red white + blue... perspective + freedom

So *technically* Barack Obama is not the President. Absentee ballots have another week or something to arrive. But he's popular and he makes huge promises, so I'm just taking it and moving on. (I'm sick of election drama, remember??)

BUT.... I am excited about his win, even though Sarah Palin is SO going to rock this in 2012. (McCain? Yeah.... no comment...) I'm not an Obama fan, and even though he clearly doesn't respect certain religions and beliefs, he is our President. We must pray for his guidance and strength whether we like him or not. I pray for his safety in a nation that has made huge strides in acceptance but still lacks where it counts the most. I hope his experience is enough to help him make the difficult choices that we cannot even yet dream of. Deep inside? I hope his elaborate promises (that I know in most cases are not realistic) bring a little bit of relief to people like me - people with disabilities, people in minorities, those who need a little help NOT out of laziness and lack of will, but simply out of chance, fate, circumstances out of their control. Those who simply want to live the American dream and do so with more courage than any other normal citizen. You know, not everyone is willing to continually wrestle with and defeat an obstacle, fighting a million times harder for the same thing other people can achieve with much less effort. Yes, there are the lazy. Then there are the oppressed, the victims, the "unlucky" if that's what you want to say.  I'll even admit that the Republicans peg us all together. We're the ones who want the handouts because we enjoy watching TV too much to go work, right? WRONG.

So see.... it goes both ways. It's all in how you look at it. Perspective.

I do want to say though, this is a victory so much bigger than a man himself. This is a victory for all of us, men and women, black, white, yellow, hot pink, whatever. If only Dr. King could have lived to see this day. Surely he is looking down and smiling. Our country is one step closer to really believing our fundamental values, just a little bit closer to - as a whole - truly believing that all are created equal. Because we are. The same blood in your veins is flowing in mine.

And even though Barack Obama pays his female staff a mere .80 to the dollar compare to his male staff (yes, I DO have an issue with that), Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton and Anna Shaw and allll of our other beautiful grandmothers would be smiling, too. Why? Because we women aren't just voting. We're rocking the vote. We're statistically constistantly more likely to vote than men. (Ironic, boys?) WE are the ones who aren't ashamed to ensure that our voices are heard. We're going places. We're balancing work, family, education. The best of us? The guys are just afraid. But you wait and see - one day, we will have a female President. Maybe even an African-American female President. I hope and pray it's in my lifetime. Today's win makes it just a little closer.

So with this win, my heart is elated for my African-American friends, and I am so proud to be an American woman because I know in my heart that it's our turn next. Think Obama's switching things up? Put a woman in office. The right woman can change the world.

Tonight, I'm thankful for freedom. I'm thankful for equality. I'm thankful for acceptance and free choice and free speech and the right to vote to keep all of those rights. I'm thankful for America. I hope she remembers where she came from, and I hope she can be a shining example for the rest of the world - so many people are just starving for freedom. Don't take any of this for granted.

Don't tell me we can't change.

Yes, we can. Yes, we can change. Yes, we can.

Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can seize our future. And as we leave this great state with a new wind at our backs and we take this journey across this great country, a country we love, with the message we carry from the plains of Iowa to the hills of New Hampshire, from the Nevada desert to the South Carolina coast, the same message we had when we were up and when we were down, 

that out of many, we are one; 

that WHILE WE BREATHE, WE WILL HOPE.

And where we are met with cynicism and doubt and fear and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of the American people in three simple words:

    ......YES WE CAN......

Senator, now President, Barack Obama

January, 2008