I’m sleepy from staying up all night watching Barack Obama’s inauguration live on television. That night, I can hardly keep my eyes on the laptop screen while typing my article which is due the next morning. I stayed glued to the history that is unfolding before me, before millions of people around the world. The next day, I just can’t help watching and listening again to Obama’s speeches being replayed on You tube while I struggle to keep my heavy head from falling into my laptop’s keyboard. (I also have to finish the article that I have set aside the previous night)
But a never to be repeated history was being made late Tuesday (Manila time, Wednesday in Washington), and staying up till 3 am seems a small price to pay to be a part of it. I’m not much into politics, but Barack Obama incites something in me that I can’t quite explain…
He’s only 48 and his speech reverberates with the voice of a lost generation, effervescent with optimism and pulsating with promise.
Even though I’m so far away, the American way of life touches my family in a lot of ways than one as some of my relatives and dear friends reside there, some in Texas, New Jersey, Guam and Washington, where the inauguration took place and where Obama and his family will stay throughout his term.
Whatever good this vibrant new American president will do for his own country should benefit not just his fellow American citizen but also the millions of people who left their homelands in search for a greener pasture in the US.
And as naïve as this may seem, by leading through example, Obama could be successful in bringing together other world leaders for the common good, thus making this world a safer and better place to live in.
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