3 posts tagged “obama”
By sheer coincidence, I have today off -- the rest of the world had yesterday off, but I have today free. There's no one in the house to hug, so i hugged Halston the Kitty, who was confused but pleased and annointed my cheek with his sandpaper tongue.
During the election season, my dad told me that four years ago, I told him that Barack Obama would be president someday. I kind of remember this, although I think I meant "someday" and not "the very next president." At the time I said it, I was living in Illinois. Obama was in a largely uncontested senate race, and making his case to Illinoisians in a very calm, collected way, calling on us to gather together in a feast of reason. At the time, I truly believed John Kerry would be the next president, but I was impressed by what I was witnessing and so I made that statement to my dad. 2012, I thought. And after Bush... won (shudder) that election, I honestly thought Hillary was the next in line, and that would push Barack to 2016.
But the force of history has proved otherwise. I didn't dare to hope for it when he announced his run in 2007-- when I still lived in Illinois. I felt an inkling of it when he won Iowa early in 2008. And then I went to see him speak in Feb. of last year at the Target center in Minneapolis. Fifty-thousand people cheering in a crowd at every word he spoke -- fifty thousand people hugging each other, clasping hands and believing fervently that this man could lead our country in the right direction, after eight years of sad mismanagement. That he could stand up and become president and show the world that America was commited to a change -- to becoming the land of the free again.
It became real.
It's happening now, and I can tell my little niece and nephew about this day, and how we worked to make this happen for them, and what it means for them. I can look at them and say, "If you want, you too can be president someday -- that no limitation of race or sex will hold you back from doing so." I will tell them that this was the birth of an American dream for people like me and their parents I will never be able to talk about this day without getting sentimental and hopeful.
Today we celebrate, tomorrow we work.
Where i am when this happens: In my apartment in St. Paul, with my roommate's cats, with a smile plastered on my face and tears running down my cheeks.
Here's the deal.
I don't plan on voting for John McCain, but that doesn't mean I think he's the devil. Quite the opposite -- eight years ago, when I actually WAS young and naive, I would have voted for him. Seriously -- I thought he was like "Republican Light." I didn't know much about politics then -- I know more now. Now, he's demonstrated that he would support policies that I don't support (overturning roe v wade, action against iran, staying in iraq), I don't want to give him my vote. Same as four years ago, I would be voting for whoever was ideologically opposed to the incumbant party. I would be voting democrat no matter what.
That in mind, I refuse to be "negative" this campaign. I may get angry when the GOP invates the STP for their conference in September, but I promise to avoid unnecessary negativity re: John McCain. Because again, I won't vote for him, but he's not the devil. I will avoid reading blatantly negative and one-sided things about him. I will only concentrate on why I want to vote FOR someone, not AGAINST someone else.
And I suggest you do the same, my fellow Americans. And if the answer isn't Obama or McCain for you, find your third party candidate. Let's just be a democracy here.
I, for one, am voting FOR Obama because he his pro-choice, because he wants to develop a plan to get us out of Iraq, because he believes in National Service and so do I. Because he says he wants to work across the aisle, and stop the bipartisan insanity that has been our nation since before I was born.
Does this mean he will do all these things? I don't know, but I trust he can and I hope he will so he has my vote.
Now, these rules won't apply to Project Runway. I plan to be fucking VIRULENT about those who I hate on the new season. When it begins. In twelve days.
