Ripples of Hope
I recently watched a speech by Robert Kennedy from 1966, when addressing a group of students in South Africa he said, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope... and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
This year, with a war still raging in Iraq, a chaotic Pakistan, and a myriad of domestic challenges facing this nation, we need a President who can lead that wave. We need a President who can restore American legitimacy abroad. We need a President who can work with Democrats and Republicans alike to find common ground. We need a President who can clean up Washington, wrest power from the lobbyists, and give it back to the people. We need a President who will uphold the Constitution and respect our rights. We need a President who can achieve meaningful and lasting change that we can believe in.
I have not followed politics for a long time, yet never before have I seen someone as sincere, intelligent, and capable as Senator Obama. From his time as a community organizer in Chicago, to his years as a State Senator, and even in his tenure as a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago, Obama has worked with and for the people. His candidacy is inspirational, for who could have imagined, even ten years ago, that an African-American man could transcend politics, challenge the status quo, refuse lobbyist money and favor, and still be a viable candidate. Yet with a week to go, he is on the brink of victory, either tied or leading in both New Hampshire and Iowa.
I have volunteered for the Senator these past couple months, and every time I knock on a door, make a call, or talk to a fellow voter, I feel as if I am sending out “a tiny ripple of hope.” And I only hope that there will be enough people standing next to me, and generating other ripples for the Senator’s campaign to produce that wave we so desperately need. So as an inheritor of the legacy of Kennedy, I am calling on my fellow New Hampshire residents to stand up on January 8, by voting for Barack Obama.