So was I the only one who had somewhere to be last night, and yet stood slack-jawed and glued to the TV, unable to move, eyes tearing up, swelling with pride while listening to Obama’s speech? Was I? Surely not. Barack Obama last night made me want to go out and do something important, relevant and meaningful - and made me actually (I can’t believe I’m about to say thing) proud to be an American. Here are some of the particularly poignant, Shady-approved excerpts:
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country. Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans — Democrats and Republicans - have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
…now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.
John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives. (OH SNAP!)
We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past. (ONE MORE TIME!)
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don’t fit the typical pedigree, and I haven’t spent my career in the halls of Washington. But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me. It’s been about you.
By this point, I was crying, I had goosebumps, my make-up was running down my face. If that speech doesn’t motivate people to get out, to vote, to volunteer, to drop some cash on the campaign, and to do whatever it takes to get him in office, then I don’t know what will.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Oh! Bama : businessuu // Aug 29, 2008 at 7:43 pm
[...] Original post by jessica [...]
2 saracorine // Aug 29, 2008 at 9:12 pm
True dat, sister. True dat!!
3 Lysa // Sep 2, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I hope what you meant to say was “you were proud to be a Democrat”. I hope that no matter the actions of our government, one would be proud to be an American every single day of one’s life. The simple fact that a person can wake up in America and say whatever they damn please is a source of pride that should never be taken for granted.
4 jessica // Sep 2, 2008 at 5:18 pm
nope, i meant american. i haven’t been proud of the actions taken by the current administration in the name of “america,” actions (like lying to the american public, invading the wrong country, taking reproductive rights away from american women serving overseas, imposing a set of ideological beliefs upon this country and other countries, etc. etc.) which i don’t agree with and which, if attributed (as they have been) to americans, don’t make me proud to bear that moniker. obama’s speech reinstated a feeling of pride for my country that i haven’t felt for the past eight years, and made me believe that his administration would take action on my country’s behalf that would make me feel proud in a way that i definitely have not since bush took office. maybe you feel differently, but that’s how i feel.
5 David // Sep 2, 2008 at 6:09 pm
It was truly an amazing moment, sending chills down my cynical spine and instilling hope in my politically hardened heart. My favorite line, oddly enough for a life long atheist, was his closing line…
“Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture, hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.”
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