When I was young, I learned that America is the land of opportunity where dreams come true; that we are all created equal; that hard work and honesty will always pay off; that one day even I could be The President of the United States of America; that America, home of the brave & land of the free, is the best place on the planet. Period. (Yep, they really did tell us that.) I held those as truths probably until I reached college.
And that’s when I started to change.
Through the education and experiences that have filled my journey to adulthood, I have come to believe that quite the opposite is true on most of those issues. (I would be happy to share some of those experiences with you over a glass of wine some day, but I won’t bore you now.)
Today I feel hopeful. I’ve thought a lot about why Barack Obama has affected me so . . . why I can’t hear him speak without getting a knot in my stomach or a tear in my eye. . . why, for the first time in a long time, I care and feel a civic responsibility, a sense of duty.
I feel the change again; this change is promising, hopeful – not a bit of despair.
Please don’t disappoint me President Obama, and I promise not to disappoint you.
2 comments:
It's amazing the affect he has isn't it? The kids couldn't figure out why I was crying as I watched him sworn in. For the first time, in a long time, I'm really proud of my country. It says something great about who we are as a people, and I'm not sure I believed that was still possible. I just hope he can stand under all the weight of expectation, and I'm really looking forward to what he can accomplish in the next four years!
Steph
Thanks for the comment. It will be an exciting time, that is for certain. I am most hopeful for our children -- for Maddy, for your kiddos, for all of the innocent little folks. Hopefully we will be able to create a better future for them. I've always found this type of rhetoric quite silly -- and now it can roll off of my tongue so naturally. I'm under the Obama spell in a major way. I think it's a good thing.
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