Congratulations, President Obama.
I haven't said anything about the election going on in the US here until now. This post may not even make it to the publish button; but I'm caught up, I'm emotional, I'm in it.
This is a historic election. I am not American. The campaign has been going on for almost two years. I have been inundated with information about elections in a country I am not even a part of. I seriously wanted everyone to shut the fuck up early on. I dislike American politics; I dislike that I know more about American politics than Canadian politics; I dislike American propaganda, which I have found to be arrogant, pompous, and self-congratulatory. And then I heard the video inspired by a speech of Barack Obama's, containing words he said, and I was moved despite myself. I did not want to be moved. I called my mother in and showed her, too, and we both stood with tears in our eyes and dared to hold just a little hope that things would get better.
That's what the campaign is to me: it's hope. YES WE CAN. It's hope and sincerity and humbleness and humility and the promise of hard work. I don't want to hope; hope hurts. I have hoped for many things in my life and it often seems as though they were all dashed, one by one. (This is not true. However, hopes abandoned outnumber hopes fulfilled.) I didn't want to hope for Obama as president; I was so sure he wouldn't make it into office. I didn't think the American people would want what I tried hard not to want, but they did.
Your president-elect doesn't scare me. I look forward to his time in office. I want to see what he does, how he speaks, what changes he will make. And I believe he will make change, and that Americans will make change, and that they already have this day when they turned out in huge numbers to cast their votes and spoke with a passion, and I have not liked you scrappy, scrappy Americans so much since you stood in defiance and mourning of the September 11th attacks. Tonight I watched a president-elect's speech and tonight I am proud to be your neighbour with a U.
This is a historic election. I am not American. The campaign has been going on for almost two years. I have been inundated with information about elections in a country I am not even a part of. I seriously wanted everyone to shut the fuck up early on. I dislike American politics; I dislike that I know more about American politics than Canadian politics; I dislike American propaganda, which I have found to be arrogant, pompous, and self-congratulatory. And then I heard the video inspired by a speech of Barack Obama's, containing words he said, and I was moved despite myself. I did not want to be moved. I called my mother in and showed her, too, and we both stood with tears in our eyes and dared to hold just a little hope that things would get better.
That's what the campaign is to me: it's hope. YES WE CAN. It's hope and sincerity and humbleness and humility and the promise of hard work. I don't want to hope; hope hurts. I have hoped for many things in my life and it often seems as though they were all dashed, one by one. (This is not true. However, hopes abandoned outnumber hopes fulfilled.) I didn't want to hope for Obama as president; I was so sure he wouldn't make it into office. I didn't think the American people would want what I tried hard not to want, but they did.
Your president-elect doesn't scare me. I look forward to his time in office. I want to see what he does, how he speaks, what changes he will make. And I believe he will make change, and that Americans will make change, and that they already have this day when they turned out in huge numbers to cast their votes and spoke with a passion, and I have not liked you scrappy, scrappy Americans so much since you stood in defiance and mourning of the September 11th attacks. Tonight I watched a president-elect's speech and tonight I am proud to be your neighbour with a U.