And Just Like That….
* Intelligence has defeated ignorance.
* Chicago has been redeemed.
* The financial crisis will end, and my family and friends will be saved from economic ruin.
* The first words in the last chapter of this senseless, lie-driven war in Iraq have at last been written.
* My generation has risen up to seize its destiny.
* My fear for the future of America has ended.
* Those who would have embraced censorship and discrimination have been pushed back, and no matter what news I wake up to on California’s Proposition tomorrow, there will be gay marriage in this country sometime in the future.
* Maturity and readiness have at last been redefined.
* And best of all, every idealistic belief I’ve ever expressed in my entire life has been vindicated.
I realize that I’m making some overly sweeping statements here, but let me. I’ve been a supporter of Barack Obama since the primaries, but I was afraid to show my affiliation on this site lest anything I might’ve said be taken out of context. But now, I’m afraid no longer. Barack Obama as a candidate symbolizes many of the beliefs I’ve held all my life, in a very broad sense, and chief among these is the idea of hope. In a time where, despite the fact that my life is by all logical measures going well, I’ve started to feel myself getting a little bit crushed beneath the coldness and cynicism of my surroundings, I very much needed to feel hope again, and I think many of those close to me could say the same.
In some ways, this has been like me showing one of my despondant relatives that idealism is not dead yet, and that not everyone who is idealistic has to be some kind of ideologue. Step by step and vote by vote since the primaries, Obama has demolished first the old Democratic establishment, and now the Republican one. We are on the verge of a brand-new era, and I couldn’t be more excited.
“President Elect Obama.” I’ve been hoping for those words for the better part of a year now, and tonight, though I only watched part of the results with some friends and couldn’t quite run home fast enough to catch the exact instant of the official announcement, I was not disappointed. I’ll remember this day for the rest of my life.
