On Monday President Obama became the first U.S. President to speak the word "gay" in an inaugural address. And with the alliterative phrase "from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall," he wove new colors - the colors of the rainbow flag, if you will - into the tapestry that is the history of the United States.
But President Obama failed to break another inaugural silence, one that masks another form of denial that is as embedded in the American psyche as has been the denial that some of our citizens are gay. By failing to utter in his inaugural address the names of our nation's closest neighbors, Obama joined with those who preceded him as President to indulge the popular fantasy that the United States is an island unto itself.
The words which cannot be spoken by U.S. Presidents, it seems, are "Mexico" and "Canada."*
I am reminded of the wooden cut-out map that American children are given to help them learn the names of the fifty states. The continental states occupy almost the entire puzzleboard, but there is no reference whatever to to the continent of which they are a part (Alaska and Hawaai are stuck in the corner.)
Some might consider this denial benign, but more than ever it should be clear that our nation's future is inextricably bound up with the futures of our Canadian and Mexican neighbors.
Consider the challenges which are rising to the top of President Obama's second-term legislative agenda. Economic growth, climate change, immigration reform, gun control - the United States cannot meaningfully address any one of these challenges without the deep and meaningful collaboration of our contintental neighbors.
Here on the U.S.-Mexico border we know better (or at least we should) and to his credit San Diego's new Mayor Bob Filner is joining with Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante to make a priority of cross-border relations.
Can San Diegans join with Tijuanenses to shatter the illusion that the boundary established by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1849 represents a reasonable accommodation to the challenges we face in the 21st century?
If we can, perhaps not too many more elections will pass before a President utters the word "Mexico" in an inaugural address. And who knows? Maybe this hoped-for President will even speak the word in an accent that gives voice to lo Mexicano which runs deep in our nation's ancestral roots.
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* In fact the word "Mexico" was uttered once in an Inaugural Address - in 1857 when James Buchanan offered this gloss of the U.S.-Mexico War, a gloss so fantastical and deceitful and utterly self-serving that I have decided it does not count:
But President Obama failed to break another inaugural silence, one that masks another form of denial that is as embedded in the American psyche as has been the denial that some of our citizens are gay. By failing to utter in his inaugural address the names of our nation's closest neighbors, Obama joined with those who preceded him as President to indulge the popular fantasy that the United States is an island unto itself.
The words which cannot be spoken by U.S. Presidents, it seems, are "Mexico" and "Canada."*
I am reminded of the wooden cut-out map that American children are given to help them learn the names of the fifty states. The continental states occupy almost the entire puzzleboard, but there is no reference whatever to to the continent of which they are a part (Alaska and Hawaai are stuck in the corner.)
This is the map conjured by our Presidents come inauguration time.
Some might consider this denial benign, but more than ever it should be clear that our nation's future is inextricably bound up with the futures of our Canadian and Mexican neighbors.
Consider the challenges which are rising to the top of President Obama's second-term legislative agenda. Economic growth, climate change, immigration reform, gun control - the United States cannot meaningfully address any one of these challenges without the deep and meaningful collaboration of our contintental neighbors.
Here on the U.S.-Mexico border we know better (or at least we should) and to his credit San Diego's new Mayor Bob Filner is joining with Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante to make a priority of cross-border relations.
Can San Diegans join with Tijuanenses to shatter the illusion that the boundary established by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1849 represents a reasonable accommodation to the challenges we face in the 21st century?
If we can, perhaps not too many more elections will pass before a President utters the word "Mexico" in an inaugural address. And who knows? Maybe this hoped-for President will even speak the word in an accent that gives voice to lo Mexicano which runs deep in our nation's ancestral roots.
___________________
* In fact the word "Mexico" was uttered once in an Inaugural Address - in 1857 when James Buchanan offered this gloss of the U.S.-Mexico War, a gloss so fantastical and deceitful and utterly self-serving that I have decided it does not count:
"It is our glory that whilst other nations have extended their dominions by the sword we have never acquired any territory except by fair purchase or, as in the case of Texas, by the voluntary determination of a brave, kindred, and independent people to blend their destinies with our own. Even our acquisitions from Mexico form no exception. Unwilling to take advantage of the fortune of war against a sister republic, we purchased these possessions under the treaty of peace for a sum which was considered at the time a fair equivalent. Our past history forbids that we shall in the future acquire territory unless this be sanctioned by the laws of justice and honor."
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