I’ve only slept on the train today in my monumentous effort to get a major essay in but wow, I am feeling so energised and, really hopeful right now. On my way home I saw ‘breaking news’ on a tv as I walked past a dentist’s surgery: Obama WIns The US Election… or something to that effect.

 

And then I saw Obama’s speech. First, little snippets on channel 10, and then the whole thing on SBS. Wow.  What an amazing orator. In their analysis they talked about the power of his rhetoric, and it was powerful. I think this will be one of those speeches that will be remembered for a while to come. 

 

I had to write some kind of post about this. Listening to him, even though I’m not an American, I felt so hopeful. And touched. The kind of ideals he talks about, how far societies have come, hope and change, their not just American ideals. And watching him I thought, wow, what an inspiring, presidential president he looks to be. Comparing the way the last president came across, I’m really very sure that the world will look at America pretty differently.

.

Since I’ve been so busy doing assignments I’ve also been taking lots of breaks doing random other things, among those was following American politics, the election, and prop 8. I look at what that proposition represents for me on the other side of the world, and I really, really hope that it doesn’t pass.

 

Even it does pass though I guess there still is the overwhelming propensity for change in my lifetime. How lucky am I to have been born at this time in history, where multicultural difference was my norm growing up, and where I have the freedom to be an out gay person and be accepted wholly for that by the people I love and who love me. 

 

I have the tv on in the background, and its really inspiring. This really is a time for hope and a chance for change. What makes Obama such a good communicator, is that he talks with conviction and integrity about ideals that are universal, but about which people find so much harder to believe in. Looking at the jubilation in the crowds, the tears on the eyes, a visible hope, it seems that people have a renewed belief in those ideals.

 

What an amazing moment in time.