It's raining hard in southern California, all day. Very unusual but perfect for my mood. Overcast and rainy also in Washington, D.C.
In tears I watched Barack Obama board the helicopter to leave the White House.
Now again in tears watching him and Michelle Obama board the jet at Joint Base Andrews to fly to Palm Springs. We welcome you both. California loves you.
It's such a tremendous loss. It's like a death though gracias a dios he was never assassinated during the past eight years.
His speech before leaving to those who worked with him in the White House was so moving.
"My abiding faith in the American people" was his theme.
You worked "to change the country from the bottom up. All of you came together... and you decided to believe. You went into communities and met people who didn't look like you, talk like you, yet once you started talking to each other you found community.
Throughout it was infused with a sense of hope. It was not blind optimism. It wasn't naivete. It wasn't willful ignorance to all the challenges we faced. It was hope in the face of difficulty, of uncertainty. You proved the power of hope.
Michelle and I have been your front men and women. We have been the face, the voice, but this has never been about us. It has always been about you: all the amazing things that have happened... our amazing military....
The military is a group of committed patriots willing to sacrifice everything on our behalf. Democracy is not the buildings. It's not the monuments. It's you being willing to work, to listen to each other and argue with each other and treat each other with respect.
This is not a period. This is a comma in the continuing story of building America."
He listed improving schools, care of veterans, making the planet safe, making sure "that hard-working people have a chance to climb the ladder of opportunity."
"You have done the hard work, most of it without fanfare or thanks.
I can't wait to see what you will do next.
Yes, we did. Yes, we can. God bless America."
No comments:
Post a Comment