November 4th was indeed a monumental day that signified a new beginning of hope and change for many. Barack Obama became the first African American presidential elected in the history of America. With his campaign of hope and change for the American people it was pretty easy to understand American fondness of him.
Barack Obama as we all know was a senate before running for president. A new comer, whom many if under different circumstance and time period would express their hesitance about his lack of sufficient experience to become president. With his 4 years experience as an Illinois senator Barack as few has stated is “quite new to the game”. Yet his powerful, well-spoken speeches have provided many Americans the chance to hope that a change (for the better) can occur.
After election night many students in Albany gathered at the campus center expressing their joy for the new change that was bestowed on America that night: a change not only in the face of leadership but also in the way of leadership. Barack’ s distinctive perspective on what is need in order to bring back the trust and hope citizens had in government is what people admire about him so much, along with the fact that he was an uncommon presidential candidate.
Barack during his presidential campaigned he emphasized a lot about rapidly ending the Iraq war, energy independence, and providing universal health care, and also plan to offer middle class tax cut to help the economy. He has started to work on his plan for a better economy even before being sworn in. His team of economic advisor has devised couple of plans that hopefully will go in effect by the time of his inauguration.
As a face of hope for citizens of America I hope that our expectation of him is not set a standard where is it unreachable. We often loose sight that he is a man coming to lead to undo the years of damage done by others, and he even said it himself “things will have to get worse before they get better.” Hopefully Americans will understand his point of view and provide what ever aid is need to help bring back our country to it top shape.
By Joyce
10 comments:
I agree with you Joyce, that people have undue standards for President-elect Obama.
I personally found it frightening how so many of our classmates made Obama memorials just because he's black.
Yes it's historic, but it's also demeaning to celebrate someone bcause of his race. It perpetuates a society that is more medieval than it actually is.
Barack Obama can have a memorial when he does great things for our country, not beforehand.
No man, black or white, deserves glory without merit.
That's what I found disheartening about those memorials.
Great post Joyce. You gave an adequate summation of Obama's rise. I read an article by Frank Rich in NYTimes that was an excellent and passionate description of Obama's rise through the ranks of the Democratic Party.
I hope he can save my college fund!
I agree that high standards have been placed on Barack Obama as he was seen as a beacon of hope and change following the last eight years.
Chris, I would have to disagree with you concerning the focus of memorials commemorating the election of Obama based solely on him being the first African American president. The memorials that I recall from class celebrated the future of America. With a staircase ascending showing the progress which has been made or a transparent globe, the memorial ideas were about progress, change, and democracy.
People didn’t celebrate in the streets across America solely because the first African American president was elected. They celebrated because they knew that America is going to change in the coming years, and that the man, who believed in those Americans who don’t make up the richest 1%, was going to make every effort to change America for the better.
The voter turnout for November 4th was 64.1 percent or about 136.6 million Americans, according to the Associated Press. That is the highest voter turnout America has seen in a presidential election since 1908. Young voters of college age abandoned the distinction of “apathetic” and many Americans registered to vote for the first time in their lives. The message of change which Obama voiced to the American people, encouraged Americans to take action in order to make this change possible. It is precisely the reason why some voters waited 4 or more hours in line, so that their votes could be counted. This election was about democracy and the future of America.
To quote from Obama’s victory speech on November 4th, 2008, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”
ah, you took the words right out of my mouth, jen :)
while I'm certainly not one of the obama-supporters that laud him to be the best thing since sliced bread, i'm also not a skeptic to his potential to be a great leader.
chris, i think you're bordering on being insulting to the students like myself, who chose to create a memorial for obama's election win. while obama made certain promises to stand behind things that i hold in high regard (such as gay marriage) i disagree with him on some of the decisions he wishes to make as well. the reason why i, and the other students chose to "celebrate" his win was because he is a symbol of something much bigger than himself. a black president is a huge thing for the nation, and a message of progress in the arena of civil rights movements. so i would put your "fears" aside, because a lot of the people who support obama are not just blind acolytes worshiping a man (or the idea of a man).
as for deserving merit... the man deserves a large amount of credit for having the guts to run for office of a country that still runs to the time of white upper class males. this is not a easy path he chose, after all. the heightened security around obama after the elections alone should give you an idea of how much the man has to deal with - not just his own safety, but his families, and not to mention the burden (that he probably does not need) of fulfilling all the expectations that are on his shoulders simply for not being white.
so i apologize if my memorial idea was so "disheartening," chris, but i'm sure you're of the minority in this case. a lot of us enjoy celebrating progress, positive change, and accomplishments for civil rights.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/opinion/02rich.html?_r=1
The article above is by Frank Rich of the NYTimes entitled "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner".
It's the best article I've read on the rise of Barack Obama.
My last comment was lamenting the divide between the man, Barack Obama, and his color.
The first thing Americans want to do is celebrate his pseudo-achievement of being elected as the first black president.
I'm sorry, that doesn't deserve a memorial. If President-elect Obama is a great President, then let's celebrate.
The Bottom line:
I have hopes that Obama can help our ailing country. Yes, Obama made a speech on race, and some would argue he needed to do that. But the glorification of someone because of their skin color is something I will never partake in.
Sorry for the above rude and crude post. I needed to clear my head.
glorification of people simply for the color of their skin....
sounds like a large chunk of american history in 10 words or less :) lol.
it's seriously ironic how people are jumping up and down, all upset at the fact that obama's race is being made a big deal of when the country was built on racism and oppression. why do you THINK it's such a big deal? In some perfect alternate universe, the win wouldn't have meant more than any other presidential win, but in our world, it was a big deal.
it took up until the year 2008 to get a non-white president in a country that CLAIMS to provide equal opportunities. that's a flipping atrocity, but hey, better late than never, so we're gonna take NOTE of it.
As Rich says: "Obama doesn’t transcend race. He isn’t post-race." And neither are we.
I see where Chris is trying to go with his comments and I simply think that different phrasing would have communicated his thoughts better. One of my roomates, who happens to be white, was telling me that he didn't understand why the rise and eventual election of Barack Obama was so huge. I mean Obama is half-white and running against a terrible Republican ticket right? After explaining many facets of racism, the fact that segregation existed merely 40 or so years ago, and many ideas that Jen previously mentioned to him, my roomate walked into his room still dumbfounded with the "Obama Love". I completely agree with Chris about leadership needing to achieve before gaining recognition. At the same time, trying to criticize the glorification of Obama for basically "only being black" is pretty bad. Beause last time I checked, minorities had it pretty bad in this country not too long ago.
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