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Friday, January 4, 2008

We Need This

Years from now, you’ll look back and you’ll say that this was the moment, this was the place where America remembered what it means to hope. For many months, we’ve been teased, even derided for talking about hope. But we always knew that hope is not blind optimism. It’s not ignoring the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path.

“It’s not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it.

— Barack Obama, January 3, 2008.

Like many people, I’ve been a fan of Barack Obama since his speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004. In the past few months, I’ve watched debates and read the news reports with interest. Consistently it has been Obama who has filled me with that very thing that he speaks of so often: Hope.

You don’t have to know his history to see that Obama has been in a church more than a few times. His words are brimming with the sort of language often used by preachers: Hope, unity, courage, community. His delivery is worthy of any pulpit: Arresting, perfectly timed, full of peaks, valleys and suspense.

More importantly, I believe his words. I believe that the Obama campaign isn’t about one person hungry for power and wealth, but about inspiring a nation to forget its divisions, to dust itself off and restore its pride, both at home and globally.

In last night’s victory speech after the Iowa caucuses, he used the word “I” only 17 times, and much of those times were not actual references to himself, but parallel constructions to emphasize a point about others. The speech and the victory was not about him. It was about you and me. It was, in the true sense of the word, hopeful.

I dare you to watch the speech above and not feel inspired, even proud.

I have heard the arguments against Obama.

“Maybe in 2012, but he’s too young for 2008.”
“If he is nominated and there is a terrorist attack before the election, voters will turn to Republicans who have more experience.”
“He’s not electable as a black man.”

I’ve chosen, however, to not hedge my bets against the prejudices of Southern hicks, or the whims of terrorists. Instead, I’m voting with my conscience, for who I think represents and stands for what the United States of America needs right now: To actually be “United.”

The past 8 years have been full of politics of division along many lines: War, gay rights, abortion. We have been jerked around by politicians who fill us with fear in the hopes of getting our vote, or at least our acquiesence to their self-serving whims.

This is what I believe we need in 2008 and beyond: A leader who will bring us together, regardless of differences. Someone who isn’t hardened or corrupted by the life of a career politician. Someone who started their career not in a boardroom but in the slums of Chicago. Someone who inspires. Someone who may someday be so famous, so revered that in the future we may need only their initials.

MLK
JFK
FDR

I, too, believe in hope. And for once, I feel hopeful about seeing a worthy leader have a shot at the office that should be occupied by a Great Uniter, not a Great Divider.

Now you know whose camp I’m in.

Posted by Aaron on January 4, 2008 4:12 PM