Posted by JumpyPants
Of the many, many reasons Barack Obama is a great human being, I would have to say the one that I believe makes him greatest, makes him not just a scuttling creature gnashing and grabbing at whatever bags of lucre and cell towers his can get his crab-claw-hands around, the quality that makes him not simply human, but humanist, is his deep wisdom to see that this race has never, ever been simply about him. In fact, he would argue, as he has over and over again, it really isn't about him at all: it's about you. "You" means you, and me, and everyone.
Obama is a Christian who actually believes in the teachings of Christ, who actually heeds the words of St. Paul when he says "the greatest of these is love," who comprehends at the deepest level of his being that we are all interconnected, that while we seem distinct and separate, so are we utterly, inextricably linked, not simply to each other, but to our planet, and to the cosmos.
Tonight, when he spoke about his grandmother, he made this clear:
She is one of those quiet heroes we have all across America, who are not famous, their names are not in the newspapers, but each and every day they work hard. They look after their families. They sacrifice for their children, and their grandchildren. They aren't seeking the limelight. All they try to do is do the right thing. And in this crowd, there are a lot of quiet heroes like that, people like that, mothers and fathers and grandparents who have worked hard and sacrificed all their lives and the satisfaction that they get is in seeing their children or maybe their grandchildren or their great-grandchildren live a better life than they did. That is what America is about. That is what we are fighting for.
Obama won the primary, and, by any measure, is winning right now, because of this wisdom, which is at once the most plain-spoken common sense, a scientific fact affirmed by physics, chemistry and biology, and a deeply spiritual enlightenment.Obama's victory was never to be "Obama's victory," not in his mind, in his words, in his actions. A community organizer is nothing like a small-town mayor, and even less like a craven, free-spending, opportunist. A community organizer is someone who understands with their very being, with their every act, the true meaning of the words "community" and "organize." Now watch us all go.