November 5
So that is that.
I'm relieved, but more than that I'm proud and I'm excited. (I'm also tired because the first exit polls didn't start for me until after midnight, Ohio wasn't called until 3.30am, and the concession/acceptance speeches didn't start until after 4.)
It's amazing how quickly perception changes. It's palpable here -- Europeans are genuinely excited, impressed and inspired. That might seem unimportant, but they're representative of everyone on the outside looking in, and it must be easier to make progress with friends than with critics. Since moving to London 20 months ago I never heard a single good thing said about the US until today -- just jokes and a resignation to uninspiring policy, strong-arming the helpless and doing all of it smugly. Yesterday we proved that we are still capable of breaking boundaries and making history. The reality that such a barrier still couldn't be broken anywhere else changes things.
I personally feel a sense of ownership that I've never felt before. For the first time in my lifetime we've elected someone I can rally behind, someone I want to hear speak, someone I believe in. He can think on his feet and writes his own speeches. He can beat me at basketball (I could beat him at bowling). He can pronounce the word nuclear. My upbringing is as different from Barack's as it is from Dubya's, but I feel like there is far more common ground in our shared view of the world, and all the good and bad in it.
So now the question is, what next? Best case scenario is that we buy back into the concepts of common good and community, come up with brilliant ways to become energy independent, and use a new thoughtful roadmap to diplomacy. We take care of each other and live within our means. Worst case scenario is that we stand still and lose momentum -- if that happens history can repeat itself and we'll find ourselves in the same wars -- ideologically and on the ground. My contributions (everyone's contributions) over the next 4 and 8 years will help to determine the success of this presidency. It's going to be one small deed by one small deed.
So it was a good day. Tempered slightly by the fact 55 million Americans still would've preferred an uber-rich, erratic old white guy and a brainless sidekick to a forward thinking, empowering black dude and a steady hand.
America.
6 comments:
excellent post, er/uk. thank you for sharing.
jeff from usa
You forgot to add "f*** yeah!!" at the end.
Oh yeah he is a real man of change! Already nominating old Clinton era people to post in his new Socialist regieme. He will tax buisness to the point they can not pay workers and he will take the people and take our hard earned money and give it to "joe bumpkin" to sit on his butt in the trailer park and not work. You have been fooled my friend. Obama is a con artist who is a puppet for a huge Socialst movment in the USA. How can he pay for all the promises he made? He can't...your going to pay for it. I will enjoy saying "I told you so" in four years! If the freedom to say what you want still exsist.
What's up with the misspelling naysayer?
Thanks, Eric for your insightful and exciting summary of your post election responses from friends and associates in London. I would like to suggest that this be forwarded to the Elkhart Truth, Goshen News,and perhaps other more major publications as a letter to the Editor. I would suggest either prefacing or ending with a separate brief paragraph about yourself including where you grew up, and where you are working. And I'd also delete the last sentence, though I loved it myself, and end with the "one small deed by one small deed". Thanks, Eric.
I will be keeping my guns and my money....you can keep the change.
Post a Comment