It’s no secret that President Barack Obama is one of my heroes, and I have a lot of reasons for that. His cool, dignified demeanor which reminds me so much of my late father, his message of hope and that we are the change we’ve been waiting for, his passion for ending a tradition of racial oppression, and his absolute love for this great country are just a few reasons that I look up to that man and adored having him as my President.
Have Your Voice Heard: Become an Odyssey Creator
When my dad died in 2005, I felt pain and despair that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. It was the single most painful, humbling, and terrible experience which I had ever found the misfortune of having. I found myself lost in darkness, unable to cope with my profuse amounts of hatred. That feeling lasted well into my years in high school, but the first time I saw any light of hope at all was the first time I heard Mr. Obama’s speech in 2007.
I remember it very acutely. It was a dreary, depressing morning. Gray skies in the early days of winter, another day to think about my pain. I was a 6th grader walking to class with this girl named Abby, whom I had a crush on but lacked the confidence to admit that to. We arrived in class to find our teacher watching some speech at a DNC meeting. It was that "Our moment is now!" speech, and while I don’t remember fully what drew me to it, I do remember asking my teacher who that speaker was, to which she replied, “That’s Senator Obama.”
From that day on, I paid attention when he was on television. I couldn’t put my little 12 year old finger on it, but something about him reminded very much of my own dad. In November of 2008 when he was elected, I sat next to that same girl named Abby in a 7th grade science class on the morning of November 9 when they talked about the winner of the presidency: 44th President Barack Obama. I still remember the swell of happiness in my spirit, a joy I hadn’t felt in a very long time, and I high fived that pretty girl sitting next to me.
Over the next 8 years I grew and developed as a person. I learned to better cope with the sadness, the anger, and the hate inside of me. I learned about important things like the rights of women, minorities, and LGBTQA folks. I learned about it all while being inspired to care about these things by our President.
What he meant to me is difficult to put into words. I suspect I can never quite do it justice. A quote from Chance The Rapper’s album, Coloring Book, seems to help just a bit.
The people’s champ must be what the people can’t be.
How true that rang for me! I am ashamed to admit that I fell short of those virtues which I so loved, and to this day I still fall short of many of them. Yet that’s why Barack Obama continued to inspire me. I wanted to claim those virtues and be more like him. Virtues such as civility, dignity, love, manners, and a willingness to listen, to compromise, to discuss.
Our 44th President kindled a fire in me. He made me want to be a better person. A better son, a better friend, a better lover, a better brother. When I think of him today, what I want more than anything is to be more like him, and to be a better man.
Yet, like all good things, even Mr. Obama’s presidency had to end. Nowadays, there’s a new chief in town. He is the 45th President of the United States of America, and his name is Donald J. Trump.
He stands for everything that I hate, that my father hated, and that Mr. Obama fought so hard to keep at bay.
He’s a bully who would mock a man for being disabled.
He’s a hedon who would cheat on three different wives and brag about how he feels he can force himself on women.
He wants to repeal health care in a way that will kill 43,000 Americans a year. He wants to marginalize an entire group of good, family-loving, moral people because of bigotry and the actions of very few. He is a man who hates, who divides, who is childish and thin skinned and classless and who only wants to be the supreme and the greatest in the most oppressive and divided America - the exclusively white America, which has no place for the likes of me, my family, or many of my closest friends.
One of my best friends is a guy named Ahmad, and he is a Muslim. He is one of the best guys that I know. He would do anything for his friends, and go even farther than that for his family. He is bound by honor, humility, and the desire to be the best man that he can be. Yet our new President would see that people like him are shunned from this country. He would see that they are marginalized and regarded with suspicion and hate purely on account of the name in their prayers.
Donald J. Trump is a man that I hate and a man that I fear becoming.
Today I am humbled and saddened because on November 8 of the year 2016, I watched America elect a man that I despise as a man that I love was jeered at and cast out by half the nation. This is no longer Barack Obama’s America. Though he may be active in coming months and years, and there to be inspiring, he is no longer at the forefront. His time has passed and he is gone. Soon he will fade away as George W. Bush did and as Bill Clinton did before him. The fate of all finished Presidents is to fade away before the rhetoric of the new one.
Yet that is why I am writing this. Because on Inauguration Day and the days following, when I saw President Trump in that Oval Office which I consider to be the highest honor of the world, that flame in my heart kindled by Mr. Obama nearly sputtered out into embers. I could taste the dry ashes in my mouth, feel the pain and sorrow erupting in my heart.
And I know that millions of other beautiful Americans feel the same way and that they agree with me, and that is why that fire first kindled by Mr. Obama has been able to suddenly revive, stronger than ever, brighter than ever, and why I am now more determined than ever. My heart is now wounded and scarred, but my resolve has never been stronger.
Because I know that goodness prevails if people are willing to fight for it, and I see so many millions of invigorating, awe inspiring Americans willing to do just that. Today is the day that I make my peace with the fact that Mr. Obama is no longer president. Today is the day that I realize I no longer need him. Though I will continue to miss him, though he will continue to inspire me, I need not rely on his goodness to center myself.
I will live independently of him, relying on my own goodness and on the goodness of America itself and all of its people to center myself. The past few days have been full of grief, and the past few months full of pain. I’ve lost control. I’ve lashed out. Enough of that. Today I escape from the urge to insult or to condescend. Today I will finally meet the values and virtues set by the greatest President I personally feel we have ever had.
Today I am not simply another face inspired by Mr. Obama. Today I am a proud citizen of the greatest nation on this earth, a nation with more potential for goodness than the entirety of history has ever seen. I am not some lost boy saved by Mr. Obama. I am a man and a citizen who can fight beside him.
And yes, Mr. Obama’s America is at its end, but that’s okay. I know that I am not alone in these feelings, and that millions of Americans will come together to say to our new government that this isn’t Donald Trump’s America either.
This is our America, a United States united not solely by our constitution - the greatest political document ever written, but by the robust will of its people and the American dream, that profound aspiration to achieve a society upon a hilltop and a land of golden opportunity.
Because God Bless Barack Obama, and God Bless the people of the United States of America, a society unlike any other.
Today, I say, let’s fight. Let us be citizens who fight for what’s right.
Let us show the world that hate is not the true color of the American flag, that our goal is not to beat them out but to be a leader in enacting societal change. America isn’t made #1 by virtue of how many nukes or soldiers or fighter planes we have, nor even by our economy relative to China’s.
America will be #1 by virtue of the common good of its people that we will proliferate. And we will be the ones to lead the world into the ultimate age of prosperity, peace, and love.
So I say today that we need to fight. That we need to win.
So to Mr. Obama, I say, thank you for everything. I will never forget you. We will never forget you.
And to Mr. Trump, I say, get ready, Mr. President.
The revolution has already begun.
