Today is the Iowa caucus, the first time Americans will vote for their candidates in the 2008 Presidential race.
Anyone who has read my blog knows that throughout much of the Bush administration’s reign, I have felt many strong emotions, including despair, frustration, and anger. One thing I haven’t felt much of in the last seven years is hope.
Today, I feel hope. Today, I believe that we, the people, have an opportunity to seize control of our own futures, our own nation, by voting for a President who will bring change, a President who wants peace, a President who has lived and worked in the real America most of us live in, not a life of privilege and thus a distorted view of what Americans experience in our daily lives.
I am supporting Barack Obama–so far only through donations and verbal support, but when an Obama office opens in Spokane (which I hope one will soon), I plan to actively work for the campaign. I believe that he can be my generation’s JFK–someone who inspires the people of America, who moves us to work for our country in a way that other politicians have not.
I have not always considered myself a political person, but I now firmly believe that each and every American ought to get involved. Whoever your candidate is, support that person. When we let go of opportunities to be a part of the political process, we lose our voices–it’s not enough just to vote. By the time we vote in an election, we’ve already missed many opportunities to help determine who is on the ballot, and what issues voters will be considering as they go to the polling places.
I believe that the last seven years are a lesson in what can happen to us when we don’t use our voices. We can end up with leaders who disregard what we want–who take us into a war by lying to us, and then keep us in that war long after we have made it clear that we, the people, do not support it.
It is time to reclaim our voices. It is time to reclaim our country.
Peace, Diana