America has decided! Barack Obama wrote a new chapter into US history by becoming the first African-American elected president, capping a stunning rise to the White House and more importantly the Oval Office. With tenacious energy and verve, he took on the political establishment, defeating former first lady Hillary Clinton in the party primaries, overturned the perception that America was not ready to vote for a black president, and crushed the weight of the Republican attack machine. It was only four short years ago, that Obama was just a little-known charismatic Chicago politician with a big smile, who stunned the 2004 Democratic convention with a dazzling speech.
“There is not a black America, and white America and Latino America and Asian America – there’s the United States of America,” he proclaimed then.
It was a message he has used to ignite a new passion and excitement in a country angered by the economic crisis which has dragged down the world’s top economy and disgusted by the Iraq war.
In defying the odds, the 47-year-old senator has reshaped conventional wisdom on how to pay for a successful White House bid by harnessing the Internet as a powerful fund-raising tool. His campaign also put together a formidable grass-roots organisation, especially in key battleground states, which in the end gave him an unstoppable momentum towards the White House. What a great plan! The son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, Obama has sought to rise above the issue of race and project himself as the candidate for all Americans.
But his victory on Tuesday will remain bittersweet because the woman who raised him to believe he would be whatever he wanted to be passed away just hours before his crowning moment. His white maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, lost her battle with cancer in her home in Hawaii, never living to see Obama realise the aspirations of generations.
Below I found a couple of quotes of Barack Obama which are truly inspiring and motivating and thought I would share them with you, I hope you feel the same.
Purpose
“If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”
Courage
“As Americans, we can take enormous pride in the fact that courage has been inspired by our own struggle for freedom, by the tradition of democratic law secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. It is a tradition that says all men are created equal under the law and that no one is above it.”
Potential
“Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”
Destiny
“The true test of the American ideal is whether we’re able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them.”
- speech, Jun. 4, 2005
Generations
“It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.”
And my personal favourite…
Unity
“There is not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America — there is the United States of America”
Related posts:
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments