Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Untitled Obama Blog

“Yes We Can”

“It’s Time for a Change”

Obama Campaign Slogans

“Well, Let’s see ya do it!”
Uncle Jack, Gallipoli (1981)

Well it happened, Obama won and it feels so good. To bring out a cliche, my generation is always going to remember where they were on this day.

I am going to remember Ese calling me, of course quoting Muhammed Ali, screaming “We Shook up the World! We Shook up the World!”

I am going to remember my Mom calling me from Grant Park, holding the phone up saying, “I’m here with Barry, Jeremy. Barry is talking to Me!”

I’m going to remember texts from Gabi, Adam, Josh and Hali.

I’m going to remember my Facebook status on election day (Jeremy Barack’s with Obama but he ain’t no politician---If you don’t know it listen to Jockin' Jay-Z).

And I’m going to remember my status once he won (Tupac was wrong, we ARE ready---If you don’t know listen to Changes).

I’m going to remember thinking “Oh My God, I have to see what Fox News is doing” and flipping over to see them speaking about the impact that had been made. Which was the classy thing to do...but I couldn’t help but feel it was a tad disingenuous.

I'm going to remember, despite the joy of the night, being shocked and disappointed in California voters over Prop 8. Really?!?!?

I’m going to remember how classy McCain was in defeat; his class as cheesy as it sounds helped create a feeling that it was the UNITED States of America.

I’m going to remember the feeling I got during THAT SPEECH.

About a month and a half ago, I was in Washington D.C. for work. While I was there I visited my cousin Christine. We had just gotten coffee, iced coffee considering the mind-numbing humidity we were experiencing, and I saw a man selling T-Shirts on the corner with images of Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama on them, my reaction at the time was..."That seems a BIT pre-mature."

Well tonight, during THAT SPEECH, the one thought I couldn’t get out of my head was, “This is how it must have felt to see Martin Luther King Jr.”

Which made me happy and afraid. I got a lot of scary, morbid thoughts as an aftermath of that thought, but I am not going to go into them.

Instead I am going to focus how tonight, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) appeared to be everything we want in the aftermath of the last 8 years. He was excited, but not exuberant. He was aware of the historical impact he had made, yet focused on the challenges that lie ahead. He was a family man, a man of the people, but most of all he was Presidential. He had the air of a man who knew he had a huge challenge ahead of him, but knew that he could get it done because of who he was. If I would compare Obama’s election to a sports event, I am praying for my generation and future generations that it is Kevin Garnett getting traded to the Boston Celtics. If KG can get the ‘Celts a ring, than I hope to G-d that Obama can bring America back to the country I grew up in during the Clinton Years, as said in my last attempt at a political blog, when life was simple and cool.

I am confident in Obama: a dynamic speaker, fresh ideas, and ready and willing to shake things up, I am putting my faith in him based on that.

I have a friend who is a voracious Republican, who frankly paid more attention during our Poli-Sci classes than me, who is very anti-Obama. He thinks Obama’s going to destroy the economy by raising corporate taxes and that his tax program is a redistribution of wealth. That Obama is too inexperienced to negotiate with our enemies, that an early pull-out from Iraq will make it fall to Iran. As a Poli-Sci student, I see the theoretical place he is coming from. However, I also believe that theories don’t always translate to real life. That though I didn’t go to Professor Crouch’s Econ class enough to combat his arguments, that the system that his arguments are based on has to have failed, otherwise we wouldn’t be in this mess. That the old way wasn’t working, so it’s on us to do what we got to do...to survive.

He is probably gong to scoff at that paragraph if and when he reads it.

But it doesn’t matter, because It’s Time for a Change, Yes We Can, and....

“ANYTHING IS POSSSSIBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

2 comments:

GLM said...

Mom called him "Barry"?

Great blog!

ouizoid said...

Thats what HIS mom called him--it reslly is a good blog!