Veni,Vidi,Vici

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE
Vol. III –Issue #33 – Nov 2008

VENI, VIDI, VICI
(like Caesar’s Gallic Campaign)

The Obama victory in this presidential election has some eerily similar aspects with those of Julius Caesar’s campaigns in ancient Gaul. He came, he saw, and he conquered, despite the fact it was a hard and tough series of events. Just as Caesar faced in Gaul. It was a long, tough, slogging fight, all the way, with several moments when victory was not all that certain. While no Vercingetorix, McCain made just as gallant and resolute a fight of it until, as that heroic Gallic chieftain did after a long siege at Alesia, the reality of the situation forced his surrender (which he also did with grace and dignity).

There is no question that the Obama campaign was finely crafted, skillfully produced, and expertly carried out. And its shrewdest moves related to fund raising via the internet, generating a torrent of money, thus allowing it to outspend any and all opponents in the field against it. Now, like Caesar, he’s earned a hard-won triumph.

Aside from the historical aspects of it all, America appears to have finally overcome its long and bitter racial divide, and now seems much closer to Dr. King’s dream…. judging the content of character, rather than the color of skin. Perhaps so. We can but hope that is, indeed, true.

But the most valuable effect that this outstanding political victory may have, is not so much on we Americans, but on the rest of the world instead. By this event we have shown the world the reality of America, today, and these results will put the lie to, and confound, all those hate-America mongers in the outside world.

Here at home, however, there are those who are not enthused by this momentous event. They see it as a harbinger of doom, particularly because this President-elect has some dubious past history of associations and ideology. Associations and ideology they perceive as a threat to the American ideals of individualism rather than collectivism, in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. While I don’t accept such doom and gloom views, I have to acknowledge that his has been one of the most skillfully crafted bits of demagoguery I’ve yet experienced. Smooth as silk, and made easy to swallow, with its soaring evocative rhetoric and oratory. That, is what probably creates such anxieties.

Well, the reality is, in our eagerness to do away with one extreme bill of goods for the past eight years, we have now blindly accepted another potentially extreme bill of goods, just for the sake of ….CHANGE. It remains to be seen if that’s the case. We can only wait and see if that’s what we have done. Only time will tell if that is so.

CENTURION