Obama Inauguration Celebration
I am so proud right now, happy to be part of this great country and its people - people with hopes and dreams just like me, people with as diverse a dream as the diversity that we enjoy in this great nation.
I know I wax proud about being Sicilian, having been brought up in a Sicilian household, abiding by the culture, but I was born and raised and skinned my heart and my knees here in America and I possess a pompous pride in this country, being a part of its strengths and weaknesses, and those attributes are in me. It's my home. I am proud of its people, most of all. We do believe good deeds come from good ideas, that just a thought can bring about change for the good of all; we are headstrong and we hold fast to our beliefs and the intrinsic goodness we all possess; whether we believe it comes from a higher power or whether we believe it comes from the best part of our human selves, we hold on to what we believe is right and good, and we make no bones about spreading that opinion to all four corners of the earth.
We are still learning. We are a young nation, a powerful nation, and we can see when our government is taking us on a wrong road. I am proud that we believe, still, where so many others may have fallen into the snare of being jaded, that we can still change course and collectively stand up and say, "wait a minute! We're going the wrong way!" when we see things that need to change. I am proud of the tenacity of American people.
Whatever slick smiling politician comes down the pike, I know we are hopeful because of that strong belief we all share; it's the belief that if we hope hard enough, if we work together, we can change the course of this nation that we hold dear. We do it for ourselves, for each other, and for the good of the future of not only our people, but for the people if the world. Yes, we are that pompous and arrogant. But I swear it's coming from a good place; we feel we have the world's consent because this great nation is made up of the world's emissaries.
So, yeah, today I am very proud. I don't want this country to rest on its laurels; I want to become a nation we all believe we can become, the one so many of our ancestors, willingly or unwillingly, crossed the waves to find, and, eventually, ended up creating with their bare hands and their highest hopes. I think that's what everyone else is excited about - the change we know we can produce, the best of all possible worlds, right here at home.
I know I wax proud about being Sicilian, having been brought up in a Sicilian household, abiding by the culture, but I was born and raised and skinned my heart and my knees here in America and I possess a pompous pride in this country, being a part of its strengths and weaknesses, and those attributes are in me. It's my home. I am proud of its people, most of all. We do believe good deeds come from good ideas, that just a thought can bring about change for the good of all; we are headstrong and we hold fast to our beliefs and the intrinsic goodness we all possess; whether we believe it comes from a higher power or whether we believe it comes from the best part of our human selves, we hold on to what we believe is right and good, and we make no bones about spreading that opinion to all four corners of the earth.
We are still learning. We are a young nation, a powerful nation, and we can see when our government is taking us on a wrong road. I am proud that we believe, still, where so many others may have fallen into the snare of being jaded, that we can still change course and collectively stand up and say, "wait a minute! We're going the wrong way!" when we see things that need to change. I am proud of the tenacity of American people.
Whatever slick smiling politician comes down the pike, I know we are hopeful because of that strong belief we all share; it's the belief that if we hope hard enough, if we work together, we can change the course of this nation that we hold dear. We do it for ourselves, for each other, and for the good of the future of not only our people, but for the people if the world. Yes, we are that pompous and arrogant. But I swear it's coming from a good place; we feel we have the world's consent because this great nation is made up of the world's emissaries.
So, yeah, today I am very proud. I don't want this country to rest on its laurels; I want to become a nation we all believe we can become, the one so many of our ancestors, willingly or unwillingly, crossed the waves to find, and, eventually, ended up creating with their bare hands and their highest hopes. I think that's what everyone else is excited about - the change we know we can produce, the best of all possible worlds, right here at home.