We Can. We Can.
Nov. 6th, 2008 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueEveryone is walking around smiling at each other and then crying and then smiling at each other. My country is back - my myth of a country that maybe never really existed before, in the same way my Jesus never existed. But this is the one my parents handed down to me, the one I missed so much I had to go into exile. It is back and real.
I am heartbroken over proposition 8 and uplifted by the election. On the one hand, it has been demonstrated to me that I am not alone - that the majority of this country wants science back, and knowledge, and acceptance, and hope, and thoughtfulness, and pragmatism. It has also been proven that more than half the voters in a large state were willing to say not just "I don't want to give someone these rights" but to take away rights people already had. To baldly deny an existing freedom rather than simply being afraid of what might be...I didn't think people would do that. My faith is shaken in a way it's hard for me to put together - a way I have trouble reconciling with the grace of not just Obama but McCain in trying to bring a country together, in asking us to help each other. I don't understand it. It terrifies me.
But I believe it will change, and I believe our president is already leading the way - he's so careful to include gays in all his speeches, along with all the other groups. He is going to change what is normal. He already has.
The good guys aren't naive, and the good guys get to win. We won. We won. We are all over the world. We are billions. We will become smarter. We will become more free.
--
"We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.
Yes we can.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation."
-Remarks by Senator Obama on the night of his loss in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary
I am heartbroken over proposition 8 and uplifted by the election. On the one hand, it has been demonstrated to me that I am not alone - that the majority of this country wants science back, and knowledge, and acceptance, and hope, and thoughtfulness, and pragmatism. It has also been proven that more than half the voters in a large state were willing to say not just "I don't want to give someone these rights" but to take away rights people already had. To baldly deny an existing freedom rather than simply being afraid of what might be...I didn't think people would do that. My faith is shaken in a way it's hard for me to put together - a way I have trouble reconciling with the grace of not just Obama but McCain in trying to bring a country together, in asking us to help each other. I don't understand it. It terrifies me.
But I believe it will change, and I believe our president is already leading the way - he's so careful to include gays in all his speeches, along with all the other groups. He is going to change what is normal. He already has.
The good guys aren't naive, and the good guys get to win. We won. We won. We are all over the world. We are billions. We will become smarter. We will become more free.
--
"We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.
Yes we can.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation."
-Remarks by Senator Obama on the night of his loss in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary
