Waking Up And Rolling Up Our Sleeves For Change

Okay. This is what I woke up thinking about this morning, this historical morning where Americans go to the poll to choose a new president:

I'm thinking that matter what you believe, or who you believe in, the president we are about to elect is only one man. He can't, no matter how smart he is or how capable or how hardworking, do the job of bringing our country into the light all by himself and that in a way, as much as he's leader, he's a symbol. He's a symbol of the wishes and desires and hopes and fears and prejudices and beliefs of the American electorate.

And that's what I've been so depressed and upset about for the last two elections. Although Bush didn't exactly WIN in 2000 (and there are doubts about 2004, as well), he came close enough so that it was quite apparent that there were enough voting citizens of the USA who thought he, along with his band of criminals, was the man to lead us. To symbolize us.

And that had me completely fucked in the head because none of the people I know are that stupid, that in love with the way of war and death and torture and the sort of closed-off thought that some sorts of religion (the kind our president supposedly believes in) promulgate which says that anything can be done, anything at all no matter how immoral or heinous, if you believe it's what your god wants.

But obviously, I haven't exactly had my finger on the pulse because Bush got elected twice. Somehow. He managed.

And it seriously brought me to my knees to have to face the fact that our country is made up of people who would vote for him, or at least half of them. Or close enough.

But now it appears (and please, let the polls be straight and true) that we have changed. And when I say "we" I mean Americans. We have changed enough that we can elect a president who is, as I have said before, skinny with big ears and a huge smile, who has a COLOR, who was raised by a single mother and grandparents, who managed to get the best education our country can offer without the benefit of family money or family name and who, in fact, has a really, really funny name.

Barack Hussein Obama.

I don't think Obama is god. I don't think that even with a Democratic congress he's going to be able to straighten out the mess we're in right now. He can't do it.

BUT, we can. We. The American people. From the CEO's and the guys on Wall Street to the farmers in Nebraska to the single mothers trying to raise their babies the best they can, to the small business owners, to the teachers, to the nurses, to the non-profit workers, to the people in government, we're all going to have to make changes in the way we live, spend, save, work and think. We're going to have to try and take care of our own problems and maybe reach out to help a neighbor with hers. We're going to have to put aside prejudices whether they're about labels like "socialized medicine" or "urban problems."

We're going to have to figure out what's important. We're going to have to figure out how to save our planet. We're going to have to learn that sacrifice doesn't mean going to the mall and buying shit we don't need with money we don't have. We're going to have to quit believing that if you don't follow a president's insane need to go fight a war you're not patriotic.

We're going to have to redefine what patriotic means.

WE are going to have to do all of that and more.

And if today the American voters go to the polls and elect this completely (by all previous standards) unelectable man as our president, I think we're saying we're ready to try.

And I'm pretty sure the rest of the world will be watching us and hoping that finally, the United States of America is finally growing up. Finally getting out of our thoughtless, bullying, hormone-riddled, egotistical teenaged years and are ready to join the world as a grown-up citizen, a responsible and thoughtful member of the table of elders, ready to deal with the real problems besetting not only us, our country, but the problems of the world.

Because we're all in this together. There is no other way.

Until the people stand up and say, "No more stupid wars, no more pretending global warming isn't happening, no more standing by while women and children are being raped and killed, no more turning a blind eye to the starving and sick, no more bullying and invading and torturing," nothing's going to change.

And unless there is change, there is no hope. I'm sorry. That's the way I see it.

And if we, as Americans, are willing to go and vote for this guy, this skinny, half African guy who is smart and who doesn't offer miracles that no mortal man or woman could ever pull off, who offers nothing but everything he, as a person, can give, then maybe we can do it.

We, you and me, can quit spending money on wars that serve no purpose, quit spending our resources on energy and health solutions that don't work, quit spending our time and money on trying to deny citizens their basic civil rights because of the gender of the people they're attracted to, quit calling fertilized eggs "humans" and take care of the humans already born.

We can start working together.

And this is what I think- that if we do elect Barack Obama today, it shows that we have already begun changing.

And if that happens, I'm going to be so proud. The dream of what this country could be will have begun to be fulfilled. Finally. At last.

Hopefully, by the end of the day we'll know.

Hell. If Obama gets elected I might go out and buy an American flag. I might fly it from my house. And I have never, ever had that urge before.
But if Obama gets elected, I might finally feel, after 54 years, that this is truly a country I am proud to have been born in.

And that's what I woke up thinking today.

I wonder what I'll wake up thinking tomorrow.
I hope it's that finally we're ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work and that finally, we have a leader to guide us. Not to save us, but to guide us. To symbolize the hope we have that we can, with a lot of work, and a lot of thought, make our country a better place, and yes, the entire world too.

I hope we all wake up tomorrow knowing that we're a nation made up of the kind of people who can make decisions based on the hope we have, rather than the fear we've been led to believe is the place we should act from.

And I hope we all wake up tomorrow rested and ready to go into a new day because folks, we've got work to do. A lot of work to do.

But we can do it. We're changing.

I really think we are.