Witnessing History

Reflections on the US Elections

It's already been a few days since Obama's historic victory and I've been riding an emotional high ever since I saw the words "Barack Obama - President Elect" sprawled across my television screen at 5 a.m. on election night. I was literally sitting alone in the living room, with tears in my eyes and a smile across my face, while Margreet and Noa were sleeping peacefully upstairs.

I stayed awake for another 2 1/2 hours afterwards listening to the speeches and taking it all in. There are times in your life when you know the world is changing before your eyes and you just can't let go.

It's a feeling I have never felt before, but one I have heard of, when people mentioned how they felt about John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. It's a feeling of inspiration and hope, pride and humility.

It's not so much that the United States have finally elected a black person - a feat I was hoping I would see in my lifetime - but that we, as Americans, have elected a person who brought us a message of hope and change that didn't sound political and that didn't bring out the cynicism and apathy in us.

I started paying attention to the election only after it became a 3 legged race - between McCain, Clinton and Obama - and my impression at the time was that I would be OK with any of the three. I admired McCain for his personal history of service to his country, as well as his senate record of reform and bi-partisanship. I admired Hillary Clinton mainly because of her relation to Bill Clinton and I believed that her ideas would be similar to his. I did not know much of Barack Obama, but I liked what little I knew.

Thus, as a Democrat, I thought I would support whichever candidate came out of the democratic primaries.

Then came the defining moment for me. In response to growing reports of his ties to Reverand Wright, Obama made his "A More Perfect Union" speech. This speech convinced me that in Barack Obama, we have found a leader who is well spoken, intelligent, honest and grounded, who is comfortable speaking about race, social injustice, abortion, foreign policy and other polarising issues without being divisive. I felt that Obama could unite Americans, black and white, men and women, Democrats and Republicans. I felt that Obama could repair America's standing in the world.

Every time I listened to him after this, I became more and more convinced that he was the right person for the job. I felt bad for Hillary, as I felt that she would have made a good president too, but I was really hoping Obama would win. Unfortunately, knowing California would overwhemingly vote for Obama, and therefore my vote wouldn't make a difference in the overall race, I didn't bother to register to vote until it was too late. Now I regret not having participated in this historic event. I do wish, however, that the US would change to a popular vote instead of the electoral college vote. The current system gives more weight to votes of people from certain states (Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania) and less to others (California, New York, Texas). But that's another topic.

But in the end, Obama's message of change won out and ushered in a new day.

Watching the celebrations from around the US, one could easily forget that over 57 million Americans voted for McCain. To those people, I say that I hope you give our new President a chance. He will make a difference.

I believe it.


The YES WE CAN song

The following lyrics are from the inspirational Will.i.am song "Yes We Can". The words are drawn almost verbatim from Barack Obama's speech following the New Hampshire Democratic primaries. The video of the song (below after the lyrics) made me cry for the first 50 times I watched it :)

"It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can."