I have debated for the past year regarding whom I would vote for in the primary come February 5, in my home state of New Jersey. Never did I believe that New Jersey would play a role in the nomination process when I began my venture to figure out who I would vote for a year ago, but here I write, excited as can be that this nomination will go down to the wire and decided by the nation and not just New Hampshire and Iowa. After a long journey of reasoning, I have cast my absentee ballot for Barack Obama and I am very proud of the inspiration with which he represents.
My journey towards the primary vote started one year ago, in earnest. I began the process as an angry man, hungry to turn things around in this country and eager to move beyond the idiocy of these past seven years. Like many of my fellow progressives, I yearned for leadership that was rational, diplomatic and focused on the greater good of the citizenry, not on the greater good of the corporations. For years I had dreamed of someone who could unite our party around a common cause based on hope and inspiration.
Growing up as the son of Indian immigrants, I was fascinated by the stories my father would tell me of him living as a young boy in a distant land, reading and listening to the speeches of John F. Kennedy. It was the motivation that JFK instilled within his soul that drove him to the United States to start a new life, with a new family striving and achieving dreams beyond his wildest imagination . Like the JFK of my father's time as a young man, Barack Obama truly is this generation's hope and inspiration....a man who has the capacity to bring out the best in us all so that we can rebuild and lead our nation back on its path towards greatness.
When I heard Barack Obama speak for the first time, during the Democratic convention of 2004, I was enthralled. Here was a man who fascinated the crowd with his exhilarating rhetoric. At that time, I saw a winner, but the pessimist in me believed that this country still was not ready for a minority president. Well, I'm happy to say that I have been proven wrong.
Despite my praise for the 1990s and the heyday of the Clinton years, I despise the politics of that era, which to me includes the Bush administration. That era of American politics; where mud-slinging, arm twisting, tear-one-down-at-all-costs; is dead to me. I am sickened by the "divide and conquer" philosophy which has for years wrought a sense of apathy in the voting masses. I am sickened by those politicians who appeal to the lowest common denominator and seek to always lower expectations in everything they do. I never could see myself as being really for Hillary if she were to be the nominee, based on the aforementioned, "things that make me sickened" as described a few sentences above.
My vote in the New Jersey primary is based on the fact that Barack Obama can inspire a whole new generation of young persons from our country and abroad who, like my father, will view America as a nation where greatness can be achieved through discipline and hard work. After eight years of the reactionary Bush agenda, isn't it wonderful that in the United States we have the power to change the political dynamics, with one election! I really feel that through Obama's rhetoric, inspiration and hope, we all can rise up to reach for our highest expectations in our leaders. We can reignite the democratic fire that drove our country's success of years' past. Hope is a good thing, and those who fail to dream big, never reach to achieve big.
We still are the best country for success, and Barack Obama's appeal to the best in all of us, truly inspires me to be the greatest physician I can be. I hope that he inspires all Americans to rise up, stand tall, and be proud of our wonderful country. His hope and drive, can really do good for our nation and the rest of the world. With our collective American confidence, comes our collective American power.....thats a force to be reckoned with that only Barack Obama can tap into.