Yesterday, Barack Obama made a speech prompted by commentary stemming from some incendiary comments made in sermons by his pastor. I didn’t listen to it, as I figured that it would be the standard political hoop-jumping. I dismissed it as just another part of the campaign trail.
I was wrong. I am listening to it now as I type this on my lunch break. This is by far the best speech that I have heard in years. Even more importantly, I think that it is the most historically important speech on the social state of the US since Martin Luthor King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.
I don’t care if you are an Obama supporter, or a Clinton supporter. I don’t care if you are a democrat or a Republican, or any other political party. You need to watch/listen to this speech.
Then as you listen, remember that he wrote this, himself. This was not done by professional speech writers, but by the man behind the podium. We have a chance to go from a president who can barely get through a press conference when he doesn’t have a speech writer feeding him lines, to a president as eloquent as this.
I hope that everyone sees this speech. I hope that the inspiration that I feel from his candidacy will continue into an inspiration from the leadership of this country.
If you are unsure about your choice for president, or if you are and have not seen this speech take the 40 minutes and watch. This is who we can have as a president.
I dare you not to be inspired.
2 Comments on “History that I Almost Missed”
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I must admit to a certain level of skepticism before I began viewing this video. Not because I believed Barack was incapable of inspiring me, but because I believed him incapable of inspiring me more. Boy was I wrong.
I have believed in Obama since I began following this race in December. I have believed in him more with each word he’s spoken and the more I have heard from other candidates the more I have come to believe that while they may be good choices, they fail to offer the sort of hope and potential that Obama offers.
I watched this speech with my daughter, who is 3 months old, on my lap. It was an amazing duality that impacted me to the core. The people of my parent’s generation grew up in a society where segregation was a reality and where the inferiority of blacks was not an opinion but rather was a matter of fact. A fact that unfortunately still resonates with many people in that generation, though thankfully my parents are not among them. To be certain however, there are many– many in power and in poverty, in wealth and in weakness– who still hold anyone with brown skin to that same damning and demoralizing label (yes, he “n” word) as a reflex and without a second thought.
So we have a generation ahead of us who grew up thinking one way and then we have ourselves. People who grew up with black children in the desks next to us in school and had the luxury of taking that for granted– ignorant that anything else was ever the norm. We are a generation where a black man and a white woman (or vice versa) can be married and we don’t see them as a “brave” or “exceptional” couple, we only see them as a couple. We are a generation where the prospect of a black President represents hope and progress and not something to be feared or condemned. Here a mere 40 or so years after Dr. King was shot dead for so much as having that vision for the future. Still, we are a generation that has a level of fear of particular subsets of particular races. We see young black men gathered in a Mall and think “don’t shoot.” We lock our doors when the wrong sort of person is walking towards our car. We avoid entire neighborhoods and suburbs for fear that we will be harmed. And I dare say we are right to do so. There is still a huge racial divide in our country and although Rev. Wright was incorrect in the inflammatory, exaggerated and divisive tactics that he employed he was correct about the inequalities that persist amongst minorities and the government’s failure in it’s duty to bridge those gaps in the road to a more perfect union. The thought that any American would be allowed to go without education, healthcare or housing is intolerable. The fact that those deficiencies fall on racial lines is, well, simply un-American and in complete contradiction to the very notion of all men being created equal, living in a country with liberty and justice for all.
Which brings me to Linnea, the beautiful little girl who sat on my knee as I watched this. It gave me hope– hope beyond words. Hope that as much progress as has been made since our parents were children, it will pale in comparison to the changes she will see in her lifetime and the things she will take for granted on her first day of school. I believe with all my heart that Barack Obama is the best candidate, indeed the only candidate who will make this into a reality. I believe with all my heart that Linnea will read in her history books about former President Obama and how he started the journey to overcome the next, and hopefully last, set of racial hurdles our country faces and that just as our generation recognizes Dr. King as the driving force that started the journey to civil rights, her generation will be the one who recognizes Obama as the man who finally brought about the beginning of the end. I hope hers is the generation who not only feels no inequality in her heart but also sees no inequality on the streets of her city. Who sees no violence on the news. who sees gangs for what they are– idiotic. Will there always be differences between blacks and whites? Of course, but they don’t have to be damning ones.
So while Ashley was there for all the kids eating relish and mustard sandwiches, and the old black man was there because of Ashley, I am here because of Linnea and I do not hope, but rather believe that history will tell the story of this man, and indeed this moment in time, as the tipping point in time where the end of racial inequality started. As I often ask myself how this country, founded on the notion of freedom, could have ever seen a race as inferior to the point of being worthy of indentured servitude, to the point of keeping that race segregated from all others, to the point of disallowing that race to have it’s suffrage rights ignored, I hope that Linnea asks herself how this country ever allowed an entire race inferior access to education, healthcare, drug prevention and law enforcement. I hope it amazes her that the reality of today ever existed and I believe Barack Obama will be the man that takes her there.
Posted on March 19, 2008 at 10:08 pm.
I have to agree with Chris. I didn’t think Obama was capable of inspiring me more. And like Chris, I was wrong. I missed this speech, I am not sure why but I did. Listening to it as I was fighting to give my whole attention to it and fighting Logan and Evan to give mommy a minute, it was still so moving. This has to be the best speech I have heard in my lifetime!
Each year that I have had the chance to vote. I voted with my heart, the one in my mind was going to do their best and if they messed up, we as Americans wouldn’t pay for it as much. If you can’t tell, I haven’t gotten the president I want. But as a mother, I now vote with my brain and heart. I have to leave my children and one day grandbabies in a world that is much better than when I was in it. I want my children to grow proud of their country.
Obama is that for me. He has never said he will change America, that things will get better in his term if he wins. He simply puts “this is the start”. I pray every night (yes, crossing religion and politics)that people will open their eyes and let Obama be the one to put a foot in that door. With him as our leader WE CAN do so much more.
Our country needs to be lead by people who would eat relish and mustard sandwiches, or at least the people who want to make things better for those people. Because that’s what most of us our!
Thanks for postting that J!!
Posted on March 27, 2008 at 7:58 pm.