And Justice for All

Over two million people have watched this inspiring speech. There's a reason for that. As my brothers Steve and Chris have both stated much more eloquently than I could, it's because this is the time when we can begin to seek a more perfect union. And this is the person who can begin to help us as a nation become everything that is in our power to be.

Remember those often hollow words many of us recited by heart every single morning in elementary school? Remember those words driven into our memories with rarely an explanation or discussion of their meanings or implications? Words like "indivisible", "liberty" and "justice". Words that, to a ten year old, are nothing more than words. Well, for years now, those words have seemed antithesis to what my own observations were of what this nation had become. I saw a divided nation, made up of red states and blue states, with little to no common ground between them. I fumed while I watched as our liberties, those very freedoms that inspired a handful of brave souls 221 years ago to forge a new nation, were chipped away due to the politics of fear and hatred. And I despaired that justice for all was nothing but a fantasy, something I would never, could never see achieved in my lifetime.

Well, as Dylan sang so eloquently during the height of the last great American revolution, the times they are a changin'. What I see in this man, what I see in this candidate for the President of the United States, is the will, desire and ability to inspire an entire nation to realize its full potential. I see the potential for the greatest political and cultural revolution of modern American history. I see the possibility that we are not doomed to become the most despised and mistrusted nation on the planet. For the first time in my life, I can begin to accept that perhaps, with this man's help, we might just be able to achieve liberty and justice for all. And I am beginning to have hope that someday I may actually be able to honestly and truthfully proclaim that I am proud to be an American.

Who knows, I might even feel good enough to remove the Canadian flag from my backpack.