We Are The Ones
You know, it's funny. I know I'm horrible about posting in this journal, but my (small) flist is the first place I turn to when something big happens. I've been meaning to post this for days now, and it's still stuck in my head, so I thought "better late than never".
I had a friend over for election night, and before she came over I had the "Yes We Can" song and the "We Are The Ones" song loaded up on my computer, so I could play them on a whim. Well, "We Are the Ones" really stuck in my head, and brought me to tears after Obama's speech, and after Ang left for home. What played over and over in my (tired) mind all day Wednesday was:
We are the ones we've been waiting for.
My America.
Your America.
OUR America.
We can change the world.
And that's no less true a week and 3 days post-election. I have my President-Elect Obama. You have your President-Elect Obama. WE have OUR President-Elect Obama. He's our soon-to-be President, if you voted for him or not.
Already, there are signs of change. Barack Obama has an email list ELEVEN PLUS MILLION STRONG. And I'm proudly one of them. Those of us who used the website, read the emails, used the Neighbor To Neighbor program know the power of the Obama campaign, know how to use it to get Barack's message out, and know how to use it to let him know we're not happy with something.
It goes both ways.
Just think. Based on today's numbers, and if everyone on Barack's email list voted, he's got a direct link to roughly a little less than 10% of this election's voters. We also have a line back to him. If you add in the number of people who've viewed his Senate page, his Facebook page, his MySpace page, his YouTube page and his Twitter page... damn. That's a lot of people.
I'm a little old to really be part of this Internet Age. I had/have a Facebook, but ignore it. I have one video on YouTube, but a lot favorited. I have this journal, but admittedly nearly ignore it, except to keep up with people I find interesting. Everything else? Too much trouble.
I still find myself checking out the Obama site pages of people I met during the campaign. I still check his site for news and updates. I hope it keeps going strong during his Presidency, so I have another way to make my voice heard if I agree or disagree with his actions.
We can change the world, because we are the ones we've been waiting for.
It's not others. It's not... some mythical combination of Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy and King. It was us, and we made our voices heard.
Every vote mattered, and every vote still matters. We can't make our voices heard unless we speak up and cast that ballot, write that email, pay attention to that issue. Blood has been shed for us to earn that right, and we must continue to earn that right to cheer or complain by voicing our opinions. I've always echoed the sentiment "If you didn't vote, you have no right to complain about the next four years." Because if you don't speak up where it's safest, in the voting booth, how can you have the balls to speak up anywhere else?
I put my job on the line during this election. I kept my Obama stickers on my car in the parking lot in front of work. I continued to call from home. I asked my boss to vote early so I could still have November 4th off, so I could canvass, knowing that the owner of my company wanted to fire me the second he found out I was campaigning for Obama. I found out about this two weeks before the election, but I didn't let that stop me from making my voice heard.
Because we are the ones we've been waiting for.
We are the ones my daughters have been waiting for.
We are the ones our future's been waiting for.
We can change the world.
I had a friend over for election night, and before she came over I had the "Yes We Can" song and the "We Are The Ones" song loaded up on my computer, so I could play them on a whim. Well, "We Are the Ones" really stuck in my head, and brought me to tears after Obama's speech, and after Ang left for home. What played over and over in my (tired) mind all day Wednesday was:
We are the ones we've been waiting for.
My America.
Your America.
OUR America.
We can change the world.
And that's no less true a week and 3 days post-election. I have my President-Elect Obama. You have your President-Elect Obama. WE have OUR President-Elect Obama. He's our soon-to-be President, if you voted for him or not.
Already, there are signs of change. Barack Obama has an email list ELEVEN PLUS MILLION STRONG. And I'm proudly one of them. Those of us who used the website, read the emails, used the Neighbor To Neighbor program know the power of the Obama campaign, know how to use it to get Barack's message out, and know how to use it to let him know we're not happy with something.
It goes both ways.
Just think. Based on today's numbers, and if everyone on Barack's email list voted, he's got a direct link to roughly a little less than 10% of this election's voters. We also have a line back to him. If you add in the number of people who've viewed his Senate page, his Facebook page, his MySpace page, his YouTube page and his Twitter page... damn. That's a lot of people.
I'm a little old to really be part of this Internet Age. I had/have a Facebook, but ignore it. I have one video on YouTube, but a lot favorited. I have this journal, but admittedly nearly ignore it, except to keep up with people I find interesting. Everything else? Too much trouble.
I still find myself checking out the Obama site pages of people I met during the campaign. I still check his site for news and updates. I hope it keeps going strong during his Presidency, so I have another way to make my voice heard if I agree or disagree with his actions.
We can change the world, because we are the ones we've been waiting for.
It's not others. It's not... some mythical combination of Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy and King. It was us, and we made our voices heard.
Every vote mattered, and every vote still matters. We can't make our voices heard unless we speak up and cast that ballot, write that email, pay attention to that issue. Blood has been shed for us to earn that right, and we must continue to earn that right to cheer or complain by voicing our opinions. I've always echoed the sentiment "If you didn't vote, you have no right to complain about the next four years." Because if you don't speak up where it's safest, in the voting booth, how can you have the balls to speak up anywhere else?
I put my job on the line during this election. I kept my Obama stickers on my car in the parking lot in front of work. I continued to call from home. I asked my boss to vote early so I could still have November 4th off, so I could canvass, knowing that the owner of my company wanted to fire me the second he found out I was campaigning for Obama. I found out about this two weeks before the election, but I didn't let that stop me from making my voice heard.
Because we are the ones we've been waiting for.
We are the ones my daughters have been waiting for.
We are the ones our future's been waiting for.
We can change the world.