Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Obama

I have a new habit.

Whenever there's a primary going on, I turn on MSNBC and I watch their coverage (I'm a big fan of the Olbermann/Matthews team and, strangely, Pat Buchanan). And I wait for Barack Obama to speak.

It inspires me every time. And it trips me out.

I'll be listening to his speech, and every time there's a couple of minutes where I zone out. This happens because I can't believe my eyes. I honestly never believed that I would see the day where someone who looks like me would have a legitimate shot at the presidency of the United States. I can't tell you how proud that makes me, and how good it makes me feel.

Not to get too much into it, but I've spent a lot of my life being told what I could or couldn't do (you should be good at basketball! you shouldn't be getting good grades!), and receiving backhanded compliments for "being different". I didn't have a whole lot of role models. My parents, I guess. The Huxtables. But this...I mean, if Obama can win, I really feel like a Black person could do anything in this country. It's very exciting.

And I resisted Obama for a while because of this. I read his book two years ago (and was blown away), but I had all kind of reasons for not supporting him. I wanted him to wait for Hillary. I wanted him to get more experience. And I definitely didn't want to support him just because he was Black. I think that, deep down inside, I was afraid that he would fail miserably and/or become a joke. But it hasn't worked out that way at all.

But now, I'm on board - been here for a couple of months. Fired up, ready to go, so to speak.

4 comments:

Jessa said...

Great post. It is certainly an incredible thing to see, isn't it?

Jessa said...

But, Pat Buchanan? Really? He hates my people.

So Gone Over You said...

I think he's great... and his words inspire me and give me such hope.

Melissa said...

YES!!! This is precisely why the man won our district so overwhelmingly in the primary.

I'm excited about him. He's inspiring. I connect with him far more than I do with Clinton... despite the white woman similarity. Interesting, right?