Unity Is Change
I don’t like to get political.
Not because I don’t have opinions. Not because I don’t have faith in politics.
I can’t say exactly why beyond vague feeling of being afraid of someone judging me or the overwhelming hate surrounding most politics. I do think there are many important issues worth speaking up about, but I can’t believe speaking up at the internet dinner table has much of an impact.
Maybe I’m just annoyed by echo chambers. Maybe I just forgot how to make friends.
Either way, I’m about to write something political.
On this week’s episode of Comatose I pulled audio from Obama’s victory speech in 2008. I’ve been playing around with putting famous speeches on the show, but have stuck mostly to people firmly placed in history.
Contemporary thought is a bit harder to clear. It’s fresh in people’s minds with various controversies and copyright claims.
Obama’s speech was more pertinent than I expected it to be.
The wave of Hope that he rode to the Oval Office was a very unique time in history. The Colbert Report was still relatively new, and Jon Stewart was nowhere close to retiring. Bush was finishing eight years in office and had cemented his divisive legacy.
And America was divided.
Obama’s hope was not one of radical change. He didn’t want a revolution. He didn’t want to invent a new system. His hope was unity, having people come together rather than pulling further apart.
Unfortunately, his message got lost among the wild dreams of an unsatisfied populace looking for change in a different sense.
I will never know for sure, and doubt I will ever have a chance to ask, but I imagine the man feels sad that his message ended up dividing people once again.
When you look at what’s happening now, it’s hard to swallow just how divided we have become.
Obama’s change was the hope of unity.
It took listening to his speech all these years later to understand that.
Listen to this week’s episode, Episode 100 — Waiting, Future, and Obama:
Written by John Bauer of Comatose.
Comatose is a weekly series of amusing anecdotes, insightful commentary, and pithy stories. Every week three contributors are featured in short segments. The segments, though often unrelated, are tied together using music and narration to set the scene. Relax and enjoy the ride while listening to topics as varied as love, birthdays, and reciprocity.
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