Wasim's Rants: The United States of ObAmerica

Alright...I admit it. I've been on a 'good energy' kick lately, reading everything from Friedman's Hot, Flat, & Crowded to the Idiot's Guide to 2012, The Secret to Osamu Tazuka's Buddha. Even travelled to Costa Rica the two weeks prior to Election Day on a whim to explore myself and my priorities, the state of my psyche and well-being and coconuts, papayas, and banana hammocks.

While up to this point I've been focusing on the candidates based on the 'historical' aspect and the 'topics' and 'issues,' it is now evident that there is something much larger and more important force at play here than Barack Obama the man.

Yes, you guessed it: energy.

For the first time in a loooooooooong time, arguably ever in this country, there was a certain inexplicable 'energy' focused around a Presidential campaign. One that was just downright infectious. And as this energy built momentum, it was damn near impossible to stop. The most impressive factor leading to his nomination, and ultimately, election as President of the United States of America, and effectively, the free world...was the fact that the American people did this.

Despite all the darkness and despair, the bullshit, the cloudy deception, the fear, and the dismal, the American people have effectively risen up and proven to the world, and perhaps more importantly to themselves, that they truly can make a difference. We are better than what we have recently shown you. We're actually...gasp...pretty good people!

It was a breakthrough in the politics of yesteryear. A capital-driven political system in which we felt increasingly powerless and invisible to our lawmakers and country. An environment where we felt there was nothing we can do. They're going to do what they want anyway.

True. They will.

But this time we showed the other side of that coin. We, the American people, can indeed put aside our HDTVs, iPhones, McMansions, Hummers, Paris Hiltons, and even George Bush...we can, indeed, rise up and make things right. Not only that, but as America is so good at...we can make history doing it!

In just 40 years, we went from a nation that would not allow blacks in the same restaurants as whites...to putting a black man in the White House. Perhaps this country has finally broken down the materialistic barriers and have seen through to the values of the human being himself.

The confidence that this gives to the American youth in our broken political system is worth the price of admission alone. For it is this demographic that have been awakened and matured in this campaign to a level in which they understand and feel something bigger than the election itself: that they...make...the...difference. They truly can have a voice, that collectively enough, is loud enough for the world to hear! It has made politics and careers in public service...well...cool.

It is exciting to think about the many different ways this energy will translate through the coming years. Not just reserved for material, economic, political tendencies, feelings, and values...but directly to their own self-worth, self-awareness, and self-empowerment as part of something bigger than themselves...as part of the community of humanity.

November 4, 2008, ladies and gentlemen, is the night our children will ask us about one day. We can proudly say that 'once again...America leads!'

Now let’s see if AmeriCANS follow suit.