Election Day 2008
Morning has just risen on Election day in America, a country nearly as divided in its civil discourse as it was when Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. Then as now, the nation was struggling for its very existence and a long, thin man from Illinois entered office with a mission to prevent its dissolution.
Unless I am very wrong, the closing of this day will find another long, thin man from Illinois standing before the American people, worn from a grueling campaign, joyful in his victory, yet tempered in that joy by the knowledge of the daunting task that lays ahead.
I was watching him speak last night, making his last speech of the day, the final speech of this election campaign, before an audience of over 100,000 people in Virginia, and I was struck by the sight of it, this bright young African-American Senator who has taken on his shoulders the hopes, the desperate hopes, of the tens of thousands assembled there that night. And although he was charged by the passion that swelled around him, his eyes were clear and focused and he never appeared to be carried away by the moment. It was as if he knew he was about to turn a page in his life, that he realized the great responsibility would soon be his to bear.
Much has been written about his election being the most important in recent history and I would have to agree. The economy is in shambles, we are engaged in two wars, our planet is in danger of passing a point of no return and the politics of the last twenty years has brought about a balkanization of the nation into red and blue camps, fiercely divided by religious ideology, money and fear.
I wouldn’t want to be Barack Obama, but I am hopeful for the first time in a long time that we are about to elect the right man for the most important job in the world. I wish him well, not just for the outcome of today’s election, but for the promise he embodies. He is not a magician, and no single person will be able to cure the ills we suffer from, but he is the best hope we have to unite this divided nation and lead it through the troubles we are certain to face in the coming years.
November 4, 2008
Unless I am very wrong, the closing of this day will find another long, thin man from Illinois standing before the American people, worn from a grueling campaign, joyful in his victory, yet tempered in that joy by the knowledge of the daunting task that lays ahead.
I was watching him speak last night, making his last speech of the day, the final speech of this election campaign, before an audience of over 100,000 people in Virginia, and I was struck by the sight of it, this bright young African-American Senator who has taken on his shoulders the hopes, the desperate hopes, of the tens of thousands assembled there that night. And although he was charged by the passion that swelled around him, his eyes were clear and focused and he never appeared to be carried away by the moment. It was as if he knew he was about to turn a page in his life, that he realized the great responsibility would soon be his to bear.
Much has been written about his election being the most important in recent history and I would have to agree. The economy is in shambles, we are engaged in two wars, our planet is in danger of passing a point of no return and the politics of the last twenty years has brought about a balkanization of the nation into red and blue camps, fiercely divided by religious ideology, money and fear.
I wouldn’t want to be Barack Obama, but I am hopeful for the first time in a long time that we are about to elect the right man for the most important job in the world. I wish him well, not just for the outcome of today’s election, but for the promise he embodies. He is not a magician, and no single person will be able to cure the ills we suffer from, but he is the best hope we have to unite this divided nation and lead it through the troubles we are certain to face in the coming years.
November 4, 2008
Labels: 2008 Election
posted by Berlinbound at 11:06 AM
1 Comments:
Well said.
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