'Dreams From my Father'
"And I hear him still: As I follow my father into the sound, he lets out a quick shout, bright and high, a shout that leaves much behind and reaches out for more, a shout that cries for laughter." - Excerpt 'Dreams From my Father", Barack Obama. Page 71.
I am only three chapters, and 82 pages into this book. I wish I had words, and I don't, to express the feeling in my chest as I read it. Outside of politics and this naive innocence that allows me to think there could be hope for a country that was great once, for a little while, I still have great admiration for the man who could be our first African-American president. I've been listening to him speak for months now; admired the smooth rythm of his words, the steady beat behind them, the lyricism that almost reminds me of a southern baptist preacher. I have heard a most beautiful speech turned into a most beautiful song and I have felt moved, I have felt hope, I have felt promise.
He's not the first politician to move me. Truth be told, I liked John Kerry, who was not nearly the candidate that Barack Obama is. I didn't mind his slow, plodding speech, or the amount of time he took to decide which course of action he would take when confronted with a road block. It felt like, in the wake of Bush's swift and always careless decision making, that slow and careful and plodding was the kind of pace we needed. At least, it seemed that way to me. He might have been the lesser of two evils for some, the only choice outside of a president who had continually lied to us. To me, he was a choice, and he could have been the right one.
It doesn't seem to me that it balances out; having four more years of the Bush Administration in exchange for the opportunity to elect a candidate who could be exactly what we need. But it is the circumstances we find ourselves in. I'd have wanted Barack Obama over Kerry if he'd run last election. I wished fervently that we'd had John Kerry, since he didn't.
But what we have now, and this is only my small opinion, is the opportunity for a new start. For America to make history again. Our very own war of independence; from a bitter, battered, broken system that robs it's people of their grace and dignity, from the express disappointment of the world at large, the animosity of countries that used to be allies. Our own way, in the single form of a man. Here is a man still young in the eyes of the precidency. Here is a man who is eloquent, and intelligent, thoughtful but not at the cost of expediency. Here is a man not bitter at our government or accepting of it's flaws. Here is a man who is not afraid to dream, to hope.
I'm not necessarily talking about his politics. I'm not arguing his policies or his voting record. I'm speaking almost enitrely of his character, of him as a man. Because a president is a man, or a woman as it could be, and should be judged on his character before all else.
I'm scared to live in this country, where every day we sink deeper into an ecominic depression, where the world at large is slowly becoming our enemy, where we are not welcome anywhere but within our own closed off, choking borders. I'm scared of a country where the people who should care don't.
I need hope. It's corny to say, ridiculous, and maybe I'm romanticising the notion. It's possible.
But even if I've thrown my support to a presidential hopeful before (Kerry, and Gore before him) there's never been on that has affected me on an emotional level. Barack Obama can bring tears to my eyes. This campaign, the people within it, the man it is run for, all of it, affects me. He speaks, or writes, and the words he says mean something and they are beautiful and they mean something. You can hear that it means something to him, you can see that it means something to the people that are listening. I've watched with admiration and respect as one foot has dropped after the other; Reverend Wright, Jesse Jackson, etc, Accusations of ignorance and lack of experience. A nation that alternates between finding him too black and yet not black enough. And through all of it he has kept his composure and his grace. Answered with more honesty than one can usually expect of a politician, more candor, more humor. This should, and for me does, speak greatly of a man who can change us, make us better, lead us to better, start something for generations after to finish.
It's corny, it's naive maybe and certainly blindly hopeful to think that this one man can make this large of a difference.
But for the first time in a long time, in this respect, I have that kind of blind hope.
I am only three chapters, and 82 pages into this book. I wish I had words, and I don't, to express the feeling in my chest as I read it. Outside of politics and this naive innocence that allows me to think there could be hope for a country that was great once, for a little while, I still have great admiration for the man who could be our first African-American president. I've been listening to him speak for months now; admired the smooth rythm of his words, the steady beat behind them, the lyricism that almost reminds me of a southern baptist preacher. I have heard a most beautiful speech turned into a most beautiful song and I have felt moved, I have felt hope, I have felt promise.
He's not the first politician to move me. Truth be told, I liked John Kerry, who was not nearly the candidate that Barack Obama is. I didn't mind his slow, plodding speech, or the amount of time he took to decide which course of action he would take when confronted with a road block. It felt like, in the wake of Bush's swift and always careless decision making, that slow and careful and plodding was the kind of pace we needed. At least, it seemed that way to me. He might have been the lesser of two evils for some, the only choice outside of a president who had continually lied to us. To me, he was a choice, and he could have been the right one.
It doesn't seem to me that it balances out; having four more years of the Bush Administration in exchange for the opportunity to elect a candidate who could be exactly what we need. But it is the circumstances we find ourselves in. I'd have wanted Barack Obama over Kerry if he'd run last election. I wished fervently that we'd had John Kerry, since he didn't.
But what we have now, and this is only my small opinion, is the opportunity for a new start. For America to make history again. Our very own war of independence; from a bitter, battered, broken system that robs it's people of their grace and dignity, from the express disappointment of the world at large, the animosity of countries that used to be allies. Our own way, in the single form of a man. Here is a man still young in the eyes of the precidency. Here is a man who is eloquent, and intelligent, thoughtful but not at the cost of expediency. Here is a man not bitter at our government or accepting of it's flaws. Here is a man who is not afraid to dream, to hope.
I'm not necessarily talking about his politics. I'm not arguing his policies or his voting record. I'm speaking almost enitrely of his character, of him as a man. Because a president is a man, or a woman as it could be, and should be judged on his character before all else.
I'm scared to live in this country, where every day we sink deeper into an ecominic depression, where the world at large is slowly becoming our enemy, where we are not welcome anywhere but within our own closed off, choking borders. I'm scared of a country where the people who should care don't.
I need hope. It's corny to say, ridiculous, and maybe I'm romanticising the notion. It's possible.
But even if I've thrown my support to a presidential hopeful before (Kerry, and Gore before him) there's never been on that has affected me on an emotional level. Barack Obama can bring tears to my eyes. This campaign, the people within it, the man it is run for, all of it, affects me. He speaks, or writes, and the words he says mean something and they are beautiful and they mean something. You can hear that it means something to him, you can see that it means something to the people that are listening. I've watched with admiration and respect as one foot has dropped after the other; Reverend Wright, Jesse Jackson, etc, Accusations of ignorance and lack of experience. A nation that alternates between finding him too black and yet not black enough. And through all of it he has kept his composure and his grace. Answered with more honesty than one can usually expect of a politician, more candor, more humor. This should, and for me does, speak greatly of a man who can change us, make us better, lead us to better, start something for generations after to finish.
It's corny, it's naive maybe and certainly blindly hopeful to think that this one man can make this large of a difference.
But for the first time in a long time, in this respect, I have that kind of blind hope.