As I type this, we are days away from the most highly anticipated US Presidential election in history. Most people are saying they are sick of it, and in a way I am too. This all started 22 months ago when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the first ones to put up their hands and formally announce that they will be candidates for President of the United States. Twenty two months! Good God, a woman could nearly have 3 full term pregnancies in that time. Even Barack Obama must be saying to Michelle, “Is it over yet?
This election, no matter who wins, has changed everybody. None of us will ever be the same. We can bitch, we can whine, we can mudsling. But when this thing is over on Tuesday, we will be forever changed. I have never ever been so anxious about the result of a Presidential election in my entire life. I am Australian. This election doesn’t concern me or affect me directly. But I am doing everything I can (even praying) to make sure that we see a President-Elect Obama on Wednesday morning. The world needs him more than a baby needs mother’s milk. The whole world has its fingers crossed. The whole world wants change. And even my dearest friend in the world is praying for Obama to become his President. Now let me tell you where he’s originally from…Alabama.
Yes, ladies and gentleman, there is a boy from the deep south of the United States who is praying that a black man will become his President. Alabama has been and continues to be one of the most racist, if not THE most racist state in the south. If there was trouble during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, it was happening in Alabama. So you know that this election has a lot hinging on it when a man who was raised to call the black man ‘nigger’ and ‘coloured’ and made to think that all they were good for was being your servant, is now wanting a black man to lead him and his country. What a long way he has come. And what a long way Barack Obama has brought us.
Forget the slurs. Forget the rubbish. This will be a defining moment in American history. Martin Luther King himself may even ‘rise up’ and say ‘Amen’. I doubt whether anyone will have ever cried after a Presidential election, but I sure will and I know milllions of others will too. It will be a triumph over hatred. A triumph over racism. A triumph over evil in all its forms. And it will be a victory for all the people of the United States. They will have shown the world how far they have come, and exactly where they want to go. They will say to the world that the last 8 years is a mistake that needs to be rectified. They will be saying that their new path is for a free America, a bright American future, and a place where they can believe in dreams again.
I have never felt more comfortable with a pair of political leaders as I have with Barack Obama and Joe Biden. These are men of strong character and integrity. Men who know how us little people live, and who know what us little people need. As my dear Alabaman friend would say about Obama, “He’s good people.” They are both ‘good people’. That’s what has been lacking in the White House these last 8 years; goodness. We’ve had Bush Jnr, Cheney, Rumsfeld and I am sure Bush Snr was sticking his nose in more than once. The only good person who was part of that team was Colin Powell, and he left in 2004. It was obviously getting too cold in there. Now we find he supports Obama. Speaks volumes, doesn’t it?
So I will continue to pray to any God that will listen, whether that be Hindu Gods, Dreamtime Gods, Allah, Buddha, or Jesus. And so will my dear friend.
Obama-Biden 2008. Please.
Enjoy your day.
