It's actually scary to listen to the speech of someone who speaks so well and so much to the heart. I love that he reached out to those who did not vote for him. I love that he pointed out that the work has only just begun. (Because he's right. There's a long road ahead.)
It's scary to have my hopes raised so high.
Scary, but thrilling.
Wow. What a moment.
_________________________________
Makes me proud to be an American.
I love diversity. I think it's one of the best things this country has going for them. I simple do not understand those who want to be surrounded by those who are exactly like themselves. Intellectually, I know it's about fear, but I still don't really get it.
Like Michelle, I'm a little teary eyed about what this election says about the maturity of the American voter. A pundit on CNN pointed out that this doesn't mean that there isn't anymore racism, but that people are voting for Obama *in spite* of their own racism. I would point out also, *in spite* of the fact that he has a foreign sounding name. It was something that was extremely apparent to me when looking at my ballot. There is no hiding that his name is so different from the Joe Schmoe Anglo name.
Here's Jim's response.
Here's Janiece's well-written "Open Letter to President-Elect Barack".
John Scalzi has Reality Check post I think is a good antidote for some of the extremist kool-aid that's been drunk by both sides.
(Others to be posted as they appear.)
For perspective on John McCain from a former Navy man, here's Jim's post on McCain. (He's pretty rough on the guy, but then again, McCain betrayed something Jim really knows the value of -- his honor as a naval officer.)
More from Michelle and Nathan (stole a link from him, see below).
And to address the breaking of a racial barrier, here is Whoopi Goldberg (Isn't that a Jewish name?) and our own MWT, an American of Asian descent.
9 comments:
I was struck by how wonderful it was to see so many people CARE about the political process. To come back to this point after the hopelessness and apathy from the last two elections - people *really* thought that there was no point and that it didn't matter - Obama, and the way he has run his campaign, has given that hope back to the people of this country. I also liked John McCain's speech, I thought it was very indicative of who he *really* is - and not what his campaign had portrayed in these last few months. He is a man to be greatly admired and it's clear to see he means very strongly to do whatever he can to support Obama and continue pushing this country in the right direction, regardless of their differences in opinions on certain topics.
I agree. I really appreciated McCain's speech, because it gave the *real* McCain back to us. It distressed me to see such a good man being destroyed by the political machine around him.
And for once, I actually believed a politician when he said he supported his opponent. Yay John McCain!
I am trying to channel the speech writers today as i work on my term papers. If I could have an 1/8 of their flair, than an "A" is not out of reach!
I used to get all fired up about my own country's elections, but in recent times, there really has been no point. Last night, watching the passion, was a reminder of all of the times that I wanted change, hoped for change..and now know that change can happen, if you believe.
My post is up (as someone on the outside looking in)
I have been told that Maya Angelou spoke one of her poems this morning, at a TV interview. I would have loved to see and hear that, as I admire her so much.
As we listened to Obama's victory speech, it made me feel most peculiar, because here was a politician speaking the truth! I didn't quite know how to take that! At least he had the sense to cool people's over-enthusiasm a bit by talking about the hard pull ahead. I liked the phrase "we can do it" that was used quite a bit.
I really appreciated Scalzi's blog post - because I really don't want to see a truly good man fall victim to the "Lucas effect". (my new term)
He's only one man, human, fallible, and weighted down by tremendous inertia and and unwieldy system of checks and balances.
I really admired McCain's speech too - it was a tremendous, classy job.
I'm looking forward to the next four years!
Oh that's it, now the whole internet knows I was crying!
;)
I love the feeling of hope.
My post is up too, and I'd like to also highly recommend this one.
I just added you, MWT. Thanks for your perspective and thanks for the link!
Thanks for all these links Anne! I'm still reading, still digesting. Still trying to wrap my head about how all these campaign promise topics will affect me, will affect my family, my state, my country... If the connections between everything is something that I will ever understand!
While my vote wasn't with Obama, I'm not upset that he was elected. Rather, I think I expected it. He's got a long uphill climb ahead of him, but not only for his sake but for the sake of America, I hope he works actively for the changes he promised, and I hope that in the end it's no so much about Democrats v. Republicans, liberals v. conservatives -- but about America standing behind a President that we can ALL be proud of. And about the United States herself standing for something that we can all be proud of again.
That's the future I'm hoping for.
Post a Comment