As a student of politics and history, I became jaded during college toward the bureaucracy and corruption that I have seen in our federal government in my short lifetime. Living in California, I didn't have to hear and read about the day to day political fighting that I got so tired of seeing on the TV and in the newspapers.
I thought I had escaped what I didn't want to see and hear about, but now I want to be a part of it again, and more than ever. My patriotic spirit is renewed with a vigor and fire that I have never felt before.
When I was 12, I stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. My Dad and I reflected on the person that MLK was and his importance on our culture and history.
It has been years since I thought about that trip and now I realize what he died for; America. Even though a part of the country hated him, he did not just die for African Americans and the civil rights movement, he died for all Americans and the beliefs in which America was founded upon: equality and opportunity.
Today his death is not in vain. MLK's DREAM has not fully been realized, but a huge step has been taken. And, over the next four years President Obama will work toward the fulfilling that DREAM of equality and opportunity for all Americans.
I have never had more hope and belief in the ability of this country and its people to achieve what our forefathers envisioned for us, as I do today.
I have never been a more proud American.
This is merely the beginning to a new chapter in American history. The task at hand is large and intimidating, but, if we as Americans work together and find strength in each other; we shall overcome.
We shall overcome all the obstacles we face as a nation because, as they say, history repeats itself. America's history is marked by defying the odds and winning in the face of immense adversity.
That is not something I say with hope; but something I say with conviction. The history of this nation has shown that every generation has stood up to its challenge, and today we begin battling the challenges that my generation will face.
Never, for one second, can we as Americans doubt or question our ability to unite for a single cause. Partisanship is not an option when it comes to working towards the continuing success of our country in the near and long term future. We stand together today not as Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, but as AMERICANS.
As Lincoln once said and Obama echoed today:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
-President Abraham Lincoln - June 16, 1858 - Springfield, Illinois
This is THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and we will PERSEVERE.
The book was old and worn---there was nary a page to turn, certainly not new,
ReplyDeleteIt laid by a closed window, dusty, sealed by mildew.
The book was there!
An unexpected hand reached forward and carefully opened the old book, and the window too.
The air blew and the wind came through.
The hand was there!
The sunshine shone, the wind refreshed, and
a page was turned by one who cared.
Finally, thank God,
The Man was there!