Endeavour to Persevere

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005908944655994386.post-48979878381739863092008-07-25T19:40:00.006+01:002008-07-25T19:52:12.819+01:00Endeavour to Persevere<a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_Il9iZpFM8eA/SIoe0Zv5KrI/AAAAAAAAAqE/gUlLZK7zj_o/s1600-h/dangeorge.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5227024203130677938" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_Il9iZpFM8eA/SIoe0Zv5KrI/AAAAAAAAAqE/gUlLZK7zj_o/s320/dangeorge.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div>Reading Barack Obama’s Berlin speech my brain started playing tricks and I found it being tugged towards the image of Chief Dan George from Clint Eastwood’s great western The Outlaw Josey Wales. Wales is on the run from murderous ‘red legs’ and he seeks refuge in the Indian nation. On entering the nation he come across Chief Dan George, an old Indian wearing a battered white man’s suit and top hat. He has gone soft and slack from trying to imitate the white man and, like his clothes, is now a cast off from both races. He tells Wales the story of when he and the other great indian chiefs were summoned to Washington. They were decked out in suits and tops hats for the occasion. At this momentous gathering they were addressed by the Under-Secretary for the Interior, who congratulated them on their appearance, said he understood their problems and at the end of his speech urged them all to “endeavour to persevere”. The chiefs then went away to think about what he said – “endeavour to persevere” – and after they had thought about it for a while, they declared war on the USA. Here are the closing words of the Obama speech. “People of Berlin – and people of the world – the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. Let us build on our common history, and seize our common destiny, and once again engage in that noble struggle to bring justice and peace to our world.” And he could have added “and endeavour to persevere”. </div>Old Fogeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11247102564173946623old.fogey1@ntlworld.com