ELECTION 2008: Welling up with Tears and Pride
Just after 11:00pm, I heard them say it. They announced that Barak Obama would be the next President of the United States of America. I broke down in tears. I felt so emotional. Why? I felt relief that we would not be subjected to McCain/Palin for the next four years, but there was more. So much more…
As I had sat on the couch ringing my hands watching CBS news cover the election, I feared for the USA. I was truly so scared, not simply of what the McCain/Palin ticket would mean for us in terms of politics, governance, economy etc., but what would it say about us as a nation? I knew I did not want to be identified with a country – with a people—that would find it acceptable to put Sarah Palin in the driver's seat. I have my issues with McCain, but the idea of him dying and leaving her in charge shook me to my core. What could he be thinking? And even if you admire him, can you deny the poor judgment of choosing her as a running mate? Is that a man we want running the country?
Today I am proud to be an American. It feels strange to say. I realized that was part of the reason for my strong emotions, but isn't that what we were taught as children? Shouldn't that be a given for an American? I remember being taught that I should be proud to be an American with a curriculum that made the rest of the World seem such a horrible place to live that I felt lucky. We learned about nuclear weapons and the USSR and Communism. We learned about poverty and children starving in Africa. We were told that in places girls weren't allowed to go to school, and the list goes on.
Then I grew up. I read a lot and I traveled. I saw third-world countries and Communism. I lived in Europe and Korea and heard first-hand tales of what it means to civilians to live in war-torn countries. I started to see things in a very different way – things aren't simple or black and white the way it was painted in school. Everything is complicated and gray!
Don't get me wrong, there have always been points of pride. America has done great things, but we deny many of the things we should be ashamed of. As Americans there is a tendency to embrace the positive and deny the negative – or worse to just not question it. WWII is a great sense of pride, and since then soldiers risk their lives and do their jobs even in wars we have no business in, perhaps wars they don't even believe in. We can still take pride in those soldiers without embracing the war itself.
We as a country go around shouting Democracy from the rooftops, while our foreign policy favors our own commercial interests over the freedom of others. Not good for us financially? No problem. We will let the CIA stage a coup and put in a dictator. Problem fixed…FOR US! Yes that is true! We did it all over Central America, starting with Guatemala in the 50's. It is hard to feel pride in such policies and actions.
I was increasingly feeling like I had to explain myself when I said I was American while in other countries, as there are so many ignorant statements and ideas that I did not want to be identified with. In 2004 I voted for Kerry by absentee ballot from South Korea. Well, to be honest, I didn't vote FOR Kerry so much as I voted AGAINST Bush. I would have felt some relief had Kerry won, but not the emotion I felt when I heard Barak Obama would be our next leader. Alas, as you all know that was not the outcome. Bush won the election. I was so very disappointed in America. How on earth does a President with such a low approval rating actually win re-election? That was the question from all my friends in Europe that littered my email in-box the day after. I did cry over those results though. When I went to inform my students as to who had won, I broke down crying. Then for months after when someone asked me where I was from I would answer, "I'm American," followed by throwing my hands up in surrender as I insisted, "BLUE STATE! BLUE STATE!" I felt a need to defend myself before I was even attacked.
It is not so much that I was ashamed TO BE an American as I felt some shame in certain aspects of America's behavior and a need to explain that I don't assume, for example, we are better than the rest of the world or its citizens, and I don't agree with breaking international laws and waging illegal wars, or many other international policies that offend the majority of the world. I didn't want to be associated with the worst of America, for example the re-election of George W. Bush.
That feeling has followed me…it followed me through the rest of my time in Korea and into Guatemala and even to the USA. We need to try to put ourselves in another person's shoes and understand them and try to find outcomes for the greater good, not strictly for our own good. To be so great and so powerful as America is should mean to set an example and to live up to that greatness as much as possible.
I am not naïve, and I know Obama can't fix all of our problems in four, or even eight, years, but I believe he wants to try. I believe he cares about something other than himself and the giant ego that must be present to even want the position of President of the United States of America. I believe he will care about more than his legacy and will think beyond his terms as president rather than being short-sighted as recent Presidents have been. I know he will make mistakes, but I believe he is a man that will learn from them, rather than trying to cover them up. I am so excited to have a man that came not from an affluent family, but from modest means – a man who was not handed his positions because of daddy's money and name, but because he worked hard for them.
Today I am proud to be an American. It is a bursting with pride feeling, and as much as it may offend some for me to say it, it is the first time I believe I have felt this way since I was in seventh grade studying current events in Mr. Corozza's Social Studies class. That is the first time I remember feeling so lucky to be an American, even if that was built on some extreme bias, and in some cases outright false information. I felt it then and then I grew up. And now I feel it anew. I feel pride in an America that voted for change and for a man they believed in rather than what equates to "the establishment" or the "old boys' network" and people who are playing games for the benefit of their egos and to further line their pockets and the pockets of their friends.
Congratulations to Barak Obama. Congratulations to America for standing up for what we believe in and for demanding more – for demanding greatness from our nation once again. Today I am proud to be an American.
As I had sat on the couch ringing my hands watching CBS news cover the election, I feared for the USA. I was truly so scared, not simply of what the McCain/Palin ticket would mean for us in terms of politics, governance, economy etc., but what would it say about us as a nation? I knew I did not want to be identified with a country – with a people—that would find it acceptable to put Sarah Palin in the driver's seat. I have my issues with McCain, but the idea of him dying and leaving her in charge shook me to my core. What could he be thinking? And even if you admire him, can you deny the poor judgment of choosing her as a running mate? Is that a man we want running the country?
Today I am proud to be an American. It feels strange to say. I realized that was part of the reason for my strong emotions, but isn't that what we were taught as children? Shouldn't that be a given for an American? I remember being taught that I should be proud to be an American with a curriculum that made the rest of the World seem such a horrible place to live that I felt lucky. We learned about nuclear weapons and the USSR and Communism. We learned about poverty and children starving in Africa. We were told that in places girls weren't allowed to go to school, and the list goes on.
Then I grew up. I read a lot and I traveled. I saw third-world countries and Communism. I lived in Europe and Korea and heard first-hand tales of what it means to civilians to live in war-torn countries. I started to see things in a very different way – things aren't simple or black and white the way it was painted in school. Everything is complicated and gray!
Don't get me wrong, there have always been points of pride. America has done great things, but we deny many of the things we should be ashamed of. As Americans there is a tendency to embrace the positive and deny the negative – or worse to just not question it. WWII is a great sense of pride, and since then soldiers risk their lives and do their jobs even in wars we have no business in, perhaps wars they don't even believe in. We can still take pride in those soldiers without embracing the war itself.
We as a country go around shouting Democracy from the rooftops, while our foreign policy favors our own commercial interests over the freedom of others. Not good for us financially? No problem. We will let the CIA stage a coup and put in a dictator. Problem fixed…FOR US! Yes that is true! We did it all over Central America, starting with Guatemala in the 50's. It is hard to feel pride in such policies and actions.
I was increasingly feeling like I had to explain myself when I said I was American while in other countries, as there are so many ignorant statements and ideas that I did not want to be identified with. In 2004 I voted for Kerry by absentee ballot from South Korea. Well, to be honest, I didn't vote FOR Kerry so much as I voted AGAINST Bush. I would have felt some relief had Kerry won, but not the emotion I felt when I heard Barak Obama would be our next leader. Alas, as you all know that was not the outcome. Bush won the election. I was so very disappointed in America. How on earth does a President with such a low approval rating actually win re-election? That was the question from all my friends in Europe that littered my email in-box the day after. I did cry over those results though. When I went to inform my students as to who had won, I broke down crying. Then for months after when someone asked me where I was from I would answer, "I'm American," followed by throwing my hands up in surrender as I insisted, "BLUE STATE! BLUE STATE!" I felt a need to defend myself before I was even attacked.
It is not so much that I was ashamed TO BE an American as I felt some shame in certain aspects of America's behavior and a need to explain that I don't assume, for example, we are better than the rest of the world or its citizens, and I don't agree with breaking international laws and waging illegal wars, or many other international policies that offend the majority of the world. I didn't want to be associated with the worst of America, for example the re-election of George W. Bush.
That feeling has followed me…it followed me through the rest of my time in Korea and into Guatemala and even to the USA. We need to try to put ourselves in another person's shoes and understand them and try to find outcomes for the greater good, not strictly for our own good. To be so great and so powerful as America is should mean to set an example and to live up to that greatness as much as possible.
I am not naïve, and I know Obama can't fix all of our problems in four, or even eight, years, but I believe he wants to try. I believe he cares about something other than himself and the giant ego that must be present to even want the position of President of the United States of America. I believe he will care about more than his legacy and will think beyond his terms as president rather than being short-sighted as recent Presidents have been. I know he will make mistakes, but I believe he is a man that will learn from them, rather than trying to cover them up. I am so excited to have a man that came not from an affluent family, but from modest means – a man who was not handed his positions because of daddy's money and name, but because he worked hard for them.
Today I am proud to be an American. It is a bursting with pride feeling, and as much as it may offend some for me to say it, it is the first time I believe I have felt this way since I was in seventh grade studying current events in Mr. Corozza's Social Studies class. That is the first time I remember feeling so lucky to be an American, even if that was built on some extreme bias, and in some cases outright false information. I felt it then and then I grew up. And now I feel it anew. I feel pride in an America that voted for change and for a man they believed in rather than what equates to "the establishment" or the "old boys' network" and people who are playing games for the benefit of their egos and to further line their pockets and the pockets of their friends.
Congratulations to Barak Obama. Congratulations to America for standing up for what we believe in and for demanding more – for demanding greatness from our nation once again. Today I am proud to be an American.
posted by Unknown | 12:47 PM
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