I've been an Obama supporter since his keynote speech at the 2004 convention. I thought of a young Arkansas governor giving a keynote in 1988 and said to myself "This guy will run someday, and I want to be on board." It's hard not to get excited about the story of Obama, his charisma, speaking ability and the effect he has had on my generation and those younger than me.
But as the years have passed since that night in 2004, my reasons for supporting Obama have concentrated. At first, concern for my country and it's future place in the world, the crumbling education system I am a part of and the economy that I struggle with consumed my political attention. The effects on my family and the hope for a better future drove my support for Obama.
But recently, my reason for supporting Barack Obama has distilled into this: I want the kid of divorced parents to make it all the way to the top, for my own son's sake.
My boy will grow up a child of divorced parents. Unlike Barack, both parents will continue to be part of his life; there is no abandonment here. But every single parent knows the simple truth of statistics, either from looking them up or just a gut feeling: it's not in their child's best interest for the parents to split up. Unfortunately, there just isn't a choice sometimes.
We're the "single parents," the ones other families meet at daycare, the park, the movies and at little league. The question in their eyes is never spoken out loud in the presence of the children, but I can read it in the eyes of those I meet, after they glance at my empty left hand: Where is his mother? We're the "failed marriages," the relationships and families that have broken apart, and we judge ourselves far more harshly than the rest of the country does.
I've been a coach of some of these "divorce kids." Some adjust very well to a "broken home" (God how I hate that term!), getting support from both parents. Others are so obviously lacking a father figure in their lives that I nearly have to scrape them off at the end of practice, they are so clingy. Now I'm a parent of a "divorce kid," and I'm far more attuned to the impact on my son than I ever thought I would be. Every little gesture and facial expression becomes a question running through my mind: What did that mean? Is he hiding some great hurt from this that will come out terribly in some future year?
But I have known for a long time that divorced kids have self-esteem problems. Add in lower academic performance and expectations seem to drop. Suddenly, a life that has endless possibilities doesn't have the same promise. That's why I'm even more committed to Barack Obama:
If the child of divorce, hell abandonment, can become President of the United States, then so can my son. And I will point this out, not only to my boy, but to every other divorced kid that I ever come in contact with. Truly, Barack Obama means the American Dream is actually real and still alive. That is the true Audacity of Hope.