Obama, I'm Finally Listening

So the pessimist cynic in me was just waiting for this whole Obama fad to pass by so that we could return to reality. I remember sleeping through what will be deemed the most memorable moment of the decade, if not the century, the election of Barak Obama. While America was raving for their new prince charming president, I was busy reading some radical communist doctrine. I was sure nothing would change. Sure, America might better itself under Obama, but the world will remain in peril as long as America flexes, its muscles, I thought to myself. We of the Middle East, I thought to myself, are hopeless. America has its dogmatic neoconservative agenda, and it will carry it out regardless of who's in the white house. I was like the three monkeys, each of whom would either cover their eyes, close their ears, or shut their mouth. I was completely indifferent to what was going on regarding the elections. As a foreigner, I thought to myself, this is "their" election and it should concern me. Deep down inside, I was jealous that the Americans could enjoy such a sound electoral system, where as we, those of the Arab World, would never be able to enjoy such liberty in the near future.

At the same time, I had been thinking to myself, who out there could possible set a role model when it came to my future aspirations to lead? My admiration for the likes of Che Guevara, Nasser, Nekruma, Nehru, and other revolutionaries of the 20th centuries has not waned the slightest bit, but I have come to realize that their ideologies aren't necessarily compatible with today's times. So I looked around me...Sarakozy, Putin, and Gordon all seem like laughable jokes! Was this ideal that I'd been searching for all along before my eyes? Could it really have been the guy I'd been so skeptic about this whole time? Could it have been Obama?

I never really knew much about Obama or his beliefs as a politician. The revolutionist in me only paid attention to Obama whenever he was compared to having socialist tendencies. In any case, my thought was that he must be the lesser of the two evils when it came down to him running against McCain. I only started paying attention to how Obama's intentions truly aligned with mine when visiting Washington DC during the inauguration weekend. Never in my life had I seen so many people rally in the streets from one man. I thought the days of popular support for figures like Gandhi, as one can still see in the black and white documentaries, were long gone. I was proven wrong on the 18th of January when walking across the national monumental "Mall" in Washington DC.For the pre-Inauguration party that I attended with several friends who study in DC, I had never in my life seen so many people from so many different walks of life, creeds, and ethnicities come together to celebrate one man. The Lincoln memorial was like the colosseum Rome, with trumpets horning to celebrate the glory of an empire. After some entertaining shows put on by U2, Beyonce, Usher, and Shakira came the moment the million or so people had been waiting for, Obama's oration .

Obama's reference to America's ancestors is a clear reminder of the foundations on which this empire is founded. He gives the Americans purpose of existence, hope, motivation, and inspiration for this country to move forward. It is this nationalism and values of freedom and equality that American is built on, which Obama reminds Americans where they came from. He reminds America of its ingenuity, innovativeness, prosperity, and grandeur that is incomparable in the world. This is the power of America that can prove to be an unprecedented in history. Could America's ability to renew itself, to repeat a renaissance every couple of decades, prove to be essential to allow this empire to never face a decline or collapse as every other empire in history has experienced?

Obama has inspired me. I am not another political sheep who follows the herd, but after hearing Obama live and feeling the energy in the crowd, I am convinced that an idealist revolutionary is now in the rightly crowned the most powerful man in the world. He gives hope and motivation to all to strive to defy reality to fulfill the ideal. I am convinced that this is a new era that every human being should look forward to, that the world's leading superpower is now steering a new course than the one it has led for the past decade. I am optimistic. Even if Obama can't go through with all of his promises, I am convinced that his mere aura is one that gives hope to revive a nation and a world. I am inspired that if we can import this inspiration and hope from a country like America to the Arab World that we can bring about justice, egalitarianism, and a reason for the oppressed to rise and stand up for their rights. Finally, by lending an ear to an inspiration to Obama, I myself am inspired to work for a better future for me, for Egypt, and for the world.