The Obama’s Begin The Changes
Did y’all see the pic of Sasha Obama, age 7, peering out the window of the SUV in the Secret Service convoy? Apparently she was on her way to be dropped off at her new school to begin her second half of 2nd grade. She was last to be taken to school after her big sister Malia was left at her new 5th grade class. Sure their dad has a HUGE task ahead in trying to save this nation of ours from financial ruin, but those girls had a harder task yesterday, surviving the first day in a new school. I seriously had tears for these two little girls. Those big brown eyes full of that special mixture of excitement and fear just pulled at my heart strings. And I know it was probably all fine until her sister got dropped off and then she was left to be brave alone. This is how it would’ve been for Hively if he was left without Red to guide in through the doors of a new experience. Oldest children are always so much stronger than us younger ones. Is it because we become their responsibility the moment we are born into their world? Maybe it is because they have known an existence without us but we have never known one without them. Either way, the Oldest child has this role to uphold, to be stronger and braver than the younger in typical families and it is nice to see that the Obama’s are just that. Sure, these children have began the road to becoming the “First Kids” but they are still just kids all the same and I am hooing this transition is easy for them.
Obama Wins…And Now, We Move On!
I was watching Charlie Gibson when the clock stroke 11pm and the polls were closed in California. Charlie announced that they were ready to call the election winner as…Barack Obama. I wept at this announcement. I then went and woke my children so they could witness this event, this moment that will be recorded in history books for years and years to come. I wanted them to be able to tell their children someday that they had watched this man, this hopeful and hope invoking leader, accept his win. To be able to tell the story of how they sat in their living room with their mom as she wept not from sadness or fear but because she was finally encouraged that the future of America would be fixed for them and their children and their children after them.
I am so proud of my country. I woke up bursting with joy that my fellow American citizens went out in drove to elect this man. To give this man, Barack Obama, with the funny name, and the big ears, and the black skin, to give him a chance. I am proud that my generation is involved enough in the happenings of this country that they stood in lines that wrapped around buildings, to give this man an opportunity to lead us into a future that may be unsure and uncertain, but will absolutely be altered because of this decision.
If you went out and cast a vote, then I am proud of you! Even if you voted for another candidate, I am proud that you took part in the shaping of this country and it’s government. We don’t have to agree on any topic, other than that WE are in this together. We love America and we are Americans and that alone makes us allies. Whether we see anything else the same, that alone makes us countrymen. And if you are a fellow American who voted yesterday then thanks and God Bless You!
On this note I will leave you with my favorite part of his victory speech last night: I know you didn’t do this just to win an election and I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor’s bills, or save enough for college.
