I am a citizen

When I was a senior in high school - I wanted to be the President of The United States - I was the class president of 100 teenage girls and I believed I could rule the free world. I liked working for the people and affecting change - I liked the physical and visual rewards of the job - nothing went unsung, everything was for betterment, and therefore, more noble than going along with the alternative ways to pass time in school, homework and sleep. 

I owe my political awakening to my government teacher, Mr. Sirridge, an ex-tobacco lawyer who gave inspired lectures in a course every student had to pass to graduate - which meant a largely apathetic audience and a few true believers. I was one of them and I wanted to be president. The perfect citizen, the ideal citizen, the die-hard - it is an idea I can put all of my heart into knowing that only good can come of it, a rare inevitability.

Taking care of people of one nation is the highest honor, bestowed upon an individual worthy of the sacred trusts of millions - and when I think about the great men who have come to bear these burdens - I am left speechless and thoughtful for awhile while trying to understand how a baby, in 35 years or more, can grow up and become a man for all men. For me such greatness equals that of ten lifetimes. The pride of these men past is inherent in each American born and arriving, in our blood as much as we are of Irish, Italian, Jewish, Asian, and African descent and isn't that something? 

When I am an old woman, I want to hold my president now and my president future to be stuff of myth, legendary like Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan. I can laugh in the moment on political blunders, but only for a moment, as overall I am disheartened by disrespect in mass for the man worth ten lifetimes, our president, whatever party might claim him. 

A serious post on the most serious of nights, the presidential election 2008. Congratulations Senator Obama,  - I will be no less than the ideal citizen for you and anyone else whom I call my commander in chief.