"We Were Strangers Once Too..."

Once upon a time, there was a man that lived in a White House; he wasn't though, and he was just brilliant.

When I was a kid, there was a man who ran for the highest office in the land, he was inspiring and new. He gave people hope and promised change. He looked different from me and that was exciting. As a kid I heard his name and laughed, not out of disrespect, but out of surprise and a lack of familiarity. It is a name that as I grew older I would come to respect a great deal.

He taught me to be soft-spoken and gentle, to be firm and resolute, to be compassionate and present. He was a great president and a great man when it mattered the most. He defined the America I grew up in, and it's an America I miss very much.

I miss Barack Obama, and I miss what America was when he led us.

I came of age in the landscape of an America led by this man, and only when he was nearly finished with his term did I truly realize the impact his calm and candor had made on my young perceptions of politics. He was articulate and clever, an example of how important a sharp rhetorical sense can be, especially for the Commander in Chief. More importantly though he was a father, loving and proud of his children.

I saw his daughters as kids, just like me and my siblings, and became more closely drawn into the words and motivations of this wholesome family.

He was a husband, a man who praised his wife every single chance he got, forever grateful to the mother of his children and awed by the work she did in her position as First Lady. Michelle Obama even now reminds me of my mother, strong and confident, fairly certain that at the first sign of conflict she would and could grab hold of any child in her sight and keep them from harm regardless of consequence. She was smart as hell, boundlessly confident and ceaselessly stylish.

President Obama made the job look effortless, and made the pressures look light. He was confident and personable. I remember a certain example of President Obama's surpassing humanity and his love for his fellow Americans. It was the day of the Sandy Hook shooting in late 2012, it was the first time an event like this had really shook me in an emotional way. Dozens of children were killed, and I remember coming home from school numb and proceeded to break down, the T.V. on in the background. The president's address concerning the shooting came on live that afternoon.

He cried.

He spoke simply and frankly, he broke down thinking of those kids the same way I did. He didn't make it about anything other than the lives that were cut short and the families that now had to go on hurting, and how insane it was that this continued to happen. He seemed to hurt every time it happened, but after a while he got used to it. We did too. And that was worse.

He addressed us eloquently, powerfully, and truthfully, with rhetoric that was not biased but human. He had a voice that spoke truth to power and spread love and peace across the aisle. He wanted us to be one, he knew our history and acknowledged it's flaws and divisions, confident that we could do better.

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But things are different now.

Where the president used to be kind, sensible, and level-headed; he's now cruel, brash, and temperamental. The man in charge effects how the nation behaves, and the nation is in a state of absolute panic and distrust.

There was hope before. Not absolute security or a an indelible sense of morality, but there was a feeling, a chance that we could be better. That when we fell on our ass the 90th or 150th or 1000th time, that we could always try again. Because that's who we are, and positive change is always worth fighting for.

But it's hard to find that feeling again. Really hard. My example no longer has the stage.

Someone else does.

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Where Barack welcomed challenge and hardship; Donald discredits the press and ridicules those who question him.

When Barack shrugged off truly racist and vile attacks on his heritage and family, Donald attacks and spits vitriol on Twitter for every perceived slight.

Where Barack invited all the huddled masses to share with us the gifts of freedom, Donald slammed close the gates and turned away the children who yearned to call this nation home.

When Barack acknowledged the bad in us and praised the good, Donald tempts our worst instincts and ignores the cries of the poorest of our brothers and sisters.

While Barack lived and lead by the examples written down on our most hallowed documents and brightest monuments, Donald plays his way through ceremony and dismisses the importance of our history.

Where Barack tried his best to give us the truth, Donald delivers lie after lie without batting an eye.

Where Barack time and time and time again displayed the purest notions of our founders purest ideals of a united nation built from division, Donald expects songs and celebrations of praise for tearing us apart and stoking the fires of jealousy and arrogance.

There are so many more examples, but they all point to the same problem, and the same solution.

America was better than this once...

and it can be again.

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As inspiring and influential to a new generation as the 44th president was, history may reveal the 45th to be even more so.

Not through his speeches or his ideals (should he really have any to speak of), but in spite of them. Where he calls for a return to the old ways, a regression into the sedimentary mindsets that built walls and beat the oppressed, we must push back with progress, creativity, and love. In his blunted efforts to hold us back, he will propel us sharply forward. Donald Trump will be the catalyst for the greatest cultural and societal shift towards inclusion and progress in modern history, and he will not intend one second of it. This change sparked through intense reaction, as a new generation all at once stands up in refutation of the future that is being given to us, will pave the streets of a just America, and light the new hearth of freedom before us.

But it must be now. America has tried this hasty generational hand-off once before, and our parents paid the price. Not again.

This is the change that Barack Obama taught us; that resting on one's laurels will bring nothing but chaos and stagnation, it is in the active search for justice and truth that we are destined to find it, not only as Americans, but as curious and bold human beings.

America was never great, but it had the makings of greatness in it's people. The aspiration to peace and justice through the united voice of her citizens is her defining attribute. Any who would say that America, with all her flaws and cracks, crimes and blemishes was ever undeniably or inarguably great was at best never paying attention and at worst spinning a lie. Her foundation was a belief that all men are created equal, entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, in the words of a wise reverend from Alabama, we have been unable to cash the check we had written. But that has never stopped us from trying, with the help of a brave few.

Slowly and painfully we stepped toward equality and peace, we fought for a change we knew could come.

That is America. It was built in turmoil, for only through pain can true happiness be achieved.

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If you want to hear that message in a much more eloquent and emotional way, however, hear it from the man himself.

President Barack Obama gave me hope for a better America and for a better world.

He still does.

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TL;DR

America is dope, the pure ideals of America are even better. Barry Obama helped me realize that before anyone else (I call him Barry, we're cool like that). Don't let this Orange goober we're stuck with now destroy your hope in our home, because hope is all we have.

Thanks, Obama.

Hell's Bells,

Alec