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August 19, 2009
E-mail a friendYOUNG VOICES
Basking in the Light of a New Day
The feeling today across America, for the first time in a long time, is one of celebration. Granted, much of the American voting public are probably pissed off that McCain won't be leaving his Arizona compound any time soon, but they will come around eventually. After a long, hard, ugly fight, Barack Hussein Obama is now President-elect of the United States of America, and our country will never be the same again.
Obama is an inspiring and charismatic speaker, and he won his country over by promising the most powerful thing of all: change. His victory is unprecedented, and proof positive that what Americans want more than anything is a departure from the new ways of Washington and a return to a less cynical form of politics. Americans want a government that takes care of its citizens, not one that dumps them on profit-driven private industry. Americans want to be seen again as citizens of the greatest nation on earth, the leaders of the free world, a symbol of promise and hope for the future. So many Americans are tired of wars on terror and drugs, of crowded prisons and of children being left behind that Obama's promises rang true as the bell of liberty itself.
Without a doubt, Obama was and is the man for his time. It has been said, and rightly so, that a white man of his credentials would never be in his position. Could anyone else, though, of any color? Barack Obama is a natural leader, and beyond that, a representative of a new America that transcends the race politics of the last century. And America proved yesterday that it is ready for that.
Now, of course, after the promises have been made, the campaign fought, and the election won, the hardest part is yet to come. Now, Barack Obama will have to actually be the agent of change that he's promised himself to be. But, in a sense, he already is.
NPR reports this morning that Amanda Jones, a 109-year-old Texas woman who was born in 1899 to a freed slave, called the election a blessing. She certainly didn't expect to see a black man in the White House in her lifetime. Honestly, did any of us? Change is here, for all Americans and for good.
Whatever happens now, there is no turning back. This victory is much bigger than the presidency; it is a victory for America itself.