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Barack Obama and the American Dream

Hope, of course, is why this man embodies the American dream. More than any other shared belief or common value, hope unifies us. It is at the center of America as a concept. The first Europeans that came fleeing tyranny or seeking adventure were driven by hope. Africans kidnapped and dragged here in chains, and native inhabitants, swept underneath by waves of invaders, they were robbed of everything except for their hope. It is what sustained them. It has always been what draws immigrants here, a nourishing life-blood of new people and ideas. Hope melds our disparate histories and diverse cultures, and it alone distinguishes us as a nation and a people.

Barack Obama is the only candidate offering hope, and seems to be the only one that really understands it. By its nature, hope is illusory, impossible to squeeze into a rigid mental framework. It is, at times, immense, powerful, like ocean tides and weather, and at other times, fragile and ephemeral. Senator Obama understands that America's hope is at low tide.

Early Americans hungered for freedom to think and speak their conscious, to chose their destiny, and to worship their God. Nearly two and a half centuries later, those yearnings are largely realized, yet these freedoms, precious as they are, still leave us empty. Without something important to talk about, without a greater goal to achieve, absent a divine place to invest our faith, the freedom to speak becomes babble and all of our actions pointless. We wander through melancholy malls, then go home and watch reality television. We need to believe in something greater than ourselves.

Our nation chased after wealth and power for most of her history, when what we really wanted was security for our peace and freedom. Americans built the world's greatest economy and most powerful military, spreading free markets and democracy worldwide. Unknowingly, we also sowed seeds of greed and violence worldwide. We rose to the top, but remain unsatisfied. We find ourselves with little left to hope for.

Recent generations of Americans grew up in a hopeless land of plenty. Barack Obama recognizes that they spread across this land in amber waves, from shore-to-shore - an ocean of unharvested hope. He senses the unfulfilled yearning of a nation without purpose.

Obama is often criticized for a lack of experience. That should concern us little. We all start with no experience, and accumulate a lifetime of it. A leader with open eyes, ears, and

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