Today, my wife and I attended an Obama rally (no Obama or anybody else connected to the campaign present) in Corrales, New Mexico, where we live. Corrales is a small, rural community just to the north of Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the west bank of the Rio Grande River. It's small-town America where most people know each other from meeting at the farmers' market held every Sunday from late April through the end of October. This Sunday, a rally was held in the library park to raise money for and increase support for Barack Obama. Follow me below the fold for an amazing experience courtesy of an eight-year-old boy.
When we arrived at the rally shortly after 11:00 a.m. (the listed start time), there were already several hundred people present. This may not sound like a lot, but Corrales is a fairly small community. I was delighted to see a number of neighbors from my street present. We started off buying bowls of posole for breakfast, as we hadn't eaten yet (all proceeds went to the Obama campaign), then wandered past the silent auction items.
There were musicians playing in the "band shell," then people started speaking. A man came on to tell us about a young boy named Fernando who had memorized Obama's "Yes We Can" speech on a challenge from his mother. This piqued my curiosity and I told my wife I wanted to hear this and we moved up toward the front. What happened next was one of the most extraordinary things this jaded 43-year-old man has seen in a long time. Eight-year-old Fernando got up in front of this crowd and recited Obama's "Yes We Can" speech perfectly. Both my wife and I had tears in our eyes as we realized that we were looking at the future of America, someone so inspired by our candidate, Barack Obama, that he took to memorizing his speech, as we all learned parts of the great speeches made in American history, such as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address or the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
I pray that this young boy, Fernando, is able to show the video I am embedding here to his children and grandchildren and is able to tell them about the great man and president Barack Obama. Such wisdom at such an early age to be able to convince his mother to vote for Obama over Clinton leads one to believe that all things are possible for this young man, and, indeed, if Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States of America, all things are indeed possible.
Without further ado, here is Fernando, the future of America.