"In Search of Dignity"

"The old dignity code has not survived modern life. The costs of its demise are there for all to see. Every week there are new scandals featuring people who simply do not know how to act."

In Search of Dignity - David Brooks, NY Times

If more people in the public eye had a sense of dignity, what would our scandal-mongering press have to cover? There are so many things going on in the world today... but what is going to get the coverage? Michael Jackson's funeral.

A Witness To History

Someday, I will be telling my children, "I was there when..."

All during the day yesterday, from when I awoke, to waiting in line in the early morning to vote at the Mahoney Recreation Center, to listening to the radio on the way home from work and then watching the returns on the election coverage provided by PBS, I felt that I was a part of and a witness to history being made. Last night, I stayed awake while most had already gone to bed. After the announcement of victory had been made, I had to hear President Elect Barack Obama's speech as it was given live. I only wish I could have been in Grant Park to feel the elctricty that must have been in the air.

As I worte earlier this year, Barack Obama gave me a sense of hope that we desperately needed as a country. The opening comments of his speech last night spoke directly to what I believe:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

Who ever you voted for yesterday, I pray that everyone can believe in yesterday's answer.

Someday, when my children are learning US history in high school, I will be giving them a little bit of extra credit homework of my own. I want them to read these two speeches by Barack Obama. I believe that at least one of them will be tought in history classes fifty or one hundred years from now.

A More Perfect Union - March 18, 2008
Yes, We Can - November 4, 2008

I look forward to teaching my children about yesterday. Teaching them about the dream of our forefathers, why we are all so lucky to be citizens of such a great republic, and that my vote yesterday was to pass along my hopes and dreams to them as they grow up in this world that we are all creating for them.

Yesterday gave me my answer. Yes, we are all in this together.

Barack Obama: My Generation's JFK?

Being an independent voter, I look forward to the horse races of the primaries to be over with. I wish that I lived in a state with open primaries. If I did, I would have cast my vote for Barack Obama. For the first time since I could vote, I have never been as hopeful for a presidential candidate as I have for this person.

This November, I think our country has a chance to shed its cynicism, shed its fear and believe once again that we can make tomorrow better than yesterday. I long for renewal of my faith in the idealistic principles that our country was created from. I believe that Barack Obama can heal this country in a way that John McCain cannot. In a word, Barack Obama gives me Hope.

He gives me hope that he can truly do something to help the squeeze that is on working/middle class Americans. Everyday it feels like I have to make more just to break even. Obama is not a child of privilege. Although he may not have to worry about his finances now, I'm sure that he remembers what it was like to try to make ends meet.

Barack Obama gives me hope that he can restore America's standing in the world. Our current president and his administration has squandered everything that this country stood for in the world. I think that if the world sees us elect Barack Obama, they will realize that it is our resolve to move on from the failed policies of the last eight years and rebuild.

Most of all, Obama gives me hope that we can heal the divisions in our country like no one else in the last two hundred years of our federal republic. Whether those divisions are racial, economic, political, religious, or whatever else those in power have used as a wedge to drive us apart. I hope that I can show my children that it doesn't matter who you are, we are all in this together and we all can make a difference.

Since his speech at the DNC in 2004, I have held out hope for this person to run for president for the reasons above and many more. I'm happy that he has made it through his party's process to become a presidential nominee. So without a doubt, my vote this November will go towards Barack Obama. I hope yours will as well.