From Mom: (an editorial note) What a delight it was to wake up this morning with a sense of hopeful anticipation. I purchased and hung an American flag today! Not a cheap one but the all-weather fabric kind. This feeling of celebratory patriotism is new to me and, I expect, to many others my age.
My generation has lived our adult lives in an atmosphere of insecurity and cynicism. This is largely due to our experience of an electoral process marked by corruption, in 2000, and a disappointment in our fellow citizens who, in 2004, elected a failed businessman who all too easily sacrificed our siblings, friends, and classmates on the alter of his own ego. This generational story led to a deep sadness and also a fear for our safety. This fear drove many to apathy and a few to a seemingly insurmountable rejection of the American ideal as meaningless, empty, and hypocritical. No longer.
I say this sincerely. In electing Barack Obama, the American public has given me the luxurious gift of love of country. We, the mighty masses, have retaken the American dream. We have grasped it not so much from the clutches of an evil emperor but rather from an ideological system that clothed greed in the garments of independence, falsely praised privilege as creativity, and packaged self-absorption as personal responsibility; an ideology that has, for decades, benefited the few, to the violent exclusion of many. So inspiring is this moment that I, the least likely of patriots hung the American flag on my doorstep for the first time today. In doing so I realized that not only would I die for my country, I would work willingly for her for the rest of my days.
Image courtesy of Obama 'O8: http://www.barakobamain08.com/photos.html
No comments:
Post a Comment