History my friends
Wow Nation. After Obama’s vast victory over McCain and listening to his speech of change, I must say I, yes even I, am filled with a sense of hope for the future. Even I, the cynical anachronism, the questioning observer, the apathetic politician, the nigh ex-patriot, even I feel a strain of hope lingering within my otherwise cold receptacle of patriotism. Barack Obama’s words spoke not only to the masses, but to individuals; to become more then one’s self and better the nation as a whole. It’s good to have an eloquent speaker back in the white house, something I only recall from fuzzy historical news reels and sound bites.
I am at last proud again of my nation and what it might accomplish. Pride that I haven’t felt since the days and weeks after 9/11 when we saw different peoples of all classes and backgrounds in America fighting as one to save those lost in that tragedy and rebuild what was destroyed into something great again. Traveling abroad, I have since spoken with countless foreigners, all having respect for our great nation on that day because they couldn’t say with certainty that they’re countries would band together as we did. But while that pride was born of grief, this pride comes from joy and I pray gives rise to an America of which we can again be proud. I am not one to be easily talked into anything or become suggestible, in fact many would call me stubborn, but listening to our new President Elect Barack Obama, I must allow myself some hope for the future; that perhaps one man can inspire a nation and create a world of change for the better. And if I can change, if I can be brought to believe, then perhaps America can be brought to once again believe in itself.