|
addressed to a Boomer --
Please forgive some serious cheesiness, but it's the only way I could get this all out:
I got in the car this morning, and started listening to NPR and for the first time in years, I was truly proud to be an American. I have decided to go with my generational cohorts and get on the Obama proverbial bandwagon and ride it as far as it will go. I think fear of potential violence as well as a certain unknown factor as to his potential performance is warranted, but the whole point of the thing is we cannot let fear make our decisions for us anymore. Yes, if given the choice, I would probably want Hillary making personal medical decisions for me, but I would rather bring Obama as my guest to a dinner party in Paris or India or anywhere around the world, which in many ways is just as important. I love Hillary, and her signature bad-assedness, and there is no question in my mind that she would be a great and historic President, and I will certainly not start bad-mouthing her or discouraging people from supporting her cause. By no fault of her own, however, she represents a time and place, it seems to even those who love the Clintons, that carries with it a feeling of the "old guard." If she's our candidate, I will proudly vote for her and adamantly support her, but I will be more nervous on that day that the other side will be able to take it all away from us based on something obscenely stupid like Bill's behavior, or a Whitewater-style imagined "controversy."
I also know Obama is not the saintly figure that's being put forth (no one is). But the fact of the matter is the man inspires when he talks, and he makes you believe what he says is possible. Bill could do that, but not in the goose-bump-inducing way Obama can. To a generation raised by Baby Boomers who have regaled us our whole lives with stories about the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, and encouraged us to be activists for change because a huge, determined generation can, indeed, change the world, I think you have to admit that you actually set us up to respond instantly to this ethnically diverse, youthful man who ignites passion within our own forums of cultural expression (the Facebook/MySpace, YouTube online world). It should be a compliment to you all that he is the candidate who reminds us most of the ideals you have always put forth to us and, inadvertantly, taught us to identify.
Yes, there's the "experience" issue, but The President of the United States is not only a decision-maker, but a figure-head, and the thought of this man being the public face of our country makes me proud. It seems to me people questioned Bill's experience, as well as JFK's. I trust Obama and his people to put together a team that will, at the very freaking least, not get us into the world-wide calamity the past 8 years have brought, and perhaps, by the sheer difference of the image, bring some immediate and much-needed healing to the country and the world.
I am completely naive and idealistic, I am aware... he will eventually let me down or others will bring him down in any way they can. But I think that's what I'm supposed to be ... and until that time, I'm going to enjoy it.
|