Warning: this entry contains political opinions. They may or may not meet yours. I hope you'll read anyway. It's high time we start talking to each other, respecting each other's stances and finding common ground for a better America. Seriously.
Moving on...
What an interesting night.
Hilary and McCain came out on top.
Tonight I realized that while my heart may lie with Gravel, this country needs my vote to go for O'bama.
Everyone stands at their podium and says they're going to pay teachers more, end poverty, end the war, save the planet and fix our healthcare system. It's as if they all pull words from the same master speech -- and we believe it. Why? Hope. Hope that once, someone will mean it. Tonight, O'bama did:
"In the story of America, there has never been anything false about hope"
"...when people vote not for a party -- but for hope"
O'bama spoke from his heart. No cue cards, no cheat sheets like Hilary and McCain. I suppose if you're winning the primary you have too much ass to kiss to try to work out your thoughts on your own? It made my heart sad to see this. Even Edwards spoke off the cuff. Lawyers are good at that sort of thing, but still. It means something. How you speak to the American people means something. Look at President Bush -- we make fun of his speaking (stuttering) more than anything else he has done in office. It means something.
Tonight, I have hope. Hope that we might have a president who speaks. Not a president who talks at us, talks down to us, panders to what he/she thinks we should hear, but rather, speaks. TO us and FOR us. That president-elect is O'bama.
Watching him speak tonight after the primary, I heard Martin Luther King, JR. Not because they share an ethnic background, but because they share a passion; a meaning and a voice that has the depth to cross parties and blind prejudice. That voice reaches right into the heart of my generation and pulls at us. This country needs a voice like that in its tier again. A voice that comes from the one place we have needed it to for so long. Inside.
As I watched Michelle join her husband on the stage and Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" played in the background of supporters yelling and shaking signs - undulating in the same wave of O'bama's words -- I FELT hope. For a young America to have a voice in 2008. For an old America to have another chance at making this country what they want it be. For America to mend itself, mend the world.
"Stand for Change" is one of O'bama's campaign slogans. Tonight, I can't think of anything I stand for more.
http://www.barackobama.com/
3 comments:
Hello from California, where the New Hampshire race was called early enough for me to have dinner!
I enjoyed your post, Vanessa. As always, your words are both level-headed and passionate.
I agree with what you had to say. I have been trying to temper my enthusiasm for Barack Obama, reminding myself that it's too early, that I'm basing a decision on emotion, that he's too young, and so on. I patiently listen intently to the other candidates, even (gasp) the Republican ones. OK, not all of the Republicans, but at least two of them.
For me, it boils down to this fact: we need a different president. When a stream has been flowing in the same direction for a very long time, its bed is grooved and deep, resistant to change. We need to drop a big boulder smack into the middle of it, forcing it to change its course -- BARACK!
Clinton's argument that she is experienced enough to bring change does not hold water for me. All that tells me is that she knows just how much she can concede to the lobbyists, corporations, contributors, and cronies, before she gives just enough to the U.S. people. At least, that's what my heart is telling me right now.
The whole process reminds me of the movie Dead Poet's Society. That movie more than any flick in my adolescence set my heart soaring with hope that I could do something extraordinary with my time here. Remember Professor Keating -- "make your lives extraordinary ... suck the marrow from the bones of life" -- teaching students to march around the courtyard to their own rhythm? He inspired them to stray far away, to act, to read poetry, to break rules, to kiss girls off-campus, to tear pages from books, to let out BARBARIC YALPS! At one point in the movie, there's a fantastic exchange between Keating and one of the older professors, a strident member of the establishment (see where I'm going with this?).
I'll paste the dialogue down below, with certain names subbed in and just enough artistic liberty:
CLINTON: You take a big risk by encouraging them to become revolutionaries, Senator. When they realize that they're not Lennons, Luther Kings or Kennedys, they'll hate you for it.
OBAMA: We're not talking revolutionaries, Hillary. We're talking free thinkers.
CLINTON INCREDULOUS, GASPS SOMETHING ABOUT FALSE HOPE
OBAMA: Funny. I never pegged you as a cynic.
CLINTON: Not a cynic. A realist. "Show me the heart unfettered by foolish dreams and I'll show you a happy man."
OBAMA: "But only in their dreams can men be truly free. 'Twas always thus, and always thus will be."
CLINTON: Tennyson?
OBAMA: No. Barack Obama.
Have a good night. Keep the spirit of change alive. Sound a BARBARIC YALP!
- Garett Graubins
V~
Thank you so much for this piece! I love Obama and I love it when others realize just how right he his for our country.....
Your words were well thought out and I can only hope that others in your age demographic feel the same way about change and exercising their right to vote!
Love ya,
Lisa
Right on! Even after losing he still had the best speech of the night. I saw the Senator speak in Tally a few months ago and the suggestion that his campaign is somehow superficial, lacking policy specifics, etc. is unfounded. He's our only shot at upending the status quo. Besides, can you imagine another Clinton term? No thanks.
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