(9 pm – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Dreams give us hope. They inspire us to reach heights of creativity and invention that we believed were not possible. Dreams help us through are most desperate times because they allow us to see a future that is beyond the place we presently occupy. Dreams are not just personal moments they can also be public.
Public, being that we allow others dreams to be our dreams by embracing them as if they belonged to us this has happened throughout the history of America. In recent history its been people like Franklin Roosevelt who offered America and Americans a New Deal and delivered it. Roosevelt brought electricity to rural America, created the Social Security Administration providing all Americans with a social safety net something no previous administration had ever done. Rosa Parks a seamstress living in Alabama and a Civil Rights Activist who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery Alabama to a white customer setting the stage for the Montgomery bus boycott and the furtherance of the civil rights movement. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King who inspired by the ideals of Gandhi and his use of nonviolence to achieve his goals applied those same principles to the American Civil Rights Movement inspiring millions to join his cause. President John F. Kennedy a man who just didn’t allow Americans to dream but inspired millions around the world to dream. How popular was he? So popular that his picture could find in the most unexpected places in the world be, it in America, Europe or Africa. So popular that he gave a speech to 10’s of thousands West Berliners at the Brandenburg gate one of the most famous speeches ever given.
All of these people and millions more had one common thread among them. They dared to dream. Dreams sometimes which others believed to be impossible but they still dreamt they could be reached.
So, yesterday not only did a dream come true but history was made when Barack Obama was nominated by the Democratic Party to be their presidential nominee. He is the first person of African American heritage or African decent in either America or Europe to be given the opportunity to be the leader of a major political or economic power.
Dreams can come true and Barack Obama has proven just that.
3 comments
Missed the beginning of Obama’s acceptance speech, but what I did catch included him hitting back hard at McSame. LOVED it! Despite what the nay-sayers are writing, it’s a clear decision: Obama (who is not perfect by any means) or “Four more years of hell” (h/t Teresa Heinz-Kerry).
I can only hope he starts running ads in swing states like mine that are as hard-hitting as that speech.
… I didn’t read and appreciate this essay — read it twice, as a matter of fact, at the Orange and here.
I think sometimes it hurts to hope and dream. We are up against such outright evil in our world and in our country today. The fight is going to be very difficult — for even if we defeat the Republican Party, there are still so many foes to battle — the corporations, media, the rich and powerful.
So it hurts to hope and dream after the last eight years of living nightmare.
But the alternative is to give up. And I’ve never been much of a one for that. So I’ll dream, mishima, right along with you.
Thank you for this beautiful essay. It is not weakness to dream in the way you describe – it is strength.
This has been a most emotional night. Truly, the American spirit showed iself to be alive and well. Many tears everywhere. People, including myself, you and all the rest of us WANT/ NEED to believe once again.
Obama’s speech touched on so many issues that affect you, me and all the rest of us — yet, assuredly, there were issues left out of the scenario. Deliberately, I would presume.
Touching on matters that have so hurt us all, of course, brings forth our tears — tears for ourselves — tears for others.
I had tears, too, from the very beginning of the convention, tears of pride, pride that our first African-American was being considered a candidate for President of the United States. Tears for all those of African-American descent whose faces exhibited the pride of this historic moment, and their hopes, along with ours.
The rest remains to be seen, but tonight, I feel good and proud for the spirit of Americans, proud for those who spoke from their hearts and minds — Al Gore blew me away, so did Hillary, Michelle, and not least of which was Dennis Kucinich, our “warrier.” So, I’ll just relish in the moment and boy, do we need that “moment.”