Dream: April 3, 2010 (Why I Would Not Want to be Barack Obama, Part I)

I had a dream last night.

I was sitting on a bus, far in the back.  This was in a foreign country.  It was a crowded bus, and our route to  where we were going was very difficult.  Lots of traffic.  The passengers all got to know the driver, who was a woman.  Most seemed to feel she was a respectable woman, but I could tell several doubted her driving abilities.

We were almost to our destination, but the last bit of the trip went down a steep mountain road, which brought us off of a plateau and down to a coastline (a bit like the bus ride from Ankara, Turkey, to Izmir (the former Smyrna.)  I was sitting in the back of the bus, and I could see very little, but I knew there was another bus next to us. 

The people around me were getting very antsy.  They had to get home; they had to get on with their lives. 

Well, the other bus moved on - I couldn't see how far ahead, and my fellow passengers started getting very upset.  They took a vote: they wanted the driver to get in the passing lane and go - very fast - down the mountain pass.  As far as I could see, many of them were forming a group, and they were threatening to take the bus by force. 

They wanted my vote in support of them.

I had to speak up.  And this is what I said: 

Of everyone on this bus, only the driver knows the condition of the bus itself.  And what if she happens to know the brakes are bad?  Would she tell us?  Probably not.  There may be a very good reason for the way she is driving.  So be patient and hope that both she and this bus will get us to where we want to be.

I woke up immediately after my little speech, so I have no idea how my fellow passengers responded.  However, awake, I was thinking about Barack Obama.  I think he knows far more about the bus he's driving than anyone should have to know.  He knows the condition of the infrastructure of the U.S.A.  It would be nice if the general public would just let the man drive the bus for a year or two, before trying to take it by force, or any other means. 

Quite frankly, I don't know if anyone would know how to stop a bus as big as the United States of America, if it was hurtling down a mountain pass with no brakes.