The Sound

Ever since the election last night there has been this sound in my head. What is that sound? I watched last night as John McCain graciously accepted his loss to Barack Obama, and though I don’t think McCain is the perfect candidate and though we were prepared for his loss, it struck me afresh what a great President we are losing.
And then I watched as Obama stood in front of hundreds of thousands of people and accepted his election. As the cameras panned across the audience of starry-eyed youths, proud black voters and Oprah clinging to the man in front of her and swaying to the music in her head, my emotions were stirred. I decided at that moment to rejoice with our nation in our first black president. I soaked in the stories from grown black men with tears in their eyes saying they never believed it would actually happen, and the story of the 106 year old lady who lived through segregation to see a day when a black man is the leader of our country…and she was able to vote for him. I rejoiced last night, but still the sound in my head remained. What is that sound? I never doubted whether a black man could be a great president, not the way I have doubted whether a woman could be a great president. It warmed my heart to see what seemed to be the entire nation in united celebration over an Obama victory. But I can’t help but wonder if in their blind pursuit of a historic moment, they missed what he was saying all along. Have the stars in their eyes kept them from seeing that he stands for things that America has long fought against, and in fact, they themselves find abhorrent?
When I listen to Obama, I too want to fall behind him. He has often been compared to a preacher, but then again he seems to disdain all things related to the church and Christianity… which I can honestly relate to, though unlike him I am unwaveringly pro life, among other things. So I like to think of him more like the leader of a service organization. I think Barack Obama would be great as the head of Red Cross, The Salvation Army, or the Peace Corp. He has great ideas on helping people, and a true heart of charity…something anyone would want in a president. But when you start infusing these ideas into the government, that’s when things get a little screwy.
The desire to end world poverty and hunger is shared unanimously by everyone across the globe except a small percentage of narcissistic a**holes. Wouldn’t it be great, as Obama says, to take the left-overs of those with too much and hand it to those without enough? If there is enough wealth for the whole world to be satisfied, why would we put up with poverty? But what happens when my government wants to give to something it deems as a charity, but I don’t agree. I want to extend charity on my children’s college fund, or on the local women’s shelter. But I don’t have that right anymore. The money I earned is not mine to spend. Those in charge…the elect know how to spend my money better. We elect people to make our decisions for us, right? Maybe I’m scraping by and barely able to make ends meet with two jobs and it dawns on me…I can quit my jobs and let the government take care of me. Ambition out the window…I am staying home all day. Workers aren’t working, the bosses are having to cough up the money they earned working eighty hour weeks and long nights to support people who just don’t put in any effort. Read economic crisis. Wealth stops being created…poverty grows on a larger scale than before.
Spreading the wealth around has never been an American ideal. In America, you work hard, knowing that hard work pays and its there for anyone. In America, we are free to compete with each other because competition creates better and more efficient products and in turn creates more jobs and a better economy and a better life for all who are a part of it. In America, we choose our churches of any faith and within that church we organize to end the poverty around us…because most (not all) faiths have a dogma of charity. But that is our freedom, just as it is our freedom to be narcissistic a**holes who never give a dime to anyone but ourselves. And you know what? That’s fair.
Again the sound…like a giant vacuum. This morning the sound became clear. That’s the sound of many of the freedoms I have long taken for granted being sucked away. My world yesterday was a lot more free than my world today. My small business is in more jeopardy today than it was yesterday. When I saw John McCain walk off the stage last night, a war hero, a dedicated and proven American to the core, and a highly experienced politician, defeated…I could not help but think “Oh God, what have we done?” But pushing all that aside and facing the fears that lay ahead of me I will pause and be thankful for our new black president. I still have a twinkle of hope in my eye because I know he is a good man.