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ON OBAMA AND CIVIC PRIDE

Barack Obama makes me want to be an American. Fully, wholeheartedly, in a sew-the-stars-and-stripes-to-my-backpack-when-traveling-through Europe sort of way. I've never felt like that before. And it isn't that I don’t love this country, because I do, but to state your allegiance to a nation via citizenship implies a certain support of its government, and until now, I simply wasn’t willing to do that. Not with the cruel joke of an administration we’ve suffered for the last eight years.

The America I’ve come to know firsthand isn’t the country I marveled over as a child in Canada. I had imagined a nation of progressive thinkers; instead, the insidious proliferation of fear and intolerance prevailed. It had conjured thoughts of global do-gooding; antithetically (and pathetically), I experienced the Bush Doctrine and an administration that doesn’t know WMD from WWJD. I had envied its unparalleled civic pride; but the empirical reality was a country developing an alarming sense of apathy, the noxious byproduct of a government that sought to divide rather than unify.

And yet I fell in love with America anyway…because while the presidential administration failed me time and again, the American people did not disappoint. Because it’s impossible not to be inspired by Chicago’s cultural richness, New York’s intellectual verve, and the world-class education I received at Northwestern. And because – all catastrophe notwithstanding – I never lost hope that my U.S. fantasies of yore might one day come to fruition. Barack Obama is that hope manifest.

So, Barack, as you begin another chapter of your journey in a few days, so will I; when you enter the White House, I’ll relinquish my green card and complete my path to citizenship. Thank you for teaching me that growing up on international soil doesn’t make you less American but does enhance your worldview, and for reminding me that atypical life narratives spotted with adversity are not a detriment but an asset. You have galvanized a nation disaffected to once again believe in the political process, and importantly, to believe in themselves. You make me want to be a better person. And my guess is I’m not alone.

I realize that I say this at the risk of being pegged an idealist, and I’m happy to accept the label. Hope is not a four-letter word, but an invaluable practice – one that make stories like yours possible and that, when coupled with your keen intellect and power to execute, makes the Obama presidency an inevitable success. And it’s part of why I love you so damn much.

You had me at ‘Yes, we can.’ I have no doubt we will.

-S. Brahney