Obama, Soudelor and I

Barack turned 54 on the 4th; I had him side-by-side Soudelor that called on our island last Sunday night. Those unfamiliar with Soudelor, he was a legendary chief of Pohnpei whose name has been used for typhoons in 2003, 2009, and this year.

I turned 70 on Aug. 1. Uncle Lino, everyone’s favorite Carolinian, managed to slap a slice of pork on the grill at his lagoon beachfront with four visiting ladies from three locations in China, and had a can of Bud on the side, so I had my day.

I just turned 20 when I went to school in the U.S. in 1965, got a green card in ’71, and raised my hand to be naturalized in Guam in ’83 after being married to a U.S. citizen for more than 15 years. Before then, my travel papers at the INS were meticulously scrutinized whenever I crossed borders as it was unusual for one of Philippine descent not to apply for citizenship on the first day one qualified.

A couple of colleagues and I went to Metamoros across the Rio Grande south of Texas to have lunch. It took me four hours to get back in. I fitted the profile of a Filipino in a three-piece suit and patent leather shoes trying to cross the border from Mexico to the United States!

This is simply to say that after coming in and out of the United States for the last 49 years, I bid my two daughters adieu and made it clear that the next ni hao will have to be in China. I have four young boys “who need to see the world” as soon as they can, so this should be an incentive.

When Soudelor howled Sunday before midnight, many CUC lampposts went down. Happily, our apartment had its own generator so we had power and water but crude has since been taken off the market, and our solace of being properly showered is gone.

Typhoon Soudelor was ferocious and strong, spared the lightning but not the thunder, and the parked cars in our complex—automatically set to blare their hoots when intruded—did so in concert.

The typhoon is not our analogy to Obama’s presence in Washington, D.C. Lyndon Johnson was considered a liberal and compared to the Democrats south of the Mason-Dixon line, LBJ was a liberal of a sort but to see Obama elected to the White House and preside with confidence and competence, it restored my faith in the American process.

Since Nixon took the Presidency, I had not been a fan of the office. I have been comfortable with Barrack, compared to the conjugal leadership of the Clintons who called the shots while I resided within the beltway of D.C. Bill and Hillary were short on the wholesome assurance of All State’s “you’re in good hands”!

The fury of Soudelor shook the windows and kept anything loose flying on the apartment complex’s walkway. At midnight, the eerie eye came through without a breeze, then the storm’s fury started again. Some of the units in our complex got wet as the rain intruded between window panels. We did not have any window panes shatter, though we heard some glass break as the wind got stronger. Now I understand why glass panels are boarded during storms, if only to shade our sight from the crescendo of trees swaying like modern aerobic contortionists on stage.

We got the storm for a background, and we wished Obama Happy Birthday on Aug. 4. Youthful at 54 by any measure, Obama led a nation in seven years through a diverse support net of ethnic and progressive forces who may not be pleased with the outcome of the Affordable Health Care, immigration, same-sex union, the issue of gun ownership (we read in these pages someone argue that the nation was safer because citizens owned guns), climate change, college fees and the like, but compared to a nation with a penchant for providing the latest in the military’s ordnance, we are not displeased with his watch.

The anti-Chinese rhetoric of conservative circles— a hangover from the aborted imperial impulse of America that created G.I. Joe in Hawaii and the Pacific, in Micronesia, the Philippines and military outposts in Korea and Japan—played well to Obama’s agenda, as clearly the China scare kept the military in line, diverted U.S. foreign policy from the Middle East, took our eyes off the oil, tolerated the saber-rattling of Shinzo Abe to keep China’s naval ascendancy in its own waters checked, while the PLA just went its merry way.

Obama will be 55 when he exits the East Room. With a sensitive heart and a lucid mind, he can hit many dais and play the statesman—joining Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in the civic podium circuit and drawing a hefty fee in the process.

Considering who might be in line into the Rose Garden, Soudelor and Obama may be mild compared to Hillary’s thunder. Yes, we are ripe for a female President and though I never really warmed up to Hillary Rodham Clinton, I would find her policies not too distant from mine. It might just be that we had not seen the fury of a storm yet!

I guess Michelle was glad there was no one singing Happy Birthday, Mr. President ala MM to JFK, but Obama ushered his 55th year with pride. With the climate change initiative, I dreamed he showed up at Saipan’s tarmac. Oh, well, he has not done too badly.