Super Tuesday

I come from a generation that has been defined by disappointment and lethargy. Indifference and indignation. We don't vote because we are told that it won't matter. Even if we believe it will make a difference, we are not given choices that give us much reason to hope. We are mired in the cycle of not caring because we feel politics do not pay attention to us, when politics in turn have no reason to pay attention to us because we do not care.

Being born within a decade of Watergate, I have never known a culture in which politicians were to be trusted. This has gotten more and more pronounced as I have gotten older.

I have longed for a candidate who I can be excited about all of my life, and now that I have found that candidate, I am filled with a rush of urgency.

In December I got the opportunity to shake Barack Obama's hand twice at a town hall meeting in Iowa. After he came by to shake my hand again, all I could muster was, "Thank you, Senator." A guy behind me implored him to "not make all these promises and then break them after you get into office."

Obama stopped, and made a point to directly address this guy's urging, and as he did it, his gaze floated to the person behind me who made the request, and to a few of us who were in that vicinity. As he did, he caught me right in the eye and said, "I tell you what, if I wasn't going to do everything that I can to make keep these promises, I have no business running for president."

It was a fairly predictable response given for a sharp politician to make, and had I not been there, it would not have had the same meaning that it has for me. Having been there though, having him make this pledge quite literally and directly to my face, I could see the genuine earnestness in his words.

Without trying to sound cliched, I have hope for this election and what it means for our country, something that I have never truly been able to claim in a presidential election. I pray that it can persist, and that we are given the opportunity to see what can come of this hope...

check this.



I hope that this Tuesday means something.