Yes We Can

Yesterday at around 11pm eastern standard time I felt the world change. It stopped, took a deep breath and then continued to turn, bringing the dawn of a new day, a new hope and I for one am glad. But now is the time that we as a people need to come together to work on making our world a better place. Now everyone who knows me will agree that I am one big ‘ol bleeding heart liberal and that is fine I will own that mantle. But I wonder at the things that classify me as such because this is what I believe. I believe that we as a country must remember out history even as we move beyond it. I believe that our founders thought that they were doing something very special and we should always keep that spirit alive. This means embracing people of all ethnicities, religions, classes and ideologies. This means welcoming debate and discussion and remembering that We the People means every last one of us: poor, rich, black, white, purple and blue. I believe we should always strive to be the land of opportunity that was envisioned. This means that everyone has the right to education and healthcare. Now I know that many of these systems are broken and I don’t know how to fix them all, but I know that we have people in this country who do. I believe that no one should die of a preventable disease, and no one should die because they could not afford a doctor and no one should graduate high school without being able to read, or be denied a college education because they cannot pay their tuition and feed themselves at the same time. I believe that we should cultivate relationships with other countries because we truly do live in a global world. I believe that men and women should be paid the say money for the same job. I believe in leaving adult women to make their own choices concerning birth control. I believe that any two adults should be able to fall in love and get married if they so choose regardless of their sex. I believe that I am my brother’s keeper and while you cannot help everyone we can offer a hand up when people need it.
And finally I believe that democracy works, no one can deny that now. But now is the time for us to come together. We have a lot of work to do as citizens and now is not the time for division. We are not all that different and we can celebrate our differences at the same time that we work together. So I ask everyone, even if you did not vote for Obama, let’s give this a try together and maybe we can make this world, this country, a better place when we leave it.