Tonight is a historic night for America. At 11:00 PM, Barack Obama was unofficially elected President of the United States of America. I am sure this election will evoke feelings of all kinds from hope to hatred throughout this country. However, through all of those feelings, I hope people can begin to put aside their differences, and begin to make this country great once again. It would be difficult for anyone, liberal or conservative, to say the country is in better shape than it was 8 years ago. Of course, not all of the problems we currently face were caused by W. and the people he surrounded himself with. However, they did very little to mitigate the problems they faced, and in fact, created many new ones along the way.
With that said, it becomes easy to understand the significance of this night. For the first time in many long years, the people of this country can begin to hope again. I've started to realize over the past few months what a struggle it is for most people to simply survive on a day-to-day basis. Some are forced to work long hours, take care of kids on their own, and are still expected to pay ever-increasing bills. Those people now have hope. Others are forced to deal with the consequences of not being able to afford health insurance, and aren't sure how they are going to cope with thousands of dollars of medical debt. Those people now have hope. Others still leave college with sometimes more than a hundred thousand dollars of debt, and will have to work well into their 40s to repay this debt. Those people now have hope. Now, Barack Obama is not going to solve every problem of all citizens of this country. But at least he serves as a beacon that better days are on the horizon, and they will arrive soon.
For the first time in I can't tell you how long, I am proud to call myself an American. I hope that the progress of this election continues for many years into the future, and we can one day live in a better world than the sometimes frightening one we live in today. Congratulations President Obama, this country needs you.
P.S. - Kudos to John McCain. He gave a very gracious, very inspiring concession speech. He is a good man.
2 comments:
Well written post Kaps. I feel like is a good place to share my feelings about this topic too.
I watched CNN for 7 hours yesterday. It was exciting that for the first time I was able to participate in making history.
As you said, McCain's speech was excellent (besides the intermittent booing). With such a polarizing election it was important that he reassured his supporters that although they may not like him, Obama is now the president-elect. He is his president as much as any of ours. And now to rebuild the country, he needs our support.
What I think this election did is give people hope, like you said. But it also showed the country what it can accomplish when we all work together. Lately, people have been complacent when it comes to taking action to better their lives. They felt that it was the government's mess to clean up. Now we have a clean slate, an optimistic outlook, and the knowledge that this country relies on its people, not its government.
Let's just hope that the people continue to do things to improve their lives. Obama can't do it on his own.
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