![It has been tough to be absent from the United States during crunch time for such a history-making campaign and election. Granted, I did what I could by voting via absentee, and encouraging fellow study-abroadees to do the same. I set my alarm for 5AM that morning, after 2 hours of sleep, so that I could find out the fate of our country before catching an 8AM train to the north for a 4-day field trip. My roommates awoke to find me sobbing on the couch, hopelessly trying to apply my makeup for the day while listening to Obama’s acceptance speech. Though the only place I wanted to be at that moment was in Grant Park, Chicago, it has been absolutely fascinating to witness, first-hand, the international influence of Obama’s win. Generally, Europeans are completely thrilled. There has already been an incredible transformation in the way we, as Americans, are treated here. This past weekend we were eating supper in Milan, and, knowing we were Americans, the waiter asked if we had voted for Obama. After answering him with a resounding ‘Yes!,’ he surprised us with 2 giant platters of free bruschetta. Again, in Venice, at the Accademia Art Museum, we were asked if we were European students. We explained to the man that yes, we were students, but we weren’t European. He told us that only European students were eligible for a discount at the museum. We explained that we were studying in Rome, and he asked for student I.D. cards, but we didn’t have any sort of identification with us. He thought for a minute, and then said “….but you’re all Obama supporters, right?” to which we all replied “Yes,” and he promptly waived all fees, and let us in for free.I’m confident that Barack Obama is capable of doing a great deal of good in Europe and all over the world besides helping us get free stuff. Being greeted by such kindness so soon after the election only reiterated that confidence, and gave me great hope for the future.It was quite moving to celebrate Obama’s victory with my painting professor, Brenda (“Bones Jones”) who was the leader of our field trip. She’s a 40-something African American from Oklahoma who told us that she has been protesting and fighting for rights her entire life. She explained that every bit of effort she had put forth in her life to fight for the rights of herself and others was validated on November 4th. As our group of 6 walked down the streets of Northern Italy together, people would see Brenda, and then notice 5 young American-looking foreigners with her and shout “Obama!” to which we replied with cheers. Brenda was smiling from ear-to-ear all day long knowing that the U.S.A. and the world was forever changed, and she, along with millions of others, was in some small way responsible.Though I was without a computer for the 4 days we were traveling, I was able to read one newspaper I found printed in English. An article by Ethan Bronner, a member of the Associated Press living in Gaza was published (Nov. 5, 2008):
“GAZA: From far away, this is how it looks: There is a country out there where tens of millions of white Christians, voting freely, select as their leader a black man of modest origin, the son of a Muslim. There is a place on Earth — call it America — where such a thing happens.
Even when the United States is held in special contempt, like here in this benighted Palestinian coastal strip, the ‘glorious epic of Barack Obama,’ as the leftist French editor Jean Daniel calls it, makes America — the idea as much as the actual place — stand again, perhaps only fleetingly, for limitless possibility.[…]
Tristram Hunt, a British historian, put it this way: Obama “brings the narrative that everyone wants to return to — that America is the land of extraordinary opportunity and possibility, where miracles happen.”
But wonder is almost overwhelmed by relief. Obama’s election offers most non-Americans a sense that the imperial power capable of doing such good and such harm — a country that, they complain, preached justice but tortured its captives, initiated a disastrous war in Iraq, turned its back on the environment and greedily dragged the world into economic chaos — saw the errors of its ways over the past eight years and shifted course.”
Reading this made me realize more than ever before that Obama is going to be a leader of nations, not simply the United States. Living in Italy has exposed me to the realities of control that America possesses over the entire world, and the amount of good that can come about by one determined person leading a group of relentlessly dedicated supporters.
“This is our time[…] to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.”
- President Obama](http://24.media.tumblr.com/7GosZWOI6g3kemajyfyTg2Mio1_500.jpg)
It has been tough to be absent from the United States during crunch time for such a history-making campaign and election. Granted, I did what I could by voting via absentee, and encouraging fellow study-abroadees to do the same.
I set my alarm for 5AM that morning, after 2 hours of sleep, so that I could find out the fate of our country before catching an 8AM train to the north for a 4-day field trip. My roommates awoke to find me sobbing on the couch, hopelessly trying to apply my makeup for the day while listening to Obama’s acceptance speech.
Though the only place I wanted to be at that moment was in Grant Park, Chicago, it has been absolutely fascinating to witness, first-hand, the international influence of Obama’s win. Generally, Europeans are completely thrilled. There has already been an incredible transformation in the way we, as Americans, are treated here.
This past weekend we were eating supper in Milan, and, knowing we were Americans, the waiter asked if we had voted for Obama. After answering him with a resounding ‘Yes!,’ he surprised us with 2 giant platters of free bruschetta. Again, in Venice, at the Accademia Art Museum, we were asked if we were European students. We explained to the man that yes, we were students, but we weren’t European. He told us that only European students were eligible for a discount at the museum. We explained that we were studying in Rome, and he asked for student I.D. cards, but we didn’t have any sort of identification with us. He thought for a minute, and then said “….but you’re all Obama supporters, right?” to which we all replied “Yes,” and he promptly waived all fees, and let us in for free.
I’m confident that Barack Obama is capable of doing a great deal of good in Europe and all over the world besides helping us get free stuff. Being greeted by such kindness so soon after the election only reiterated that confidence, and gave me great hope for the future.
It was quite moving to celebrate Obama’s victory with my painting professor, Brenda (“Bones Jones”) who was the leader of our field trip. She’s a 40-something African American from Oklahoma who told us that she has been protesting and fighting for rights her entire life. She explained that every bit of effort she had put forth in her life to fight for the rights of herself and others was validated on November 4th. As our group of 6 walked down the streets of Northern Italy together, people would see Brenda, and then notice 5 young American-looking foreigners with her and shout “Obama!” to which we replied with cheers. Brenda was smiling from ear-to-ear all day long knowing that the U.S.A. and the world was forever changed, and she, along with millions of others, was in some small way responsible.
Though I was without a computer for the 4 days we were traveling, I was able to read one newspaper I found printed in English. An article by Ethan Bronner, a member of the Associated Press living in Gaza was published (Nov. 5, 2008):
“GAZA: From far away, this is how it looks: There is a country out there where tens of millions of white Christians, voting freely, select as their leader a black man of modest origin, the son of a Muslim. There is a place on Earth — call it America — where such a thing happens.
Even when the United States is held in special contempt, like here in this benighted Palestinian coastal strip, the ‘glorious epic of Barack Obama,’ as the leftist French editor Jean Daniel calls it, makes America — the idea as much as the actual place — stand again, perhaps only fleetingly, for limitless possibility.[…]
Tristram Hunt, a British historian, put it this way: Obama “brings the narrative that everyone wants to return to — that America is the land of extraordinary opportunity and possibility, where miracles happen.”
But wonder is almost overwhelmed by relief. Obama’s election offers most non-Americans a sense that the imperial power capable of doing such good and such harm — a country that, they complain, preached justice but tortured its captives, initiated a disastrous war in Iraq, turned its back on the environment and greedily dragged the world into economic chaos — saw the errors of its ways over the past eight years and shifted course.”
Reading this made me realize more than ever before that Obama is going to be a leader of nations, not simply the United States. Living in Italy has exposed me to the realities of control that America possesses over the entire world, and the amount of good that can come about by one determined person leading a group of relentlessly dedicated supporters.
“This is our time[…] to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.”
- President Obama
