Barack Obama at the Annual NCLR Conference

at 3:58:

"Maybe the system is not designed for people like us."

It was a comment about education, but it reflects a broader feeling that so many people share; that the system just isn't working for them. And they're right - it's not.

The system isn't working when a child in a crumbling school graduates without learning to read, or doesn't graduate at all.

The system's not working when a young person at the top of her class, a young person with so much to offer this country can't attend a public college or university

The system isn't working when hispanics are losing their jobs faster than almost anybody else are working jobs that pay less and come with fewer benefits than almost anybody else.

The system isn't working when twelve million people living in hiding and hundreds of thousands are crossing our borders illegally each year.

When companies hire undocumented immigrants instead of legal citizens because they want to avoid paying overtime or avoid unionization or exploiting those workers,

When communities are terrorized by ICE Immigration Raids,
When nursing mothers are torn from their babies,
When children come home from school to find their parents missing,
When people are detained without access to legal council,

When all that is happening, the system just isn't working and we need to change it.

This is a nation of immigrants. It's sad that many of us quickly forget that and make the modern immigrant experience such a harrowing one. 2 hankies

Barack Obama Addresses A.M.E. Church General Conference

I'm not religious in the sense that I don't believe in the supernatural, but I do respond to a good sermon because I am culturally Christian and my Liberal values do coincide with the Christian values that drove the major social movements in the U.S.: Abolitionists, Suffragettes, Civil Rights activists, etc. This was a good sermon. I know that a lot of my fellow Liberals are uncomfortable with Obama's religious rhetoric, but I'm not worried. He's re-building the wall between Church and State in his overhaul of Bush's corrupt faith-based initiative and he speaks in universal language in the public sphere and religious language when he's in the religious sphere. He does a good job of not mixing the two.

This speech was powerful and comforting. There were quite a few places that I got weepy, especially when he invoked the image of those same faith-based civil rights pioneers I mentioned above - anti slavery, pro-feminist, pro-labor and civil rights activists. And when he talked about the problems we have and the solutions we can find. 3 hankies

Barack Obama: Education Town Hall in Thornton, CO

During the Q&A after the speech, a young woman named Stephanie stood up to ask a question, and the first thing she said was, "I'm just really touched that you're here, that you're bringing hope to this country." and as she said it, she her voice broke a little as she started to cry. I just found it really touching and reassuring that more people understand the great need this country has not only for a new direction, but for a good direction like Obama is talking about in his speeches. 4 hankies (it really moved me)

Barack Obama: Speech on Patriotism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9n2-zEbHJo

About 9 minutes in, Senator Obama relates how patriotism grew in the lessons his family taught him. One of his earliest memories is of sitting on his grandfather's shoulders, watching the Astronauts come to shore in Hawaii. His grandfather explained that "we Americans can do anything we set our minds to do. That's my idea of America." 1 hankie


Relating how his mother read the Declaration of Independence to him as a child: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..." Those lines always make me weepy. Social justice means opportunity. Both are things that are ingrained in this nation. 2 hankies

The YouTube video skips to the end at about the 12 minute mark. I'll have to watch the rest, later.

(Damn Twitter - I'm following Obama's tweets, and he announces these speeches on Twitter so you can watch them live, but, because of Twitter's unresponsiveness and downtime, I've yet to receive one less than an hour after the event has already ended.)

Senator Obama Goes to Africa (2006 DVD) #3

In the part of the Documentary about Senator Obama's visit to a Darfur refugee camp, there was as shot of a huge crowd of refugee children, and I got weepy at the idea that somebody could find any justification to force children into such dire situation. 1 hankie

Right after there were some refugee women relating stories of husbands and children being killed before their eyes as they tried to flee the ethnic cleansing. 3 hankies

Senator Obama Goes to Africa (2006 DVD) #2

Senator Obama was visiting a branch of a Chicago bank that was doing micro-lending to entrepreneurs, and as these local Kenyans were relating their stories of enterprise, Senator Obama's voice-over said:

"What's missing, for a lot of these folks, is NOT good ideas or a powerful work ethic, but what's missing is access to capital."

Social justice is a concept very dear to me and is precisely why I'm a Fire-Breathing Liberal and why I like Obama so much. 1 hankie

Senator Obama Goes to Africa (2006 DVD)

I got this DVD from Netflix, and it's pretty interesting. As Obama was talking about he and his wife getting publicly tested in order to get more people to participate in the CDC's testing program, a subtitle came on the screen about the fact that 1.3 million people in Kenya are living with HIV/AIDS and that a further 1 million children are orphans because of AIDS. It's heartbreaking. 2 hankies

Gore Endorses Obama

National Anthem:

Obama hasn't even started speaking, yet. It's the National Anthem. It always makes me cry. Without fail. Pride, sorrow, joy and determination. It contains some very powerful imagery to a civics-geek like me. 1 hankie

Introduction:

Governor Granholm intoduced Gore and Obama and I got misty eyed. It's hard not to hope for the future. 1 hankie

These guys are rockstars. The crowd is climbing the walls.

Gore is speaking - bet there'll be some tears during this speech.

Gore: "with the force of reason and logic..." Don't know why this made me tear up, but it did. 1 hankie

Obama in 30 Seconds

Watching the winner and the runners up - they all made me weepy. I'm just flooded with a sense of relief and hope. The country actually has a chance of moving in the right direction, again. Multiple hankies.

http://obamain30seconds.org/

Obama Video clip on Gawker

I was watching a clip of Obama's speech where he confirms that he'll be the nominee. Made me cry... again!

http://gawker.com/5012879/

Obama Victory Speech - June 3, 2008

I'm finally getting a chance to watch the whole Obama speech. I know this is going to be rough for me because it's been so long coming, and so important. Blogging it as I watch it.

He's thanking his wife and kids. 1 hankie.

He's thanking his grandma who helped raise him. "Tonight is for her." 2 hankies.

"I will be the Democratic Nominee..." 1 hankie - again! I caught this, earlier, when I flipped over from 30 Days. Still chokes me up.

People are holding up "Unify!" signs. 1 hankie.

They're cheering him to the rafters. 1 hankie.

"I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine." The crowd cheers him to the rafters, again. 1 hankie.

"...give our veterans the care and the benefits they deserve when they come home." 1 hankie.

"...that is the legacy of Roosevelt, and Kennedy, and Truman..." 2 hankies.

"...cities in Michigan, and Ohio, and right here in Minnesota, He'd understand the kind of change people are looking for." 1 hankie.

"or where he spoke tonight in New Orleans..." 1 hankie.

"That's why I'm running for President of the United States." 2 hankies.

The crowd is chanting "Yes, we can!" 3 hankies.

"...That uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon." 1 hankie.

"We are always Americans first!" 2 hankies.

"So it was for that band of patriots in Philadelphia..." The tears are just flowing, now. 4 hankies.

"That this was the moment..."

"so that it may always reflect our very best selves..."

...


That was almost cathartic. I cry a lot (as I've documented in this blog), but I haven't cried that much at one time in quite awhile. Pride and hope and joy mingled with a bit of sadness at the current sad state of this great nation. We're going to fix it, though. We're going to elect this man President and have a strongly Democratic House and Senate and we're going to save America again.

Barack Obama Clinches the Nomination

I just saw Barack Obama announce that he will be the Democratic nominee for President. I'm crying with joy and pride and even, yes, relief. We need this man to lead us out of the hole that the Bush Administration has dug over the last 8 years. 3 hankies

Obama Stump Speech - Mitchell, South Dakota

Who doesn't get misty-eyed at the hope and promise of this man's candidacy? I hope that the Democrats don't let Hillary drag this thing to the convention. We so desperately need this man as president and we can't afford to keep giving McCain a free pass. We've got to get Barack out there as the official candidate taking McCain on. 1 hankie

Barack Obama

Teared up with hope and pride watching a Moveon.org Barack Obama ad. 1 hankie.

http://pol.moveon.org/video/?id=12737-2910333-9Qtthv&vid=theysaid