America’s Future is Up to All of Us
Back in August 2005, I wrote an open letter to America where I spoke about the move away from greatness that we’ve made in our country. We can shift the course we’ve been on these last many years. With inspiration and true leadership, we can reclaim our souls and come back to the heart of what it means to be American.
“Leadership is not a solo act, it’s a team effort.”
James Kouzes and Barry Posner in The Leadership Challenge
Fundamental changes must occur if America, as we hope she can be, as she has been in part before, is to come alive. No one individual–regardless of intellect, experience, age, race, sex, or any other “qualification”–can create this country anew. Such a transformation will happen only through the work of the millions of us who are blessed to call America home.
Barack Obama is the only candidate of either party who understands this because he is the sole contender who really wants Americans to be fully engaged. Attend any meeting of WNC for Change, the local grassroots effort to elect him as president and you’ll see plenty of evidence of how active and autonomous Obama wants us to be. Come to the local Obama for America headquarters (107 Merrimon Ave.) and see how organized and effective a citizen-driven voter registration campaign can be. The other two candidates view us merely as voters, pursuing us to the polling place, coaxing or coercing us to give them our vote before showing their true colors with rehearsed and hollow ‘thank yous’ and the swiftest of departures.
Barack Obama is unique among those aspiring to be president because his goal is to serve and lead rather than to rule and govern. He believes, as Abraham Lincoln described in his Gettysburg Address “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Though other presidents have encouraged civic participation, Barack Obama is one of those rare individuals who understand that true power lies with the people and that “we the people” must be fully engaged beyond election day if transformational change is to take place. Those heading governments and businesses may craft and enact policies hoping to shift the direction of a country or company, but without the support and follow through of those on the ground, policies never come fully to life. By sharing responsibility with campaign staff and ordinary citizens alike, Obama is developing the leadership capacity of his followers and setting the stage for more powerful and sustainable results because success becomes everyone’s personal mission, not simply his own.
If you yearn for America at her finest–a country where your best is wanted and needed every day; where your welfare is equal to the welfare of all others; where your ideas, your voice, and your simple, consistent presence are valued for the irreplaceable gifts that they are–then Barack Obama is the only person worthy of your vote in this year’s presidential process.
Remember, however, that leadership is not the domain of a few gifted women and men, it is the responsibility of all people, not just the duty of our elected officials. If you are ready to be part of the movement that instills faith in those feeling hopeless, courage in those constrained by fear, passion in those who have lost heart, and inspiration in those without a vision, I invite you to join millions of your fellow American citizens who support Barack Obama. With Obama as president and each of us as fully committed participants in this developing democracy, America can fulfill her potential and be the country we know we can be.
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