A preliminary moment before the recent G-20 meeting in Washington struck me as enormously symbolic. President Bush stood alone on the portico of the White House as each of the delegates from around the world approached on a red carpet to greet him. It put me in mind of how centuries ago a Roman Caesar must have received representatives from far-flung areas of that empire.
The United States is the latest in a long line of imperial powers. The evidence for this is all around us: from our insistence on nuclear ascendancy, to our declared "right" to pre-emptive war, to our justification of torture, to the exaggerated efforts we make to be number one in the world economically, militarily, politically-we are clearly the Romans of this historical moment.
In light of this, I cannot help but wonder if your campaign promises of change, for which so many of your fellow Americans voted, will extend to the contradiction between our stated democratic system and this overlay of imperial global reach. Or will your vision of change limit itself to some tinkering with our situation as it is and result only in U.S. business-as-usual for the rest of the world?
Your initial appointments, particularly that of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, cause significant concern. It would seem that this man who carried on President Bush's failed policies toward Iraq and Afghanistan does not represent the views you so skillfully articulated during your campaign for the presidency and which in large measure assured your election.
You cannot fail to realize that yours is a rare and precious moment of opportunity as you become president of the United States. The goodwill you have engendered in our country and the high hopes you have created in virtually every country on the planet could converge to make you not only a great president, but also a historic figure along the lines of a Nelson Mandela. Under your leadership this great experiment that is America could once again become a sister nation, a partner, a beacon of justice and service to a world of violence, impoverishment, and danger, much of it generated by U.S. foreign policy.
Please know, Mr. President, that many of us in the faith communities of this country are praying that this will be the case. We pray for you and your family; we pray that your years as our leader will prove a kairos moment in history-a moment of divine grace not only for Americans but for all humanity. May God grant that you not be a Caesar but a true brother to the world.
Joseph Nangle OFM is a Franciscan priest who lives in the Assisi Community, a household of social activists. He spent fifteen years in Latin America and now serves the Spanish-speaking community in a Catholic parish near Washington, D.C.
