Yes We Can!
In his victory speech Barack Obama’s shared the story of Ann Nixon Cooper…
”… Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.
When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.
She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “We Shall Overcome.” Yes we can.
A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.
America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?…”
If there is one big lesson that the whole Obama campaign has showed us is that:
YES WE CAN!
Yes we can change the world, yes we can change attitudes, yes we can become less cynical and more trusting and yes… we can teach “old” dogs new tricks.
For me Obama stands for those people that believed that things can change, that not all politics is fixed and that human spirit is stronger than city hall, meaning that it’s the “small” people, those hard-working people that would make the difference in life, not those so-called powerful people with titles behind their names.
I loved Obama speech, but it wasn’t the speech that moved me, what moved me most were the people in the crowed that you could see on their faces that they are ready to march and make a change now. They are willing to go and do whatever it needs to be done to correct and create a better world for them, their children and this world and planet.
Now is the time that this message will also be carried into Europe and the rest of the world.
Now is the time to realize that this message was not just aimed to the people of America, but to the human race. Let’s hope that we all remember it – YES WE CAN CHANGE!
