A Travellerspoint blog

B.O.

For those of you tired of election stuff, you can skip to the next entry. For those of you who can tolerate a bit more, here are my thoughts...

Blind optimism. It feels great to be blindly optimistic. Of course the election of Barack Obama to the presidency is not going to solve every problem and he is no silver bullet, but for at least today, or maybe for the next few weeks, I am going to let myself feel blindly, naively, amazingly, stupidly optimistic. Everything is going to be great. Things will turn around. Yes, we actually can and will. There is no doubt that things will not be perfect, but few times, maybe if ever at all, in at least my life, have I had the opportunity to feel truly historic optimism. Things are shittier than ever, and something really good actually happened.

It might end here with the election and just be awful or fall way short of expectations, but I don't care right now. Growing up I've read and heard about hard times, be them personal or national or global and how people waited, hoped and worked for something great to come and occasionally it did. I've read of keeping hope alive and of course I understand it and it feels good to hear about it and perhaps try and put myself in someone else's shoes who felt that way. But now it is our turn, at least a little bit. Something really great (in my view) actually happened amidst many awful and hard things. I'm going to relish it for a while, inflate its greatness as much as I please, before the hard stuff hits again.

Yet, a thought on something not so inflated…

I am adamant about separating synagogue and state, but thank heavens Barack won. Putting all the other good reasons aside (economic plans, healthcare plans, foreign policy strategy, etc…), it is so important that he won simply for the impact it will have on all the minority students out there. Not only for the literal reasons (parents and teachers explicitly pointing out the fact), but for the powerful subliminal message as well. Every child, especially minority children, born from this day forward for the next four years will grow up with the fact that the leader of the free world is black. They will be bombarded with images of a positive role model and an unquestionable fact that an African American is in perhaps the most significant leadership role in the world. This alone means a huge amount for kids, even if they aren't old enough to realize it. There a millions of kids who needed Obama to win for that reason alone. I can never suggest that I understand or feel the emotions of the black community (and other minorities) and those who have struggled for so many generations, but I can certainly appreciate, respect, and admire the emotions they must be feeling. I can't wait to hang a poster of President Obama in my classroom.

Posted by Jazzob 00:28

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hey kenny, from this old flower child who still has a few petals left on her, i remember travelling with my family through virginia when i was a kid and not being able to find a restaurant without "whites only" signs or drinking fountains without "coloreds" posted over the rustiest looking ones; blind optimism, just like blind faith, too often leads to being blind-sided; kenny, throughout your remarkable travels, you're seeing places and meeting people you'd never see and meet here; you are a very lucky guy and the best part is that you know it; let me tell you what i saw here on election night: gleeful crowds of people around this country cheering the triumph of obama/biden that reflected the ability and will of this country to stand up and say: enough is enough...we are taking this show on a new road with a new destination; and kenny, the reason i truly believe in this new movement is that whether those crowds were in new york or los angeles or miami or in the midwest, southwest, southeast, the diversity of the highly emotionally charged people standing hip-to-hip spoke volumes that the promise of hope can indeed become the reality of purpose; as you travel through parts unknown over these next months, you can feel truly proud to be an american, because your country has voted to actively work at taking back the moral, social, political, economic and ethnic high ground; continue to share with us as you make your way through this fantastic journey of yours; and know, as you do, that the country you'll be coming home to is thankfully substantively different than the one you left; after 8 years of darkness, we are finally able to see the light where the lowest common denominator is no longer the highest standard, where social causes are no longer seen as issues to be ignored and derided, where the voiceless and powerless can find opportunies to be heard and be impactful, where having knowledge is desired and respected; with this novel, i send you a huge hug. abby

by abbyg

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