Getting It

[garthranzz]

Ok, so yeah, it was a well-crafted speech.

Sure, he stuck it to McCain and he outlined all the great policies and oh, is he ever inspirational.

But if you think that, or anything like that, or even a couple great phrases - if you think that's what it's about, well, then you just don't get it, either.

And frankly, I'm not sure I get it, not all of it.

But here, for what it's worth, is part of getting it.

Barack Obama trusts you. He trusts the "average American" - no, there's no such thing - he trusts the individual American.

And he trusts himself.

That's different than believing in yourself. Only a person who trusts himself can say, as Obama did - and I'm paraphrasing - we can disagree and still respect each other. We can disagree and still trust each other. We can disagree and still work together. We can belong to our party, our religion, our ethnicity - and solve problems together.

When you see a car accident, G-d forbid, and someone seems hurt, you don't check their party affiliation before calling the ambulance.

He was right when he said, it's not about him, it's about us. Because that's our voice - the transcendency of "(Yes we) can do" - on solving problems, because We The People - of the people, by the people, for the people - in order to form a more perfect Union.

He noted the negative, not to dwell on it, not to exploit it, but to light a candle to expel it. He focused not on what divides us, but what we have in common. He acknowledged - well, "individual responsibility and mutual responsibility" - the goal unites us, our sense of justice unites us.

We would not deny to others - education, health care, security - that which we don't want denied to us.

Getting it? We live in categories, but our lives transcend them.

What Barack Obama spoke of tonight, was America transcendent - the decent, the simple, the just, the moral transcendent.