I Am America

When I first heard Barack Obama speak, it was his "Yes We Can" speech. I was very impressed. It was clear he was trotting out a well-worn theme of change, tried on by very nearly every candidate for office before him. But, I kept my skepticism from turning into cynicism and decided to keep an open mind.

Between now and then, I've watched with interest and occasional fascination at this phenomenon. I don't mean the man, I mean the movement. At first, it was just a cadre of followers like any other politician will have. But I started noticing a specific energy to it all. There was an unmistakable skip in the step that was the Obama message. I watched it spread and grow, penetrating lands and towns I didn't think it could. I watched people I didn't think would, did.

Then the darkness started coming. The expected wave of smears typical of low-road dialogue. Like a wet blanket it started to lay over everything, smothering and disenchanting. Doubts were stirred, questions asked and re-asked in different ways. Revelations of this, discoveries of that. The noise level started getting significant.

My first sign that this movement had some legitimacy was the noise level. It started getting loud, significantly loud and more so than previous smear attacks. Obama's character was getting assaulted for sure, but not just that but a downright meanness crept into the dialogue. Insinuations of his being a corrupt liar or even willing to aid and abet terrorists. Then came the armchair political science minors, with their allegations of his being a socialist and a communist. Never mind the real definition of these ideologies, off with the commie's head!

Then came the worst. "I tried to find him on TV last night but all I found was a big gorilla in a suit." "How will they tell between the first family and the cooks?" It became "obvious" to some that his admission to Harvard, his becoming the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, and his becoming a law professor were all due to affirmative action. And of course, the veiled (and not so veiled) threats of hate crimes too unspeakable to relay here.

Then the night came for him to speak. The detractors were circling like buzzards, typically with nothing but baseless and vacuous noise - but noise nonetheless. Allegations of arrogance because of the set. Expectations of overt grandeur with "nothing real" as content. Mocking that "the prompter better be there tonight."

Then he took the stage. He graciously thanked a variety of people, told us America has always been a great place and then listed some central grievances that exist today. He said, "America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this."

He graciously thanked McCain for his service, then trundled on in to an effective several minutes of debasing the opposing Senator blow by blow to ultimately conclude that McCain cares - but doesn't get it. He indicated the failures of the Bush administration, implicating McCain along the way, and pointed out that we are not a "nation of whiners" as McCain's economic plan author Gramm said some months ago.

Barack went on to illustrate his roots, grounded in things hard-working and all-American; his grandfather, grandmother, mother and those he worked with on the south side of Chicago. He capped it by saying, "Now, I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes." McCain could consider himself cut down a notch right then and there, and rightfully so.

He then began to spell out the American dream. He did it in color, but most importantly he did it in a way that made it clear that this was a participatory dream, not one that his handed over or taken lazily.

"It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work. That's the promise of America -- the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper."

Barack then provided a punchlist of policy highlights, ranging from taxes to energy. Some were ambitious, but he pointed out that "now is not the time for small plans." I had to agree. He even threw in some fiscal responsibility to keep the bean counting detractors busy; the rest of us know that good ideas cost and it's whether we're willing to pay.

But then came the real speech.

"Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility to provide love and guidance to their children.

"Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility -- that's the essence of America's promise."

I was listening closely.

He called out McCain decisively on debating who has the temperament and judgement to be the next commander in chief. He made no bones about it. Here was some fight. "You know, John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell -- but he won't even go to the cave where he lives."

Then came cold, hard facts, easily validated by anyone who is aware of the American experience both past and present. "We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans -- have built..."

Then the ultimate hat in the ring came. "what I will not do is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and each other's patriotism." Yes, indeed. Bring that noise down and bring the real arguments.

And finally the fatal blow. The shot heard from Los Angeles to Bangor. The game changer.

"So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America -- they have served the United States of America.

"So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first."

You see, once and for all, Obama changed the conversation. Someone needed to do it, but who would emerge as the one to take the leadership? Obama did. With this one fell swoop, all the dialogue that had stacked, all the worthless noise from "terrorist" to "muslim" to "unpatriotic" to "america hater" and to any given racial slur came tumbling down, exposing from here forward any of those who maintain that line as dishonorable and left behind.

It takes leadership to do that. And then he did it again.

"I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

"You make a big election about small things."

And then the money shot: "What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's about you."

When Obama said that, you could all but feel an awakening spread across the horizon. Some distant sense stirred, some instinct that had become long-buried by loss after loss domestic and abroad, by failed politics, by refusals for diplomacy, by lies and distortions, by irresponsibility bordering on negligence. This instinct was what I had years ago known as "I will do this."

I barely know what Obama said after that. I was immediately occupied with the realization that up until this very moment, I had approached the election the same way I had approached the government for some years now - with a demanding "what will you do about it" attitude. Before I had devolved to that level, it used to be "why can't we seem to do anything about this?" and before that was "what are we going to do about this?"

But before even that, before all of it, back when I was younger and less afraid of life, it was "I will do this." Back when I only knew two things - find something good and apply yourself to it. I didn't understand many things, but I understood these two fundamentals that operate only in harmony and never alone. They are what brought me years forward to a prosperous family.

Obama was finishing his speech, and I was enveloped with "I will do this." I realized that my apathy, my cynicism that I didn't even realize was dwelling within like a parasite was all falling away. Exposed and betrayed for the facade that it was.

You see, it winds up that I'm America. I always was. I always will be. So long as I'm here and breathing, I am the United States of America. And so are you. Each of us is America. So I say no to the apathetic, who have hammered "change" into the ground like a noisy plank on a hardwood floor. I say no to the naysayers, who replace susbtance with volume. I say no to the cynics, who are repulsed by and inspired to attack at anything that even hints at a positive promise.

I absolutely believe Obama. Not because he is amazing, not because I'm "blinded by the messiah." I believe he is right about ME. I believe my actions can make a big difference. I believe I am able to change the world around me. I believe I can do anything I want if I want it bad enough.

Great leaders are the ones that make you realize or remind you of your strength, not that they are the strong one. So it winds up that this November I'm not voting for Obama, nor am I voting against McCain.

I'm voting for ME, and I'm voting against all that is apathetic and cynical. All that is baseless, useless and negative for the sake of being negative. Thank you Barack Obama. Oh, and America? I'm back.