Saturday, December 6, 2008

"A World that Stands as One"

On July 24th I watched Barack Obama give his speech in Berlin. I was amazed when I saw the endless sea of people there. As I listened, I found myself buoyed up by his words. He introduced himself as a "citizen of the world". I thought that was a wonderful idea. Such an improvement over the last eight years.



These are the words that stayed with me. These are the words that made me decide to vote for him:

"Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity."

"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic can not stand. The walls between the countries with the most and the countries with the least can not stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian, Muslim and Jew can not stand. These are the walls we must tear down."

Idealistic? Definitely. Naive? Maybe. But it brought me hope. And it was nice to see how the rest of the world reacted, too.
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3 comments:

  1. SusanDecember 7, 2008 at 8:10 AM

    I think he is amazing ... I am tres jealous. We're currently being being governed by Mr. (have to put a sweater* on him for him to seem at all approachable) Stephen Harper ... although relatively harmless when compared to the likes of George W.

    I knew that I loved that sweet Oliver kitten ...but boy do I ever love that sweet Oliver.

    *sweater link - http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/12/06/kelly-mcparland-whoever-took-stephen-harper-s-blue-sweater-will-they-please-give-it-back.aspx

    Hope you're having a perfect Sunday. I am.

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  2. judy in kyDecember 7, 2008 at 8:42 AM

    Susan, I looked at you sweater link, as well as a few others on the topic. It sounds like "the sweater" is becoming an issue as topical as "Joe the Plumber" was here. (Thank goodness that's over!)
    I also noted that one commentator described him as "dour and Nixonian". eeek! For me, it's a toss-up between Nixon and Bush for who was scarier!

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  3. Natalie, the ChickenbloggerDecember 9, 2008 at 6:41 AM

    Yes.
    Thank you for reminding me.
    It's almost as though "hope" had become inconceivable in politics, and even if it is naive, I still want it back in the lexicon.

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