A New Hope

Often I worry about the future of this nation; whether we will ever be able to climb out of this hole we have been digging slowly since the fall of Nazi Germany. I worry about whether or not my children and future posterity will be able to live in freedom, find comfort in justice and stand for hope. Issues like the Vietnam War, the military industrial complex, the revolving door of politics, bigotry, ignorance, corruption, Iraq, terrorism, poverty, education and injustice haunt me from the shadows during those times when my mind is free to wander into “What if.” I sometimes wonder if I alone am the only one who realizes how bad it is or the need to do something about it, yet I alone am powerless. These issues are serious, they are not going away, they cannot be ignored and they must be dealt with or surely we all will fade away into the pages of history much like all the other great civilizations of Rome, Tenochtitlan and Cairo. Though I do not claim to have any answers nor do I claim to have done all I can to solve these foreboding issues, I certainly realize the need for an answer, some response, a look of concern or at the very least a blip on the radar to let those we place in positions of responsibility know something, anything, must be done.

I believe, I want to believe, I have to believe that Barack Obama is at least the first step in that response. No one man can change the world, I am not ignorant enough to entertain such ideas, however one man can get the ball rolling, get people thinking, wake us up from our Rip-Van-Winkle-esqe slumber and do something. Never before have I seen such excitement or energy surrounding one man let alone a politician. Barack is far from a panacea for all of America’s problems; he is human, makes mistakes and will continue to make mistakes. But Barack Obama carries with him the oldest and truest human value: Hope. Hope that and black man can pull himself out of the circumstances in which he finds himself, hope that America can be turned in the right direction, hope that no one again will have to ask “Is our children learning,” and hope that my generation will have the possibility to leave this nation that we love, live and die for, a little better than when we found it. There are many tough decisions ahead that will not be easy to make and will possibly be considered political suicide. Politics does not exist for its own sake, politics exists for the sake of those with the softest voice and the fewest means, yet those people are the ones with the largest capacity for hope. So ladies and gentlemen, anyone who so happened upon this humble writer’s obscure thoughts; Barack Obama, at least for me, is the hope of my generation, hope we can believe in. America is going to be alright.

Dont worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Singin: dont worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right!

One Love

NH