Anyone else want to share my Kool-Aid?

Months ago, when I knew that Hillary would not be the Presidential nominee, I made a decision that I would support Barack Obama. I didn't really like the decision, it wasn't the decision I wanted to make, wasn't the decision I was ready to make, but I made it anyway because at the end of the day, it is always about the issues. For each of us, it is about the issues that mean the most to us. For me, it is gun control, choice, the economy, unionization, equality for all regardless of race, creed or color, believing there is a better way, empathy, and hope. Qualities and issues that I have never found were best represented by Republican candidates.

So, I must give credit where credit is due. And credit is due to Senator Obama for the glorious speech he made last night.

They can pick on him for many things, but for his oratory skills, they dare not. And for his ability to truly make people believe in the audacity of hope, there can be no doubt that last night, on the anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, we all stood a little taller, felt a little better that when change comes, not if change comes, a brighter day will dawn. Yes, it is mostly cliche, but like stereotypes, they get that way because there is something behind them. As an American, I want to be an optimist, I want to believe that our status and relationship with the world can be repaired. I want to believe that we can turn the economy around and help the middle class remain the middle class. I want to believe that we can end hunger not only around the world, but on our own doorsteps. I want to believe that someone will finally reach out to the broken educational system in so many parts of our country and say, we can't let this continue.

We are a people of hope. Every day, across our country, we get back up, dust ourselves off and keep going. After the Great Depression, after two World Wars, after assassinations and failed conflicts, scandals and disappointments, terrorism and natural disaster, we Americans got back up. We got moving. But, to do that, we had to believe and must continue to believe that from the top of our nation, there is someone there who understands, like Senator Obama said last night, and I paraphrase, you can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps, when you don't have bootstraps. There has to be a sense that empathy flows downstream.

And so, I urge you, if you haven't yet gotten on the bus, it's time to buy a ticket. Because we can't live another four years of the last eight. And anyone who says different has lost their sense of hope. It's understandable, but it's not acceptable.