Smiling Mom

I am thirty one years old and for as long as I can remem­ber Ame­rica has been gover­ned by President(s) Bush Sr., Jr., and Pre­si­dent Clin­ton. The first time I was able to vote in a pre­si­den­tial elec­tion was in 1996, Pre­si­dent Clinton’s second bid for office.

I’m being com­ple­tely honest when I say that up until a few months ago I knew very little about the voting pro­cess and poli­tics in gene­ral. I voted for upco­ming pre­si­dents some­ti­mes. I voted on local issues less. I couldn’t be bothe­red, really. I’d become pretty tired of the same old-same old that has been going on in the Oval Office for so many years.

I’ve often felt as if I was in the middle of a large lake, in a raft, without any paddles.

But then Barack Obama step­ped into the spot­light and onto the cam­paign trail. And I became inspired.

I remem­ber watching Barack Obama give the 2004 Democ­ra­tic Natio­nal Con­ven­tion Key­note Address. I was stop­ped in my tracks, silent, intently focu­sed on the TV in front of me.

.…That is the true genius of Ame­rica, a faith — a faith in sim­ple dreams, an insis­tence on small mirac­les; that we can tuck in our chil­dren at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hea­ring a sud­den knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own busi­ness without paying a bribe; that we can par­ti­ci­pate in the poli­ti­cal pro­cess without fear of retri­bu­tion, and that our votes will be coun­ted — at least most of the time.…

After lis­te­ning to his key­note address I knew that this was a man whom I wan­ted to see more of. A man who could do big things for our country. For the first time I felt hope.

Hope.

When Obama began his race for the pre­si­dency I was so exci­ted. Due to my ove­rall igno­rance to all things poli­ti­cal, I didn’t rea­lize what a dark horse he was in this race. I belie­ved he could win even when he was trai­ling the other democ­ra­tic hope­fuls by dou­ble digits in the polls.

And win he has. Currently Barack Obama has 1418 pled­ged dele­ga­tes to Clinton’s 1251.

It’s been such a close race bet­ween Obama and rival Clin­ton that the media cove­rage has been unpre­ce­den­ted. Due to the overwhel­ming cove­rage I’ve immer­sed myself in all things poli­ti­cal for the last few months. I just can’t get enough. I know all about super-delegates and pri­mary elec­tions. I’ve watched mul­ti­ple deba­tes and had many con­ver­sa­tions with friends and family about this upco­ming election.

And then today I had the oppor­tu­nity to lis­ten to Barack Obama’s “A More Per­fect Union” speech and I felt it again.

Hope.

In his speech today Barack Obama said in part:

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a poli­tics that breeds divi­sion, and con­flict, and cyni­cism. We can tac­kle race only as spec­tacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tra­gedy, as we did in the after­math of Katrina — or as fod­der for the nightly news. We can play Reve­rend Wright’s ser­mons on every chan­nel, every day and talk about them from now until the elec­tion, and make the only ques­tion in this cam­paign whether or not the Ame­ri­can peo­ple think that I somehow believe or sym­pathize with his most offen­sive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary sup­por­ter as evi­dence that she’s pla­ying the race card, or we can spe­cu­late on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the gene­ral elec­tion regard­less of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next elec­tion, we’ll be tal­king about some other dis­trac­tion. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this elec­tion, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crum­bling schools that are stea­ling the future of black chil­dren and white chil­dren and Asian chil­dren and His­pa­nic chil­dren and Native Ame­ri­can chil­dren. This time we want to reject the cyni­cism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are some­body else’s pro­blem. The chil­dren of Ame­rica are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21^st cen­tury eco­nomy. Not this time.

Bold are the parts that I find most impor­tant in these para­graphs. As a teacher, mom, and Ame­ri­can, Barack Obama speaks to me.

Not this time peo­ple. Not this time!

This time I choose hope and change.

For the first time in all my voting years I feel as if the padd­les are in reach, things are about to change.

Where do I sign up? I am ready.

Ori­gi­nally pos­ted at Sili­con Valley Moms Blog