November 4, 2008
Today Senator Barack Obama was elected president—the first African-American president of the United States. We have made history, lovelies!! This in itself is a huge, HUGE victory. ENORMOUS!! Someone other than a white male (an entirely white male, that is, as Obama is half white) has been elected to the highest office we have. This means we are looking at the man, at his qualifications, and not at the color of his skin, as the determining factor as to whether he can do the job. This, therefore, means we are evolving.
But as gigantic a step as this is, beyond it...as he was making his acceptance speech, he spoke of all Americans coming together to fix the problems we’re facing, about how he’s going to be EVERYONE’S president, not just for those who supported him, about how democracy is still alive and well and by god, “Yes, WE CAN.” It was during these words that I began to feel again.
For so long, I’ve not felt anything when it came to government. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I mistrust it. I grew up in the era of the public dawning of the unraveling of the system: post-Kennedy, during Watergate, the Iran Contras, etc. I grew up knowing full well that government was not the sterling pillar that my parents and grandparents had believed it to be, that corruption was inherently part of the whole system. When it comes to politics, I am a cynical Gen X-er. During the last eight years alone, the idea of the government, and what it represented, absolutely sickened me. I have never felt so polarized from Americans who believe differently than I do than during these last eight years. I don’t like this gap. While it never has been just friendly disagreement, it has become truly savage. This vicious in-fighting between humanist liberals and the religious conservatives eats at one’s soul. Many of ours have withered under the Bush Administration.
But Obama spoke about repairing relations (both with the world and between factions here), about working together--non-partisan--as simply Americans trying to make things right again, to fix the brokenness of America. And I realized, my god, that’s what I want, too. I really do. I’m so sick of feeling antagonism between left and right. I want to close the rift that’s come between us. I want the parties to give up their rabid hatred of what the other stands for. I want us to let go of this all-or-nothing, party line, if-you’re-not-for-us-you’re-against-America mentality. I don’t think I’m being naïve—it CAN be done. Not all at once, magically. But with work, we can individually overthrow these knee-jerk reactions. Let’s all grow up and make good, sound decisions for the good of ALL of us. Because while we’re occupied with fighting each other, a lesser civil war, we accomplish NOTHING.
Obama wants to get to work. He is eloquent with his sincerity. He BELIEVES we can do this together. It made me believe that we can, too.
That’s why I am RELIEVED that we made him our president.
But as gigantic a step as this is, beyond it...as he was making his acceptance speech, he spoke of all Americans coming together to fix the problems we’re facing, about how he’s going to be EVERYONE’S president, not just for those who supported him, about how democracy is still alive and well and by god, “Yes, WE CAN.” It was during these words that I began to feel again.
For so long, I’ve not felt anything when it came to government. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I mistrust it. I grew up in the era of the public dawning of the unraveling of the system: post-Kennedy, during Watergate, the Iran Contras, etc. I grew up knowing full well that government was not the sterling pillar that my parents and grandparents had believed it to be, that corruption was inherently part of the whole system. When it comes to politics, I am a cynical Gen X-er. During the last eight years alone, the idea of the government, and what it represented, absolutely sickened me. I have never felt so polarized from Americans who believe differently than I do than during these last eight years. I don’t like this gap. While it never has been just friendly disagreement, it has become truly savage. This vicious in-fighting between humanist liberals and the religious conservatives eats at one’s soul. Many of ours have withered under the Bush Administration.
But Obama spoke about repairing relations (both with the world and between factions here), about working together--non-partisan--as simply Americans trying to make things right again, to fix the brokenness of America. And I realized, my god, that’s what I want, too. I really do. I’m so sick of feeling antagonism between left and right. I want to close the rift that’s come between us. I want the parties to give up their rabid hatred of what the other stands for. I want us to let go of this all-or-nothing, party line, if-you’re-not-for-us-you’re-against-America mentality. I don’t think I’m being naïve—it CAN be done. Not all at once, magically. But with work, we can individually overthrow these knee-jerk reactions. Let’s all grow up and make good, sound decisions for the good of ALL of us. Because while we’re occupied with fighting each other, a lesser civil war, we accomplish NOTHING.
Obama wants to get to work. He is eloquent with his sincerity. He BELIEVES we can do this together. It made me believe that we can, too.
That’s why I am RELIEVED that we made him our president.
Comments
I've felt that same damper on the spirit since the day Bush II was sworn in.
Its a new day!
Of course we are all responsible for ourselves and our thoughts, ultimately, but it's a bit harder to do when the media and popular opinion are being whipped into a frenzy by certain factions in power. When it's purposely designed to be that way by spin doctors who work for those factions, in order to split groups into "us" a and "them" and create distrust and fear. And then people begin thinking and acting like that for real. There's a reason it's called "divide and conquer".
I happen to think the office of the president should be above intentionally using such tactics. I would like my president to be a moral person, because he is representing me when dealing with the world.
It takes enlightenment to quiet that noise and see past it. We can still descend to mob mentality pretty quickly, after all. It's a long road to enlightenment. Doesn't mean we should give up halfway through, but it is a long road. It's just easier without the noise.
But the Republican party has morphed into a theocracy--this is not the Republican party of the Reagan years that I remember (of course, I was young, but I don't remember having fanatic religion be PART of its identity like it is now--older folks might beg to differ...). I know Republicans who are atheists or agnostics who can no longer relate. America was founded on separation of church and state. I don't know if the fanaticism has caused the divisive tactics or not, but it is awfully suspicious that they have come about simultaneously...