Quote:
Originally Posted by Curly
I agree. I first heard him speak when I was at a conference in Chicago, and I was very impressed. I enjoy listening to people who can articulate their thoughts and make a coherent presentation.
Then I saw the tape of him at Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin's steak fry, and I thought he did really well there ... and the crowd was obviously taken by him.
A couple of days ago, an editorial in the Chicago Tribunal urged him to run for President.
Experience is good, but maybe what we need even more is inspiration. |
Curly’s comments here most closely echo my own views.
Reading through the Letters to the Editor page of the Seattle Times online two years ago, I happened to read a letter from a self-proclaimed Republican reader, headed “Words to coexist by”, lavishly praising this Chicago Senator named Barack Obama, who had addressed the Democratic National Convention.
His letter sparked my interest, and I logged on to the DNC website and listened to his speech. It really spoke to my heart. Next day, I saw a news report on TV here, showing him delivering the speech.
What most grabbed me in his speech are the following things:
I liked his passage about the “audacity of hope.”
It is clear that he is speaking about a vision (“the belief in things not seen; the belief that there are better days ahead”).
He doesn’t just speak of the racial divide; he comes from the perspective of an American dutifully bond to all his fellow-Americans (“I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper”).
As a peace advocate, Barack Obama’s reflections about his encounter with Shamus, the young Marine, really struck a chord with me. But, as Barack Obama points out, “there are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it”.
Indeed, perhaps the most notable point of his message is when he says, “There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America”.
This polarity I see today in politics is false reality. To me, Obama’s vision of America has global scope: we live in one world and we are global citizens.
I believe this is the essence of the “E pluribus unum” (Out of many, one) maxim Barack Obama quotes in his speech.
In Australia, this concept is celebrated in a wonderful song titled “We are one, but we are many”.
It reminds me of a very poignant and beautiful poem I read written by a woman named Cheryl Sawyer as a tribute to September 11, simply entitled “One”. I also remember the immediate aftermath of America’s tragedy when the sentiment “We are all Americans” echoed in many parts of the world. It is an appeal to embrace this sense of oneness of spirit in the microcosmos of American society I heard in Barack Obama’s speech. I hope Mr Obama goes to Washington, and I too see in him a future U.S. President - and a true world leader.
Tethys