A Life Celebrated....

Good morning,

This morning I heard an incredible story, it was the story of a returning son to the land upon which he can trace his heritage, that enough would be a good story, but imagine him returning to a hero's welcome.

The man pictured at left is Senator Barak Obama, the woman with him is his grandmother, a resident of the small Kenyan village the Senator visited during his African trip to promote AIDS awareness, safety, and prevention.

As I watched the news clip of the Senator as he walked down those narrow dusty streets, with crowds of people singing songs in celebration of his arrival, all I could think was how proud the man must feel. His father was born, raised, and lived in the small village, sometimes tending to the family's goats for the grandfather, he would attend school when he could, showing promise enough to inspire the village to help him further his studies. But who would have guessed that community help would have produced a Harvard graduate with a Ph.D, and a son who would eventually become a United States Senator? Talk about overcoming huge odds, Senator Barak Obama is the 5th African-American to serve in the Senate in all of our nation's history, and the only African-American Senator serving at this time. I must say I'm proud of the man, as his achievement shows he surely did inherit his father's will to succeed, and succeed he has.

It was amazing to see the video footage, with the singing crowds, the smiling faces who seem to have captured a little bit of the hope the Senator seemed to represent for them, even the American flags flying in honorary display as well as being waved by people in the crowd, and they weren't trying to light them! Truthfully, how often do you see that on the news nowadays? It's disappointing to always see the now "news-standard" image of big crowd, burning flag. Not this time, and it was just great! To me, it represented how our country could be regarded around the world, it was the friendly greeting Vice-President Cheney could only dream of.

One other thing I noticed was the plain manner by which the Senator spoke, not just on this occassion, but also on the tv news interviews I've seen him give, he makes a good point, just putting his words out there intelligently. I find it easy to respect a politician who still possesses the ability to just say what he means, rather than speaking in the circular manner we so often hear from "professionalized" politicians. Most often politicians seem to have their own language, sure it's English, but it's the language of non-answer, and what good does that do for anyone? I once heard someone say, "any good politician will answer questions, but their answer is always to what they wish the question was". How true is that? Yep, sadly it's true.

The Senator spoke to the crowd, not in an "I'm gonna tell you" manner, but in an "we're all in this together" sort of way, the crowd sporadically shouting back their replies to his words, with the Senator replying back in kind. It was a conversation with thousands, and it was incredible.

Talk on the streets of Kenya has some asking for the Senator to consider running for the presidency of Kenya, he has that much trust amongst the people, who only wish for a long and happy life.

Barak Obama t-shirts, baseball caps, and an Obama named soft drink were sold by wandering street vendors, posters of him were also available for sale in front of the village school that bears his name. In Kenya, it was Obama-mania, it was hope for our country to have a friend in Africa, and it was what must have been a magical moment for the Senator, his family.

It was the return of someone they regarded as one of their own, the son of a man of modest means who elevated himself through education, who brought with him a message of hope and umlimited possibilities to those who don't often consider life to offer as much. I can only imagine the spark ignited in some of Kenya's youth that day, what great and incredible things will they go on to do, now reminded that there is a way for the possibility to do anything, even to rise to great heights. I'd bet they probably knew all along, but now they had proof. Some in the crowd must have received that message, in my opinion, that is the best part of this story. Hope is contagious, something I believe was happily passed from person to person within the village, perhaps throughout the country.

My only question is, now what will our country do to help the people in Kenya who are dealing with a terrible AIDS crisis? Senator Obama made great strides in U.S-Kenyan relations on his trip there, but he is unfortunately just one man in the Democratic Party which doesn't have much power in our country at this moment. Will the current administration pass on this opportunity to do something great, spreading our good will to that country, while receiving it back in thanks? Looking at the track record of administration responses to good or bad situations, I have a sinking feeling that the positive advances our country made in Kenya that day will be ignored through someone's hopes that the moment will fade to be forgotten by November when election time comes around.

It won't be forgotten if we all remember there are other ways of doing things that don't result in angry crowds, there's a way of working together globally, a way of spreading hope, and just doing the right thing.

I can only imagine what just a fraction of what we'll spend on Iraq today, could do to restore hope here at home for Seniors worried about their Social Security, their pensions, and their medical care, for the people still trying to put the pieces back together along our storm battered coastlines, for kids in impoverished neighborhoods just aching for a glimmer of hope that might show them a different and better way, and of course for countries like Kenya who just want a friend to extend a helping hand with no strings attached. There has to be a better way than what we've seen these past few years, there just has to be....

Good will fosters good will, a good deed will often create one in return, hope ignites the fire of hope in others, wouldn't that be a great foreign policy for us to build upon? Nah, I'm not saying we should go soft and neglect our military, so don't try to box me into that corner, nor am I saying Senator Obama's trip was the end to all wars, I'm just saying it showed me something good during a time when most tv news isn't so good.