Yeah, he won. Awww yeah he did.
First World Progress by mdumlao98 on Flickr
All day today I felt like a kid on the first day of school. Everything seemed new, I wanted to learn and do so much, and I was—funny that this has become to boilerplate to say—freaking hopeful.
As I’ve said before, I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t be in the U.S. for this one. But walking around Jhongli today, I got thumbs up and wide grins from strangers. I ordered a lunch to go and the guy behind the counter pointed at the TV and said, “Obama!”
I concurred wholeheartedly.
My Taiwanese friends have been asking me what it feels like to have a black president. They don’t ask because they think it’s a big deal themselves, they ask because they’ve read that we Americans think it’s a big deal. Maybe it is, I don’t know. This election has never been about race to me. I think it’s fair to say that while it might be about race for many pro-Obama Americans, I think it’s more a racial matter for some anti-Obama Americans.
I’ll never forget how I lost my breath seeing the main page of the New York Times today:
Yes, I did select that picture to contrast the headline, because they had a nice little embedded applet for browsing pictures. So it’s not the New York Times’s message, but still, the juxtaposition of profound change and staunch, petulant conservatism really resonated with me. Maybe this will be a rocky start. Maybe it won’t be.
What I felt today reminded me of what I saw from the world immediately after 9/11. People looked at me on the street and wanted to share joy. “You’re America! Remember: we love you.” It was like they knew all along that we would do the right thing. They weren’t afraid at all.
There are many things America means to me. I don’t think lack of fear is necessarily one of them, but hope definitely is.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have a beer with my friends.
I walked by that last night!
Hey again. Yes I’m am stalking you. Haha not really I just think this blogs awesome. I actually used to live in America this time last year and I know how frustrated people where. I so happy for you guys now. Every news programme down here was covering the results and I was thrilled to see the Americans dancing in the streets and what not. I know its not my country but I’m still excited:)
I wish I could be there, dancing in the streets, too! Instead I went to karaoke with my American and Taiwanese friends and drank a lot. And everywhere we went, people cheers’d us, yelling, “Obama!”
Obama indeed. Thanks for the good will! See? Thsi guy’s already bringing people together! =D
Though I know that Obama offers his own specific personality and agenda, there were parts of this election that felt like a rehashing of 2004—as in, Obama qua Not-Bush. Everybody’s simply so joyful that we won’t have a dumbfuck Republican in the White House anymore.
Still and all, I really do like Obama. You know, despite his being an Infanticidal Gay Muslim Arab Terrorist Social Jew Atheist Commie Negro. You betcha.
@Ben: If only it were so! We’d be shattering so many social barriers!
It sounds pessimistic, but voting for not-Bush is just how it’s going to be when you have a petri dish like him in the White House. I don’t have a problem with that. And honestly, while I would have loved to’ve seen Gore in the White House, the man cannot speak. He has no panache.
Is it so wrong to wish that a politician have genuine social ability? People say all politicians are slimy and lie, but that’s because people are stupid. The vast majority of politicians are all the same in terms of social intelligence, but I think that having Obama in the White House will be an extraordinarily valuable tool for diplomacy.
Having a president like Obama brings us one step closer to electing someone like Kucinich or Paul in the future, I think. (Although some may find that undesirable, of course.)