From Divisiveness to Unity

Tuesday night we were privileged to experience the triumph of truth over lies, hope over fear and reason over sophistry. May it be the dawning of a new day for our country and the rebirth of a truly UNITED States. That is our hope. - Bryce and Zenith

"In principle there is no difference between welfare for the poor and tax breaks for the rich. Both consist of government aid to groups of people and are designed to 'spread the wealth around.' It is only the recipient groups that are different." -- Bryce Babcock

I love the people in this country. I have been fighting for equality and protesting the bad bhavior of the powerful for over forty years. If the powerful in this country and across the world don't heed the message of opportunity for all, they may get change in a way they won't like.
I have heard the promises for over fifty years but have seen little change, except more for the wealthy and less for the rest. It is very naive to assume that one election can change everything, the less we have all failed to participate and the more we have feared our own government the worse it has gotten. People who are that souless and greedy do not give up their "destiny" easily. I am truly hopeful that the people on top get the message. We cannot allow the powerful (of all countries) to keep pillaging the rest of the world unchecked. The housing melt down in the US is a prime example of this, with all the promises about the bailout being a complete lie so far. If the average person new the truth behind this incedible thievery they would (or should) be appaled!! If this was any other country the streets would have filled with protestors!! The only guaranteed employment, job security and chance for an education should not come with the price of possible death in the military. It is time all people are appreciated and rewarded for what they contribute to society no matter what they do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Perhaps we have been complacent because we have had to much for to long, but the less people have in this country the more they seem to be awakening!!!!!! It's about time!!!
It is the height of hipocracy to have pictures of children in "third world countries" on TV shilling for help without a word about the families thrown out of their homes living in shelters , cars at rest stops and under bridges. We should be ashamed that we are number 27 in health care behind Cuba and Sri Lanka, while pretending that we are the land of opportunity that all other should follow!!!
All we have to do to make the rest of the world abhor us is to keep wantenly disregarding the plight and opinions of the many and lavishing so much on the few. Every bully eventualy meets his demise!!!!! The ancient Chinese philosophers said it best ; Amass a fortune and no man can protect it!!! Unfortunately we all get placed under the same label as our leaders! Maybe this will finally wake us up!!!!!! Jan

I guess what they say is true, the third time really is the charm. I've voted in every election since I turned 18, this being my third time, and I never knew how inspiring and filled with hope election day could be. While listening to Obama address the nation as our President elect I was surprised to find myself start to tear up. Opportunity is not just for a few now, but for us all. We now have a real chance to change our world, to protect what we hold so dear. We have a chance to leave a world for future generations full of trees and birds, free of polution, where people not only respect each other but the beautiful world we live in and all of its creatures. Thank you America for making the right choice. For the first time in a very long time I really fell like change is possible, yes we can!

If we are not the stewards of this planet then who? If we do not step forward to protect our natural resources now then when? The exspeniceny of quick money has too often come before the long range needs and consideration of the American people.

Enjoyed the blog - very well written.

There are many reasons to celebrate this victory but one big reason for me was the elimination of the animal killer palin who now wont find it so easy to turn alaska into 1 big oil drilling rig ..

I work for the local government and was overwhelmed by the happier faces and more upbeat tone of almost everyone I came in contact with on the day after the elections. From hearing the conversations in the hallways and elevators, the hope of even the beginnings of change in this first term for Pres. Obama has been enough to inspire some confidence. I even heard non-Obama supporters saying that, even a bad change might be the beginning or basis of a much needed reform in the future. Not many around here wanted anything to do with the status quo.
Here in Florida the people voted to continue with an acquisition program for sensitive lands. I was so proud of us for this because, overall, I find that the people who end up here in Florida are a greedy, selfish lot and the local politicians have not been looking past their own pockets and setting up their future career paths when passing aggressive and sneaky pro-development - anti-environment programs and laws.
Hopefully, that global consciousness that we need so much, is beginning to spread throughout our state.

I am joyful about the possibility that my voice will be heard again after eight years of being demonized as a tree-hugging liberal environmentalist (and lots more "ists" which for the sake of brevity I will not include here). Today I got my country back. Let's be vigilant about the remaining days of the Bush administration. They still have time to do more damage.

I was too young to vote for JFK but I can still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news that he had been assassinated, and I remember how much he meant to all those people who meant something to me. When I became of voting age I always had him in my mind as an ideal, an archetype, of what a leader should be and the message they should convey. I found myself not voting for anybody, but rather voting against someone I felt was not worthy of the job. In other words, I always felt I was voting for the lesser of two evils.

This time was different. For the first time in my life I voted for someone that I felt was worthy of the task and was someone who I absolutely wanted to be the leader of my country. The media has made much of the fact that Obama will be the first African-American to be president and that we as a people have transcended a divisiveness that has always contradicted our Constitution and Bill of Rights. I rejoice how far we have come as a nation in doing this but I also feel that I and everyone else has looked beyond the color of skin in voting for an individual that I feel I can trust and gives me confidence in feeling comfortable with our destiny as a nation.

If nothing else, the one good thing that has come out of the calamities of the recent administration is that it roused an apathetic nation from a long, dogmatic slumber, and once again unified the voice of the people.

November 4, 2008, is America's finest day in my memory, perhaps even in my 70+ years. It feels so good to be proud of our country again. Yesterday the largest voter turnout in 100 years rose up to elect our first African-American president with a resounding victory. I'm in awe, since I still have vivid memories of working in downtown Detroit in the late sixties when racial tension exploded into rioting and violence. And this was after President Johnson had signed the civil rights act into federal law. The situation looked hopeless.

Several of my professional colleagues were African-American, Native-American and Canadian. All of us were devastated by the anger and hatred we witnessed. It's hard to believe we've overcome so much of this fear in only 40 years. Once again, the majority of Americans have slowly but surely proved their mettle and their deep-seated belief in real equality and in doing the right thing. Good on us. Someday maybe more of the southern states will join us in the 21st century. Then we can celebrate all over again when America is completely healed. The unspoken Civil War is almost over. We're starting to become a more intelligent, civilized and compassionate nation.

Now we have to step it up another notch and do everything thing we can to support the new administration in its efforts to fix our broken economy, heal the environment, and restore our tarnished reputation with the rest of the world. It's going to take a while and it won't be easy, so buckle up for the ride. "Yes we can!"

I'm feeling proud of America today. As the younger generation says, "Barack Obama rocks."

I came to this country from Brazil with my family when I was less than two years old. I grew up into adulthood during the Reagan years, and saw a reign of the white, elitist, Republican party take hold for three terms after that... Reagan, Bush, and again Bush... and oh yeah, just when you thought you were sick of Bush... his SON Bush... for two more terms... and I was disheartened. How could I identify with leaders who think that people like me pretty much only exist to make life better for people like them? How could I identify with an elitist white man who sought to destroy things that I hold dear, like the Alaskan wilderness, or the Endangered Species Act? How could I feel free in a country where my personal liberties were coming under fire and there was no one who represented someone who was like ME... brown-skinned, female, NOT wealthy... and never will be...

I never naturalized, because I never felt proud enough to actually call myself an American citizen. Once Bush and his anti-immigration sentiment began to be felt in my community, I no longer felt welcome in this country, not valued as a contributing member of this country, despite me having been educated here, paid taxes here, and worked hard to overcome personal difficulties and the death of my mother in my mid-twenties. I also never naturalized, because the fee is SO high... and the Bush administration is seeking to raise it before he leaves office from $700 to $1500. Honestly, if I had that kind of extra money lying around, I'd have paid for something of more value to me, like tires for my car, or paying off a medical bill or the student loans that have spiraled out of control.

Now that Obama has been elected, I now feel a sense of hope... I now feel like I can actually go back to my country, visit my family, and not feel ashamed to say that I'm an American, as well as a Brazilian. I now feel that I might be counted and appreciated as a member of this society, as a woman, as a Latina... and I now feel that if I dare take the naturalization exam, that I won't be given a sense that I might at any time be deported, just for being an immigrant who wasn't born here. Immigration is what this country was built on.

Yes, today, I am proud to be an American, and I am now developing a new sense of what it means to be patriotic for a country where you are shown that you CAN do what you set out to, that you CAN believe in a better future, that we CAN overcome racial and social and environmental issues together... and that we can finally start to see ourselves as a global community, as US rather than ME and THEM.

Yes, we can.

I have been a life long Republican but I voted for Obama. The last eight years have been a disaster for our nation and our world. All that time wasted by bogus politics, greed and violence. When we should have been repairing our country, restoring good values for the earth and all that lives in it. I prayed for yesterday to happen and it did. I am so proud of the rest of the country, that we could see beyond our racial bounds and recognize that Obama wil be very good for our country. I am also dismayed at the amount of anger that some Republicans are displaying...it serves no purpose. If Senator McCain can stand before a huge crowd and say with all good grace that Obama is his President then by all means please shut up and play by the rules of good ettiquette. I was present during the 1968 Convention in Chicago, witnessed the violence first hand...viewing Grant Park last night with hundreds of thousands of people in total peaceful unison thrilled my soul. It took forty years but I am glad I lived to see this. Now is the beginning. As Americans we need to come together, pull together, make our country stronger and better than it has been for a long time.....

I am thrilled that we may just have a chance at doing something with this incoming administration to help our planet. I am so glad to see the back of the current administration. We are the stewards of our earth, we need to start acting like it.

I honestly feel quite mixed aboot the issue. The thing is, Obama is competent, as is McCain, and has some respectable positions on wildlife, the economy, and diplomacy; however 'tis not to say he's some sort a miracle worker, that America will wake up to an instantly healed country, one currently limping and baying like a hapless dog. For it's the not the figurehead who has the ability to transform America, but the lesser politicians the people who scrutinize their bills; and as such, we are partly responsible for the change we want to see (and not that feel-good, apathetic "every little action makes a difference" load of cock, but real dirtywork; real reevaluation of irrational values, real research, really informing oneself and putting that into use).

For I lament not only irresponsible fiscal and conservational policies of the Bush administration, but irresponsibility in a neccessary intellectual scrutiny. I lament not only Bush's many blunders, but the many blunders of the citizens themselves in discerning a president and his policies. Oh, the dogs and moose shant be the only fellows suffering, but the barking, limping, gullible citizens (partly to blame for their own plight). Judge not only the corrupt and irrational politicians, but the corrupt and irrational people.

I am astonished that so many people are bitter about Obama's election. I believe, as obviously the majority of others in this nation do as well, that this man is the one who can begin to undo some of the damage of the Bush years in so many areas - to the economy, the environment, our image around the world, etc. We should all try to support him and just hope that he is able to do a lot of what he promised. I think America's problems run too deeply for one person to overcome and that it will likely take more than four years to overcome them, but this is the person who is most likely to make a real start towards real change and becoming the sort of nation we should be.

Geesh, listening to you you'd never know that 56 million reasonable Americans had just voted against him....

Mr. Obama is going to be preoccupied with his own image and status along with force feeding America his left wing agenda. The wilderness will not be able to compete with the hubris that overpowers this man. Good riddance to George W Bush, of course, but open your eyes and take a real look at Obama .