(no subject)

Oct 31, 2006 01:35

I've liked Obama for a long time. (OK, not nearly as long as Google or Harry Potter... but at least since 2003, and then a large jump in 2004 after his DNC speech.)

What do I call it when I find out that someone I love gave a speech in which he articulated my entire worldview, using the one word I've been obsessed with?

I'd say it's true love.

p.s. Sarah's right, what really makes me happy is pure unadulterated optimism... i think i'll call it "Optimism: Happy Crack"

======
short excerpt from one of Obama's speeches at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Campus_Progress_Annual_Conference
======

The last piece of advice is to cultivate a sense of empathy.

There's a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit - the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us - the child who's hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room.

The fact that you're here and participating in Campus Progress means that most of you have already done this better than most ever will. But as you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become harder, not easier. There's no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You'll be free to live in neighborhoods with people who are exactly like yourself, and send your kids to the same schools, and narrow your concerns to what's going in your own little circle.

Not only that - we live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish impulses.

They will tell you that the Americans who sleep in the streets and beg for food got there because they're all lazy or weak of spirit. That the inner-city children who are trapped in dilapidated schools can't learn and won't learn and so we should just give up on them entirely. That the innocent people being slaughtered and expelled from their homes half a world away are somebody else's problem to take care of.

I hope you don't listen to this. I hope you choose to broaden, and not contract, your ambit of concern. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all of those who helped you get to where you are, although you do have that debt.

It's because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. And because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential - and become full-grown.
Previous post Next post
Up