There have only been two times in my life when I felt as if I was watching history in the making, and both times they were tragedies: the Challenger explosion and the morning of September 11th. Tonight was the first time that I saw history in the making and I knew that it was something different, something positive, something courageous and something world altering. Tonight, Barack Obama accepted the nomination of his party and became the first African-American Presidential Candidate of a major political party in the United States of America.
This is one of those times in the spectrum of history that will be one of the most significant historical moments of all time. It will be one of those moments that my children and my children’s children will read about in text books, and see replayed in their classrooms. This will be one of those moments that will live on.
I have been a life-long fan of history and with the advent of You Tube I have been able to find scores of amazing historical speeches by great men like Dr. Martin Luther King and JFK, Bobby Kennedy and FDR. Speeches that not only inspire, but captivate your imagination and motivate you to step up and step outside of yourself to achieve something beyond your wildest dreams. These men are some of my “historical heroes” for their courage and bravery to stand up against ideas that were the cultural norm of the day. Barack Obama is quickly finding himself among the ranks of these men in a historical context.
Tonight was a historical night… and I’m thankful that I was able to see positive history take place for a change. I am also thankful that John McCain did the decent and noble thing of trying not to upstage Obama on such a historical occasion with VP talk. I’m glad he decided to wait until tomorrow. It truly does speak of his decency and understanding of the historical gravity of tonight.
The rest of this political election cycle is certainly going to be exciting… and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. It’s a close one, full of completely differing ideals by both men who stand in stark contrast to one another. This is going to be interesting!
Related posts:
- just in time for easter.
- the un-world series
- ‘Make Poverty History’ message banned in Britain
- love them canucks… eh?
- a little bit of history repeating
[...] history. aaronmonts.com [...]
That history just sank like the titanic. Mccains pick of Palin was an absolute grand slam home run for the repubs. As most people who know me know, I am no Mccain backer in any way. I still wont vote for either person. One will give us more federal gov’t programs that HAS to be funded through taxes, and the other is going to bankrupt us in war.
Obama made a huge mistake naming Biden, a life long Washington politician that is the primary reason washington needs change. 35 years or something in Washington? That was a terrible pick. And while the speech was decent last night, all I hear is big govt and bigger govt with more and more programs. Face it these do not work. And socialist and free healthcare does not work as they think it will. Its failed miserably everywhere else already.
Palin however gives mccain a huge boost. The dems cant say no experience, because look at their top dog. She definitely swings in the conservative vote that won GW two elections, and she is very moderate in her love for the environment and the way she has ran Alaska. And of course a huge woman vote will now swing the way of McCain. I still think Obama wins, but I think McCain now has a shot, whereas before he had none.
Slam dunk? I don’t think so… she’s under investigation for shady ethics… whether it turns out to be true or not the McCain campaign is showing their true colors and it would just be 4 more years of the same. Sounds like she could be another Cheney – investigation-wise that is. I’m not sure I trust John McCain to wake up one morning and then she’s all we’ve got. That’s a scary notion.
She cleaned up a lot of corruption in Alaska and balanced a budget there in less than 2 years. By all accounts she is very clean, and very much what the repubs needed. Again, I’m not voting for them so I dont care truly. As a true outsider it was a very good choice. His numbers already bounced back the 6% he lost after the DNC according to many polls.
The scarier thought is to me having someone like a career washington politician run the country in Biden. Or a puppet like Obama. Ted Kennedy is calling his shots, and as reported widely throughout the internet he owes all the creeps in IL like Madigan and Blago lots of favors for getting him into office in the first place.
What about more big govt and more programs is so appealing? I know the guys a good speaker and has some aura about him, but read what he writes and its nothing more than both sides of the aisle have been spewing for years. Time for real change, vote both sides out of office.
Hi,
I’ve really enjoyed reading the blog the last few days. Good stuff. I finally see a chance to add something.
My wife and I watched the speech and enjoyed discussing it as she was not raised in America. I hear a great deal of criticism of obama’s lofty ideas and how he is going to pay for it. In his speech, he spoke directly to that. He said that he would close big corporate loopholes and evaluate unsuccesful and high cost government programs. Obama’s tax plan published in the sun-times months ago showed how he will cut taxes almost double for those under earning 75000 a year compared to mccain while raising it for those over earning 250000 a year. Mccain will cut for everyone, but obama’s plan will funnel billions more dollars into the budget.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1031678,obamamccaintaxplans.article
I may be biased because my income is just above the poverty line, but I think the rich should bear more tax burden. Trickle-down economics is what brought us national debt.
As to the health insurance failing miserably everywhere else, I am relocating to a country with universal health care in a month to live and work for two years. I am not a citizen and I will have full-insurance the moment I step off the plane and pay the same taxes on my income I do in the united states (with more write off’s as a non-profit worker). I will feel so relieved to know that if I break my leg or have an asthma attack that this country will take care of it. My friend here had a deathly heart condition at 26 and lost his entire life’s savings and will be in debt for years (He was given 10 percent off of his bill if he paid the entire 35000 dollars within 30 days of his discharge). The justice this country shows to me through at the very least taking care of me in an emergency is a right deserved to me by my own country the united states. I hope we find away to afford this to those who cannot themselves (as well as pressuring to lower medical costs).
I still am not claiming a candiate yet, as I still desire to rebel against a two party system. But a man who speaks of justice to the poor, stoping high corporate gains and loopholes, and is willing to reconcile the racial divide that plagues this beautiful country is a man that I am beginning to believe in.
I would just like to point out that on cnn tonight they were talking about the pick. On the ‘alert” bumper under the analysts it read
“McCain TAPS Gov. Sarah Palin”
Way to give me a laugh cnn, and way to be on top of the culture.
TAPS… that’s funny… I about spit out my drink when I read that!
but rick… obama’s the anti-christ! he’s all about killing babies and gay people having rights! how can you support such abomination!
this is seemingly all i ever hear about when it comes to my support from Obama, regardless of his commitment to reduce the number of abortions and to offer basic human rights to homosexuals – something mccain doesn’t seem to care about.
and don’t forget about the fact that obama is committed to equal pay for equal work with women–something mccain continues to vote against in the senate.
It all sounds good about not raising taxes and cleaning up washington. We’ve heard this from both sides for decades. And Clinton while his “surplus” looked good from the distance, he refinanced a ton of debt on short term loans with china, etc. And Bush did lower taxes quite a bit, but of course is bankrupting us overseas. Neither candidate is willing to get us off foreign soil completely which is the route we should go. There is a billion dollars a year we could feed back into our economy.
You may get coverage wherever you are going, but be forced to wait in line for hours and get inadequate healthcare.
True reform brings it back to charities and churches to care for the poor and indigent as it was years ago. This is where peoples money should go, not into building programs.
Obama should have shook the water and followed what McCain did and picked a total outsider. Instead he picked what is wrong with washington at its heart. At life long politician who has done little to change anything but his own pocket book.
Again, I will vote for neither, as neither is true change. True change is not following the same vicious circle we have for decades, true change is throwing out incumbents and replacing them with fresh blood.
In response to the health insurance issue again. This story came up
http://www.suntimes.com/news/1177221,CST-NWS-attack22.article
Now anyone can say anything about health insurance other places. People often respond about waiting in line for hours and inadequate healthcare. (they are often people who have not been to other countries with universal healthcare, i’ve been to two). I don’t have studies here, but we have some of the worst healthcare for developed countries.
But here’s the key. When someone gets attacked on the street, has a freak medical emergency, or a rare case, they should be provided the care they need without tens of thousands of dollars of bills. We do live in a great country but this is our lacking. I know the issues that can arise from long waits etc, but the point is, you may wait in long lines for non-essential care in a uni health care system, but if you have a broken leg or get attacked or have a serious condition, you are covered and you will be treated immediatly. People in other countries who wait in long lines for care, are people who would get no care at all in our system. So the worry about long lines is an inadequete argument in this case.
Our government has equal responsibility interntionally and domestically. Americans deserve better and they deserve health care.