In case you were in a hole last night, Barack Obama is now the president elect of the United States of America.
While watching the election coverage last night, Anita (my wife) pointed out a stark difference in the venues chosen by the candidates to accept or concede the election results and the people in attendance.
Barack Obama accepted the election results in front of 100 000 of the general public [3] in a public park in Chicago [2].
John McCain conceded the election in front of an (at the start) invite-only crowd [4] at the luxury Arizona Biltmore Hotel [1]. Apparently, as the election results came in they opened it up to everyone at the rally [4]. Maybe they began to see the difference in their outlooks that resulted in such an overwhelming win for their competition. Let's hope.
The crowd in Chicago was chanting "Yes we did" most of the evening starting from the announcement that the election had been called. However, Obamas speech centered around the phrase "Yes we can". As we move into the next four years I hope that the general public of the USA and even the world holds on to the phrase in the present tense. Electing Obama was only the start of the change that is needed. Obama cannot enforce this change on his own. He needs our support in small actions, just like we supported him with small donations.
Will we as individuals unite and effect the small changes? Will we change from prejudice to respect? Will we change from exclusivity to acceptance? Will we change from fear to hope?
Yes I will.
[1] - http://www.arizonabiltmore.com/
[2] - http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/parks.detail/object_id/83AA6305-ADBE-4D8A-B333-004449057EA9
[3] - http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9B3dL99xtF_ib-_cmTXadhAZ3NAD948JOSO0
[4] - http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1598611/20081105/story.jhtml
1 comment:
Obama's acceptance speech was pretty inspiring. I wish we had politicians like him in Canada. However I am a bit anxious to see how much of the inspiration corresponds to actual change. You're right though, it's not up to Obama it's up to people.
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