If somehow your power grid has been out for the last week, and you haven’t heard Oprah’s speech at the Golden Globe awards, here it is: Oprah Rocks Our World. Go ahead, watch it, I will wait right here.
What did you think? Did she speak to your heart and brain? Did she trigger your inner lion and make you roar? Did she sound Presidential?
Here is what some of my super intelligent writer friends thought of it:
Jenny Kanevsky: “What struck me about her speech was her gratitude to the unknown women, the mothers who had children to feed and bills to pay and who had to endure in silence, and who still do. It is brave to speak out, empowering to stand up against your abuser, and yet so many of these women have had no choice but to stay, and we’ll never know their names or their struggles.”
Maureen Cooney Stiles: The manner in which Oprah created a narrative that was not only compelling but showed that today’s issues are universal and old as time lends credibility to the hope that this is not a “cause du jour” but a movement with passion and purpose.”
Emily Ramirez : There’s a line in the No Doubt song, ‘Just A Girl’ when she says “I’ve had it up to here.” That line spoke to me as a teenager on a really deep level. It was eye opening and inclusive and fiery. It made me understand that all this bullshit we deal with is just that – bullshit that we don’t have to stand for. What Oprah did last night was the adult version of that. It shook me the same way, but unlike the song that was just acknowledging the problem, O made me feel like there is hope. Hope is some powerful shit! “
The internet has been electrified by Oprah’s words, and she proved that she is still the woman that women love, men admire, and that we listen to when she has something to say. And boy did she have something to say. She knows how to rouse a crowd.
At a time when America seems to be struggling to find itself, the country needs people who speak the words that lay a path to a more modern and evolved country. A country that is more socialist and intelligent to emerge as its best self. A place that has more healthcare and less mass shootings, and one where women have control of their bodies. And THAT is why so many people are jumping around wanting Oprah to be the next President of the United States.
It makes sense in a way. It is exactly her politics that should rule the day. Women’s rights and safety, condemning rather than firing up racism, understanding the struggle of citizens and having decades of telling their stories. She is exactly what the country needs, but she shouldn’t run for President.
First, the reality of a presidential run is that no matter how beloved she is, it is doubtful that a large segment of the American public is ready for a black woman as the leader of the free world. I would bet a paycheque that the same nice Christian white ladies who sat in Oprah’s studio audience hanging on her every word, would still vote for an old white guy when they check the ballot. I believe a whole generation of dinosaurs need to die off before we get another intellectual and a person with social empathy like Obama, never mind a woman.
Because Oprah would follow my advice if we were besties, I would tell her my idea. Let the Presidency go to somebody who has some actual experience being a politician. She should help a candidate like she did with Clinton, and she should pick carefully who she throws her money and influence behind. Then, when the new President is doing the grinding work of fixing all of the broken legislation that will be left behind when the White House is no longer an active dumpster fire, she can fulfill her true calling.
Oprah Winfrey’s ultimate destiny should be Queen of the world. She has so much platform, even more since last week, and she should use it. She needs to give speeches all over the world, all the time and take on every issue that is holding society back. When she speaks of empathy and power, generosity and morality she does so with such conviction that even most conservative evangelicals might consider she has a point about gay marriage.
Oprah’s light would be extinguished in the Oval Office. The toadies who still think black women in the White House should be shoe shiners, will lay in wait to undermine her just like they tried to with Obama.
Her energy can do so much to move the country she obviously loves to a new kinder and gentler place. A nation where people live in more safety and health, who can love anybody they want, and who can see people of all races as having value. Creating opportunity for people isn’t about favouring the rich, it is about creating security for the families, the entrepreneurs, the farmers, the nurses and teachers and everybody who works hard to build society.
She doesn’t need to be elected as president. We have already declared her the Queen of the world, and now we need to let her get on with saving us from ourselves.
