothing I've heard from him since has changed that.
Intuition gets little respect in this culture, compared to data points. But I think well more than half of this country has allowed the despair of the current administration's ruthlessness to soften their hearts and open their minds to a new kind of president.
In hope, and solidarity...
Sure, he's a politician. But there ARE authentic public servants who see that their best way to serve America is to use their personal charisma and eloquence to bring us together.
You don't have to drink Koolaid. But you might