Yes We Can

Today is the first time I've viewed the stirring Obama video making the internet rounds. My friend Lael, at daily mantra, sent me the link. I couldn't even tell you the names of any of the artists on this amazing music/speech video, but I recognize them as citizens of my America, my people, the culture and the spirit of which I am glad to be a part. Watch this with the sound way up:

"There has never been anything false about hope..." Barack Hussein Obama.

Here's what Lael said:

Obama's words, in the speech and now in song, epitomize the can-do spirit considered by many to be quintessentially American. They also bring to mind Daily Mantra's favorite law, one not encoded in the US Constitution, namely the Law of Attraction. In light of the inescapable nature of this universal principle, the electorate's collective negativity with regard to the political arena (no doubt intensified by the painful scandals and ill considered decisions of the last eight years) is something we would do well to heal and overcome. Like any affirmation of our power, this video by will.i.am and a junior Dylan can help weed habitual negativity out of our consciousness and thereby ameliorate our experience. Its affirmative spirit could even prove healing for an individual consciousness mired in not just in political nay-saying but in personal negativity as well.

There is an undeniable logic to Senator Obama's heartening words. Without a prior belief in possibility, nothing is ventured and therefore nothing is gained. All the historical examples he lists, from unionizing to emancipation to the enfranchisement of women to the civil rights movement, tell us that remarkably positive transformation happens all the time. Indeed, the historically unprecedented political viability of an African American presidential contender and a female one attests to the utter reasonableness of hope as much as anything else.

Lael is my soul sister, newly met but long known.

Comments

[Maloof]

Speaking of videos. Have you seen this? http://www.storyofstuff.com/

[Richard Silverstein]

Some of those involved are the musical group Black Eyed Peas, Scarlett Johanssen, & Karim Abdul Jabbar. Lots of musicians & young actors.

It's a pretty interesting video.

YES WE CAN!