You Knew It Was Coming.
Somebody stop me – I seem incapable of avoiding clicking on news articles or videos cheering on Barack Obama. My left-leaning politics are well-documented on this website (much to the chagrin of my parents, I assume) but man does Obama inspire me. I want to print downloaded PDFs as posters and hang them in my windows and use the thoughtfully provided buddy icons on my gTalk chat thingy. I want to see this man become our next president.
This morning I spent a good amount of time perusing YouTube for Obama videos after watching something somebody posted on Digg. It was of Obama giving a speech (full text) about religion in America, and it sounds so sappy and awful but I teared up about halfway through when he says this:
In fact, because I do not believe that religious people have a monopoly on morality, I would rather have someone who is grounded in morality and ethics, and who is also secular, affirm their morality and ethics and values without pretending that they’re something they’re not. They don’t need to do that. None of us need to do that.
BIG HEART. He admits you do not have to be religious to be moral or ethical, and would, in fact, prefer someone non-religious with those qualities than someone religious who lacked them, and then goes to say that we shouldn’t have to pretend we are something we are not. How can I not support this man? For pete’s sake, a former president once said this:
No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God.
— George Bush, to American Atheists’ reporter Robert Sherman in 1987, while serving as vice-president
Awesome, thank you. I live in this country, I pay my taxes, I go to work, I am an upstanding member of my community, but I should not be considered a citizen or a patriot because I don’t believe in the same god as you. So infuriating.
I know not all of you agree with me or my beliefs, but I beg you, if you are in the US and are eligible to vote, please register and do so when it comes time. I would encourage you to vote for Obama because I feel like he would be the best person for the job (Hillary is just too divisive for me – if she gets the nomination you KNOW a zillion people will turn up to vote for John McCain primarily because they can’t stand the thought of her winning the presidency) but really, as long as you do your research and vote for who you truly believe in, that makes me happy.
5 Comments
I did my duty, I went to my caucus, I voted for Obama. Look, I’m participating!
Obama has had my vote for a while now.
Hiii! I’m Canadian, so i can’t vote. But, boy oh boy, have I been following this election. It has to be the most exciting election I’ve ever lived through for sure.. and more so. And Obama?? He’s amazing. Articulate. Passionate w/o losing a strong sense of rationality. I feel like if he win’s it won’t just impact your country. It will impact the world. for the better! He has a lot of Canadian support surprisingly. So even tho we can’t vote. We’re cheering you on!
On the down side.. I work for an American cell pone company that out sources in canada, and i talk to americas every day 5 days a week, mostly from the east and SE regions
and they… they’re not so fond of him. i hear some horrid and shocking things. from customers.. saying how they’ll never vote for some Muslim, Arab etc etc… i usually just play dumb and say , oh you mean Obama? He’s a US citizen isn’t he? He has my vote! And then they get mad at me (hides!)
Sorry for the ridiculously long reply.
Christine – that rocks. Thanks for your support, even though you can’t vote here! That’s got to be frustrating. I was really mad in high school when I wasn’t quite old enough to vote against Bush’s second term, and then I felt awful for us and the rest of the world when he actually did get elected.
Also? That awful stuff people say about Obama? He actually has PDFs of responses to those accusations on his website. Like Snopes. “Here is what you probably heard, and here is what’s actually going on.” I hate that it even has to be addressed, you know?
I haven’t been following the American election stuff, because I was only left disappointed after I got excited for you guys last time ’round, but I will say that Obama looks pretty good for his age.
When I first saw a picture of him I thought maybe he was in his late twenties/early thirties, and he’s what – 47? That’s pretty awesome in itself.
(Sorry for such a shallow, pointless comment on a serious post!)