Wednesday, November 05, 2008

My President Obama

This is what it means to me.

It unleashes immeasurable amounts of creativity. Whether you liked will.i.am's Yes, we can! as a musical composition or not, that video (made in a few days) was an indication of creativity to come throughout the election. I don't think this will be limited to music. I think we are entering a period of people opening up their minds to possibility. No speech changes the world, but if words move and inspire, new stuff, for lack of a better word, is going to come out of us all.

It is creating new energy!

It turns the cynicism about America on it's head. When Obama sits down with a Medvedev, Chavez, Ahmadinejad (without or without conditions), Hu or Bozize, it will be a completely different conversation than if it had been any other candidate. You cannot have watched that campaign and come away saying American is under the thumb of the nameless powers that be. I believe Obama's conversations will be more about the issues than about outrageous conspiracy theories simply because of what he is and because of what his campaign has accomplished.

It begins - and it is only a start - to restore some integrity of to the ideals that are woven through American history.

It is a very welcome challenge to realize that we will confront race, which remains an elephant in the room in American and around the world. And it isn't only black and white. We still live in a world where the shade of your skin, the nationality of your passport and your ethnicity in that passport matter far too much. It's not going to be an easy conversation, but we are going to make it more explicit.

To those who say, "unproven", "inexperienced" and that we should get ready for disappointment, I say give it a chance. I have risked to be inspired and I cannot tell if it will last, but the injection of inspiration has and will change my life. Of that, I am sure.

Yes, we can.

1 comment:

natalie said...

Well put.

I liked this article:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/168032