When Sen. Barack Obama spoke last week at the 75,000 seated Invesco Field in Denver on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, it should come as no surprise that the speech was nothing more than a mere disappointment. The fireworks and speeches from admired senators and history-marking men like Sen. Ted Kennedy only set up the anticlimactic aftermath of the Democratic convention.
Everyone was expecting something surreal – A speech so astounding it could be compared to the Gettysburg Address. The truth is that the speech was not set in a dream. It was a human trying his best to give the people something amazing that did not live up to many expectations. Obama spoke to his Democratic audience who knew what he believed in already. Gun control, gay marriage, “a women’s right to choose” and a 95 percent tax decrease to the middle class did not make people jump out of their chairs and walk around their apartments or houses in circles trying to figure out how they could begin changing the world.
The video on Obama’s life was more motivational than the actual speech. I did not know a video would be shown on Obama, and I learned more from it than the firework display and shouting match that was considered a speech.
Obama’s speech did not make people want to pat their conservative friend sitting next to them on the back and say we can work together with this nation, but rather turn and stare at the wall in confusion and ask how universal healthcare can work in a nation driven by private businesses.
If one wants to gain amazement or motivation, then one should not consciously search.
If Obama does win the presidency, then I can imagine a winter wonderland in January of next year with throngs of well-wishers standing impatiently outside the United States Capitol in Washington D.C., waiting for the first black president to say something incredibly miraculous so that our hearts will forever be warm and changed. It probably will not happen.
Just put faith in a candidate who feels right and inspiration will pour out every day in how the country will be run. It’s a day-to-day life in America that we live as much as Obama, albeit with no fireworks or confetti, but small things everyday unfold change in our lives.
Liz Sehon is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Waco.
