My thoughts on Obama Winning
As I was getting into bed last night with the telly on McCain had 7 electoral votes & Obama had only 3, course this was just a few minutes after some of the east coast polls had closed, but I went to sleep slightly worried. Luckily it didn't seem to effect my sleep as I awoke to a text message from a mate of mine up in Oxford saying, "glad to know I can keep calling you Sara" since I'd swore if Palin had gotten into office I was going to change my name - no way I'm sharing with her name in the news all the time! I immediately put the telly on & didn't have to wait but 10 seconds for them to show McCain's speech which I thought was very professional (or at least the section the BBC news chose to show) - he was saying something along the lines of: Even though Barack & I have disagreed on topics & might again in the future, I hope to do everything I can to help him make the country a better place for everyone. In my head I started to hear the national anthem & was excited to think that maybe being an "American" (living overseas) won't have such a negative connotation associated with it in the near future - I know it's not a guarantee but I am ever hopeful, cause I have to say it's not been the easiest of times these past 3 years - America has not always been a place I've been excited to be associated with when living in the UK.
As I was telling one of my mum's mates this morning via email, I can honestly say I've never hidden the fact that I'm American, just have ended up spending a lot of time defending myself/my country, which gets exhausting when I can see their side of it & even am on their side at times, but that doesn't make me any less American.
I was born and raise in America & no matter what I do will always be American and for so many reasons I am so very proud to be American!! I was thinking yesterday of all that has happened in other places like the recent issues in Zimbabwe with their election, and how blessed I have been to grow up in a place where I never think twice about having the right to vote, freedom of speech, or the option to practice a religion that might not be "the norm" without the risk of persecution.
There are no guarantees on the future, but I'm hopeful that this change will be for the better, but everyone must remember change takes time, we can't expect miracles over night. Some of my hope comes from my recent trip to Rwanda, where having heard what happened in their country 14 years ago and seeing them now - I know all things are possible!
As I was telling one of my mum's mates this morning via email, I can honestly say I've never hidden the fact that I'm American, just have ended up spending a lot of time defending myself/my country, which gets exhausting when I can see their side of it & even am on their side at times, but that doesn't make me any less American.
I was born and raise in America & no matter what I do will always be American and for so many reasons I am so very proud to be American!! I was thinking yesterday of all that has happened in other places like the recent issues in Zimbabwe with their election, and how blessed I have been to grow up in a place where I never think twice about having the right to vote, freedom of speech, or the option to practice a religion that might not be "the norm" without the risk of persecution.
There are no guarantees on the future, but I'm hopeful that this change will be for the better, but everyone must remember change takes time, we can't expect miracles over night. Some of my hope comes from my recent trip to Rwanda, where having heard what happened in their country 14 years ago and seeing them now - I know all things are possible!
For those of you who've been asking what it's like in London today I can say that the energy and feeling here is crazy - all sorts of people (not just Americans) stayed up ALL night long and even though looking as they've not slept for hours are still animated, happy, even going as far as running around congratulating me & other ex-pats on Obama's win!
To all those who didn't vote for McCain - I hope that you continue to love America & do everything you can to make it a place we are all proud be from. And even if you really really dislike Obama, just remember 4 years goes by rather quickly.
Labels: London, politics, thought provoking, thoughts
posted by Sara @ 2:35 pm
7 Comments:
i have always said how much i love our country and how i'm proud to be american despite everything that's happened, and yesterday the american people proved that my faith was justified.
although we've made mistakes, i have always believed that, ultimately, our country stands for freedom, equality, creativity, and the power of individualism tempered by a tradition of collective action for the common good. i'm so unbelievably glad that today the rest of the world can start to see some of this in us again.
to Sara and Jen:
well, great to see your validations of what America really is....
good show....
dad
What a wonderful moment in history. And you will be a witness to what is possible for many years to come. Imagine how the world will change through this new leadership and focus. Amazing.
I love my country dearly. Maybe that is why politics in the USA are so frustrating for me. If I thought there was no hope I would just throw in the towel. There is hope but it grows dimmer with each new administration.
We have become a country of "used to be." We used to be an economic powerhouse. We used to be the leader in developing new technology. We used to be a shining example of democracy and free markets. I would argue that no country has done more good in the world than the USA. Solar power, wind power, electric power in general, numerous vaccines, hospital equipment, airplanes, on and on and on... all developed in the USA. But now we are past our peak. We've been running on momentum since the early 70's and we can only go so much further. We no longer seem to be able to do the good things that we once did. Why? Because out government is now a shining example of excess, waste, greed, and entitlement.
Now the government just makes things worse. Obama doesn't get it. McCain doesn't get it. Neither one wants to shrink government, decrease spending, stop people's silly reliance on government to cure all that ails them. They don't care that the American people are taxed to death. They don't care that we make it so prohibitive to do business, develop new technology, build things, flourish. Remember when a single-income household could live with a better standard of living than a dual-income household has today?
This is a situation that has been unfolding for decades. Unfortunately our two party system means that folks like Ron Paul and Bob Barr don't have a chance. For me this election was over before it started.
"And even if you really really dislike Obama, just remember 4 years goes by rather quickly"
Maybe, but look how much nit-wit managed to accomplish in the past four years... scary. Now we get to go from the nit-wit pretend conservative to the brilliant socialist; I am not optimistic.
Dave C - I hear you, but as a Momma Itafari always says, "don't just come to me with problems, come with a solution as well" . . . do you have any ideas how to get outta this funk you think we're in? I know it won't be easy, but if we just sit at home & complain nothing will ever get better - we all need to do our part to try to make the world a better place. I'm not saying Obama will make the world perfect, but I think he's got a better chance than McCain & Palin, but again that's just my opinion & not everyone agrees with me.
As for my 4 years passes quickly - I meant that you'll have time to try to make a change again if you're not happy - there are places in the world where they never get that chance, which to me is very sad!
Sure. We need to make the world a better place but change starts at home. If we get our own country back on course then we will be in a better position to affect positive change abroad.
I don't claim to have the whole solution but we do need to pay better attention to what some not so main-stream minds are thinking. We need to make those hard choices... some pain now to avoid serious pain later. We need to reduce spending, reduce the size of government, reduce our meddling in world affairs, get back to producing things in the US. The laundry list is longer but I'll stop here.
All the power in this country is locked up in the two-party system. That guarantees that only two candidates have a serious chance at being elected... and they almost have to be polar opposites. So, I think we need to take a serious look at how we elect the people who are suppose to serve our needs. We also need to take a serious look at the viewpoints of folks like Ron Paul and Bob Barr.
By the way, "accomplished" should have been in quotes in my previous post... the only thing that nit-wit has accomplished has been to make a mess on a global scale.
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