This is my first diary and I will cheat a bit given that the content of this diary does not come from me; it comes from my daughter. Besides, her writing is way better than mine! She wrote this letter on February 12th. She is excited because come November, she will have the opportunity to vote for her first time.
Anyway, below the fold is her letter to Obama.
Dear Barack,
I don’t think you’ll have time to read this, but if you do, at least the first line, receive all my thanks and support…
I am a teenage United States citizen that hasn't been very proud of her passport most of her life. I love this country because it's my homeland, and the country of people I love, the country of all, a country that has been able to overcome obstacles, a country that has been able to fuel many different styles of thought, where the tertiary education is unrivaled, and where the answer to the question, "What's your background," or "Where are you from" mostly get a harlequin answer. Like you say and make us remember, this country was founded on hope, was continued by hope and will forever be influenced by it. I've become, in your words, a “hope-monger” and reasonable. After eight years of shame, and "business as usual, " and the idea that the "American" egocentric foreign policy is plaguing the rest of the world, and is building a future that we all have to wipe up, I've noticed a change in our mindset, at least in liberals and progressives. The apathy is gone, you've inspired us, you've given us the optimism in this dark chapter, and told us that it's possible to end these years of destruction, and to move on (as long as we work hard, from the bottom up).
A few minutes ago, I finished hearing your speech from Madison. And you made me tear up, because I said to myself, " Wow, if Barack becomes president, and even if he doesn't become it, but still fights for all of us, I'll love my country, I won't be ashamed." It's hard, Barack, to try and make sense of a foreign policy that established itself during the Spanish-American War, that pervaded my ancestry in Central America, that can be so bull-headed in terms of its "enemies," that's tearing Iraq and the Middle East to pieces, a foreign policy that seems to unravel and hedonistically destroy any progress. But now I can hope. Now, I can somehow try and tell myself that that foreign policy and mindset will be controlled. I'll breathe again when I'm abroad, and not have to constantly regurgitate the argument that not all U.S residents are stupid, not all of them elected a shame, and not all of them are infested with the "American tourist" syndrome. Thank you, for giving me hope, and be proud of some parts of this country.
When I hear your speeches, I see farmers, poorer people, Paul Bunyan’s descendants, single parents, strugglers, yuppies, preppies, hippies, the African-American and black community, all reflected. We need to look to our borders of course, but we also need to look beyond, and try not to separate the undocumented immigrants who have only come to try and survive, and who can't help it if a corporation pays them a measly cent and excludes citizen parents and their children. And when we all say, "Yes we can," in terms of hope, we should say it about the Japanese-Americans who held their heads high, who assimilated and still kept their culture, and who loved this country despite the hatred against them. We should say it about the Chicano movement in L.A, as well as Frederick Douglass', Emerson's, and Mott's. It would take me all night, and I’m not qualified enough, to name the countless others whose names would honor this message.
I've been reading your Dreams from my Father, and have become absolutely certain that you and your movement, your inspiration, your story, your experience, your record, your pursuit of the Dream Act, your marching during the immigrant reform, and your advocacy for change, are the ones we've all been waiting for...
I'll go study now, and dream about that day in November, my first time voting, where I'll probably bawl my eyes out, at the result. The result will be a "change we can believe in," and our nation will be uplifted, and respected across this mighty world. You have a right to hope, as we all, and I’ve been trying to convince followers of the old-establishment, and believers of a government with “experience,” and the people who just want someone unnamed to fix all the problems, that hope is just like water, a necessity, a way of remedy… and that you’ve given it to us again…
¡Sí se puede!
All the best,