I still remember where I was the night Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008. I sat on the phone with my twin sister in my living room in California with my mom. When the news broke that Obama had become the first African American president it felt like I could hear everyone in my home state celebrating. The streets of Santa Cruz, where my twin sister was at school, erupted with cheer. I could hear neighbors outside of my window celebrating. As my mom and I sat in front of the television watching her hometown of Chicago witness this monumental moment in history I thought of my grandma who never thought she would see a black president. Four years later, I sat on my mom’s bed as we waited anxiously for the results. I felt a sigh of relief when, again, Obama was declared the winner. Nine years later, I weep with my grandmother, who is terrified of the America with Donald Trump at the helm as president. Even writing his name in the same sentence as “president” seems comical, but that is another blog post in itself. When Barack Obama’s farewell speech originally aired I remember tuning in on Facebook live and seeing the President walk onto the stage. My emotions went crazy. I was both excited to hear his thoughts and saddened to know that his eight years were coming to a close. I really appreciated how he began his speech by thanking the people of the United States of America. He genuinely sounded appreciative and I felt that this has shone throughout his whole presidency. I remember when Obama was in Omaha and he visited homes in Papillion and ate at the Runza off 370. I remember watching news stories about the local people who had gotten to converse with him and how impressionable he seemed to be. The speech itself was filled with love; love for the American people and the country itself. He showed that had love for Americans of all races, all genders and of all sexual orientations. The speech was intelligent and articulate unlike anything I have heard from President Trump. The speech had personality and was true to his character. I appreciated that the speech was held in Chicago, and that Obama referenced the city and what it has meant to himself, Michelle, and the American people. This made the speech more personable, and made viewing the speech much like listening to a family member. The speech had so much passion in it as well. When he was nearing the end of his speech and he was thanking Michelle I felt so connected to the President and their relationship. While holding back tears he said such genuine words about her and spoke so passionately about her. This was inspiring. The speech informatively described much of what Obama accomplished in office, but the speech was much more than that. Obama used his speech to ignite a flame under the American people because there is more work to be done. I appreciated that he acknowledged how far we have come, but is realistic to the struggles we will be faced with in the oncoming months. He made it known that while Trump may be our new president it is important to carefully think out our responses to his actions. Americans need to do something to stand up to a presidency that doesn’t believe in climate change. They need to stand up to a presidency that unjustly bans different nationalities from entering the country. I felt both proud of what we have accomplished in the past four years, but more importantly I was left feeling okay with the fact that Donald Trump would soon be our president. I felt this way because Obama made it clear that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. While this presidency is vastly different from the last one, we need to acknowledge the differences and rise up to them.
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PaigeCreighton University Archives
December 2017
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