The sound of change still lingers amidst the towering skyscrapers along Michigan Ave and Adams Street. And as the wind blows words around like confetti, lifting them up with every gust coming in off the Great Lake, tired and weary travelers stir from only a few hours sleep and breathe in the air of change. And as President-Elect Barack Obama wakes with his family, and ponders the task set before him, one thing stands clear on this day after Election Day 2008--that is: America reclaimed it's vision of opportunity.
The words were clear in his speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters standing on the soft weathered grass of Grant Park, and before a nation who watched on the television. And for the late night cab drivers who drove around with their radios on, many of whom tired and weary travelers to a new land called America, the dreams of my own great grandparents came to life, exploding in high definition color.
Both candidates ran on a platform of change. And there was no question that the end of the past eight years would bring about change. It was written in the stars that shine bright over Lake Michigan. And with the change in our hearts, like the change in our pockets, we purchased--as a nation--the debt that opportunity had been waged under for the past eight years; debt of individual greed over community values, debt of frozen liberties and fractured health equity, the debt of despair amongst New American families torn apart by a government who would rather see their dreams of hope and opportunity destroyed, rather then find real solutions to help immigrants come to America in search of opportunity.
The great change has begun. And although it will take time to reach up and take the fruit from its branches, the labor of the harvest has shown its face by the millions. And in saying, "Yes We Can," we have returned America from a nation of "Me The People," to a nation of "We the People."
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