Monday, February 4, 2008

Witnessing history

It's hard to put this in words... the feeling of sitting on the doorstep of history, of possibility, of truth waiting to break out and be heard. It's hard not to speak or think in poetry when what you see happening around you can only be felt, not described with any language I know. This morning in New Jersey, I felt the hopes and aspirations of America personified in Barack Obama.

Yes We Can.


What an exciting time to be alive. For the first time in my young life, in these last few days while I've been pounding the pavement for Barack, talking to residents of Harlem and Washington Heights and young people like me who yearn for the world to be a better place, who know in their hearts the world is not as it should be, I have felt the fervent possibility of justice and equality. This feeling has to be similar to how the founders of this country felt, how freed slaves felt, how people in poor villages in Africa feel - when they sense their time has come. Our time has come.

This is our chance to bring that hope to the world.

I can only interpret the amazing groundswell of the last few days in every corner of the country, from South Carolina to Kansas to California to Idaho to New Jersey - as the collective voices of all types of Americans calling for change. Not just a change of the person holding the title of President - that's going to happen no matter what. But a change in the fundamental way we think of ourselves and of our place in the world. A change in what we believe to be possible.

Together, can we find solutions to global warming? Yes we can. Poverty, hunger, AIDS in Africa? Yes we can. End, truly end the divisiveness of discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion? Yes we can. We could have done it long ago - but we needed a leader to come along and believe in us. Barack Obama is a very special leader - he doesn't try to do things by himself - he empowers us to believe in ourselves. Because it is us - you and me together - that will make the changes we believe to be possible in our country and our world. It's the only way it will ever work.

Below are some pictures I took today. If your state is voting tomorrow, please go out and vote. Give this country the chance to dream again.

Thank you, Barack, for all you do.


Barack Obama in New Jersey
































1 comment:

Jenn said...

Awesome pictures! I'm glad you got to go. I'll have to talk to you about it! I'm going to the caucus tomorrow night. It's at Newman University. Love you!