Hope

This is my 10-year-old niece, M, from April this year in San Diego:


She was the first Obamamaniac in our family, and this is what she wrote Wednesday morning:

Today is the day after Obama won the election. I looked out the window this morning and I saw change. My neighborhood looked peaceful and relieved. I saw a new day. I knew that whatever lay ahead would change us, and our perspective on things. And even though proposition 8 passed just a few hours before, I saw gay people getting their right to marry. I saw us fighting through global warming and the sun not beating so hard on our earth. I saw America as not little groups of people like gays, blacks, whites, I saw America as human beings, fighting, working together, no matter how much we disagree with each other. I saw change in the world that morning. I saw years ahead that would change us. I knew then, that I could make a difference, I knew I had the protection of the state, those who don't, I will fight for their rights. I can change America, like Obama will, and other presidents have. I know this because I have something they all had too, hope.

Even this cynical old man is touched. Maybe "hope" is not mere rhetoric. Maybe we can leave behind a better world for the young 'uns.

'Nuff said. Adios to everyone (love the shirt!):