Once you choose hope, anything is possible

[darkelf105]

We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
                                         ---Barack Obama

I voted in what is probably one of the most important elections that my generation will ever experience. I am hopeful, not because I think Obama is superman and can fix everything, but that an Obama victory will signify to the powers that be in Washington that while America may continue to be a "conservative" nation, it is also a nation of hope, of community. It is a place where Americans give a damn about each other and are finally putting aside foolish and childish myths about prosperity and it's relationship to consumer goods. Hopefully, an Obama victory will mean that all of us have looked around and have thought, Hey, as nice as a flat screen in every living room would be, thirty years from now, well, I'd rather have sustainable green places, a secure infrastructure and schools that give my children not only access to the education they need to prosper but open the doors to their heritage and to the life of their minds. I believe an Obama victory will signify that Americans are finally ready to start paying attention to their country again, are ready to get involved in more arduous processes than voting in American Idol and are finally willing to settle for a little less so that all of us can have a little more: a little more stability, a little more community, a little more public space, a little more health, a little more public works, a little more green technology, a little more public transportation,  a little more education, a little more neighborliness, a little more planning for the future. And hopefully, a little less as well: a little less pollution, a little less debt, a little less self-centeredness, a little less me mentality, a little less poverty and hunger.


The only way a nation can sustain itself is through itself. America's a future doesn't lie in just military strength, though our  army  is strong and I believe the finest in the world, but in its peoples and how they live and view each other. It doesn't jsut lie in its economy or the free market, which is in essence an irrational, unthinking "place". A nation is made up of people, people living, working, and making decisions that affect everyone else. A nation is a place where everyone has to live with all other citizens of that nation and a free nation is a place where all of us give up just a little so that everyone can be free. I tolerate the crazy Fundamentalist Christian nextdoor so that I can be an atheist. I listen to obnoxious morons denigrate women on air and instead of using laws and censorship to silence them I work through my own words and actions to change things so that all of us can have freedom of speech.  I acknowledge that there are people whom I will never agree with, but I also acknowledge that they are human and have the same rights that everyone I agree with has. I must tolerate others who are different so that in turn I am tolerated and we all live in a true democracy and not in a fake one. I  believe in the power of real freedom, not the power to buy whatever I want whenever I want, but in a freedom that is beyond tangible things, a freedom that is real and just and available to everyone, not just the rich and those with good credit. I believe in a nation where all of us, no matter what our backgrounds, believe ultimately in the goodness and essential humanity of our neighbors and because of this belief, we put aside our differences to make a world where everyone can live in.

I believe that an Obama victory says that other Americans believe what I believe.

No offense to the Republican party, for there are fine Americans who are members of it, but your ideology and values have given me the Ownership Society, Familly Values that don't value the family, and Trickle Down Economics. It has given this nation a sickly global perspective and a failed economy, an educational system in which science is not taught and ethics are centered around a narrow Judeo-Christian ideology. I reject this. It's not working, but I also believe that deep down, most people, Republican, Democrat, third party, conservative or liberal, really has the welfare of the American people at the core of their beliefs and, I believe, using this core value, we can make  a better nation, stronger and more worthy than it has ever been.

I believe this because I live in an era where man was sent to the moon with the technology level of a hand calculator, in a world where human hearts can be transplanted, where thoughts travel around the world faster than sound, where spaceflight is not just science fiction but reality. I live in a world where the marvels of humanity's ingenuity are part of my daily life and because I have faith in humanity's power to save itself, I have faith that one nation can turn itself around.


That's what an Obama victory means to me. Change is a long time coming, and it won't come in four years, or even eight, but it is coming, and it is worth the wait and the work and the sacrifice. It has to be.

And so I end what some may view as a flippant, sugar coated post with this:

Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
                                    ----Arundhati Roy

True dat.

Comments

[e-t-a.livejournal.com]

Very well put. *claps*

\0/ Obama!

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Three cheers for Preznit Obama!!!!