eden is burning

how many times can I vote for Barack Obama? Once just isn’t enough.

this coming election seems to me like choosing between a bowl full of fresh, ripe strawberries and a plate of stale, crusty, moldy old bread. How is it even a contest?

(unless you know you’re allergic to strawberries. or gluten. stop being so trendy and just eat the fucking thing already.)

there are so many things that hit home for me in Obama’s nomination acceptance speech, I don’t even know where to start. I was never “on the fence” with him, never unsure of his ability and his viability. Once he was in the race and it became clear to me that he is what this country needs, that he is the shot in the arm we are craving, he became my pick.

I am sad that the first woman to legitimately have a chance for winning the presidency did not get my vote, that I won’t be able one day say to my son (or daughter), “yes, I voted for Hillary.” Because I want to vote for a woman president in my lifetime, I want to see this country being led by someone with a vagina, I want that so desperately and with every ounce of my being, but now is not the time. It just isn’t. you can’t always get what you want. but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need. right? you can’t argue with the rolling stones. well I suppose you could, but why? they have, like, rock & roll on their side.

For almost my entire life, that white house has been occupied by a Reagan, a Bush or a Clinton. That’s too long, kids. too too long. I love the Clintons from the inside out, with my sick bleeding heart, but it’s a changing of the guards now.

So Obama got my primary vote. And he’s of course getting my general election vote. I fully support him in every possible way. Yet, I was never fully immersed in the obama mania. I wasn’t besotted, as Brokaw called it.

But this speech tonight, I don’t know. It hit a spot in me that really needed hitting (that’s what she said). He was so strong, so confident, so appealing. That is the kind of man I want as my president. That is the man I want representing my country. That is the man I want other countries to see and believe in, to know he is who we the people elected. I see George Bush speaking and I am embarrassed, truly. Can anyone honestly say that George Bush represents the full range of complexity and dignity that encompasses this country? He gets up there and sounds like a guy you want to go drinking with, that you want to come to your BBQ, because he’s a good time and makes a mean burger.

I am tired of feeling ashamed of my president. I am tired of looking to the rest of the world like a bunch of ignorant, bleating sheep on their way to the slaughterhouse. I am tired of being hated and thinking “if I travel abroad, I need to tell people I’m canadian.” I want to feel good about being american again.

When Obama started talking about patriotism and the men and women in the military who aren’t fighting for red states or blue states, but the United States… when he called us to action, told us change is possible, but it will take personal responsibility, mutual responsibility, to ourselves, to each other, to other countries… when he urged us to look beyond the bend… it all just resonated with me. And when he talked about grace, well I think I lost my eyeballs on that one. there’s nothing like the word grace to make you rise above the ashes, to look up to the skies with a full heart and open arms. at least for me.

So if obama can take this girl, a jaded cynical bitter angry dried up old hag, and turn her into a flag-waving, proud, hopeful, inspired, “born-again” american, then I can only imagine what he can do for the rest of the country, for the rest of the world. He always had my vote, but now he has my faith. heck, he has me using the word faith! this is incredible people! something is definitely stirring. it’s up to us now to decide what beast slouches towards Bethlehem.

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