OPINION: OBAMA & the Youth Appeal Contextualized

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OPINION: OBAMA & the Youth Appeal Contextualized

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Their words, deeds and sacrifices echoed through the passages of our historic books and were immortalized through the oral testimonies of the generations they inspired; many nights we spent enamored by the empowering stories told by our parents & grandparents and as we sat in classrooms our professors would digress from the dictates of the syllabus and spin into recollections of their college days and exaggerated tales of civil disobedience. Indeed, they spoke of Icons that inspired generations; in times of uncertainty they encouraged those that came before us to ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country’, in times of injustice they reminded them that Injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere and when a victory against apartheid seemed improbable and the chains of imperialism unbreakable they reminded our fathers & mothers that It ‘always seems impossible until it’s done’

You see, we debate our parents in living rooms and on dining room tables as they find themselves trying to dissect and fully comprehend our generations’ intrigue with Obama; they say our generation tends to have an erroneous perception of reality and thus, they relegate our opinions & contemporary values to mere disillusionment and misguided values. By so doing however, they unconsciously condemn us to a tumultuous future, one in which our destinies are bound to collide as they pivot upon and embrace imperfect legacies & flawed ideologies; flawed ideologies and imperfect legacies that allow the mistakes of the past to consistently reappear.

So allow me to PARTIALLY contextualize Obama’s appeal to the younger demographic; he represents to us what Nelson Mandela tried to emphasize when he said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Education Policy; he represents to us what John F. Kennedy try to encapsulate when he said “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.” – Iraq Policy; he is a true manifestation of what Gandhi meant when he said “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” – Community Organizer; what Cesar Chavez stood for when he professed, “The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.” – Immigrant Rights & Workers Rights; he is what Martin Luther King Jr. meant when he said “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Universal Healthcare; and represents Sound Judgment that can fully be expressed in the words of John F. Kennedy, “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”

Pope Jon Paul II once said the future starts today, not tomorrow. We as generation are poised to inherit a tainted legacy rife with flawed ideologies; a place where the difference between right & wrong is not based on morals & ethics, but rather, is based on the dictates of a political agenda that is set by a malevolent mutation of socio-economic; a place in which the lessons from history are seldom realized and so the vicious cycle of instability and confrontation continues to manifest. We do not see Obama as the “chosen one”, rather we view him as our gatekeeper; the protector and guardian of what we as generation will one day inherit and hopefully make right. Because we understand that the need for us to coalesce around a renewed fundamental set of values that look to celebrate the greater good within all of us regardless of political affiliation, gender, race, religion, sexual preference & ethnicity is paramount and regardless of our preprogrammed ideologies and personal convictions, we as a generation realize that our destinies intertwined; a point that Obama seems to understand, no offense McCain.

PS: I go to Palin's University of Idaho and this is Obama country.