My host mom, Andrea, replied to an email I had sent to thank her for the birthday gift she sent and to tell her that I know she doesn’t agree with me politically but that I was extremely excited for America and the world because of Obama’s victory. Here’s what she had to say:

About Obama: I almost voted for him. He is a great speaker and I think he is good for America’s image in the world. Obama has the capability to unite the world. […] But Obama scares me for the fact he has very little experience and he has no plans. He just sounds good dogging the last administration. […] He has generated lots of excitement in this country and I think that is wonderful. I will support Obama and I hope he does great.

She obviously doesn’t agree with him and thus she doesn’t believe in him yet, she definitely doubts his capability to take on this gigantic job. But the fact that she as well as so many other Americans out there decide to swallow their disappointment and vow to give their new President-elect the benefit of the doubt, the willingness to be proven wrong, I admire that.

It takes a special person, a strong character and an open mind, to ignore that certain sense of defeat and look ahead instead. I applaud all of you out there who have decided to do so as well.

A little note, an opinion piece if you will, on gay marriage everywhere and specifically in regard to Prop 8:

I don’t understand. I simply don’t understand why people voted yes on this. I don’t understand how anyone in good conscious can vote for something that is officially defined as restricting someone’s rights, on something that singles out a group of people and thereby classifies them only to deny them rights that everyone else is granted.

I don’t understand how this happened in the state of California of all places, in a country that has just shown the world what progress and an open mind means.

If two people love each other and would like to officially seal that bond by the union generally called marriage, that love should be reason enough because that love should really ever be the only reason for two people to get married; there should be no questions asked.

Love and sexual love between two people of the same sex has existed since the beginning of time. A couple of centuries ago, someone somewhere decided that this love was a disorder and they needed a term to describe the disorder: homosexuality. And suddenly love between two people of the same sex was an issue, something supposedly out of the ordinary, something shameful; something that has been engraved as essentially evil in too many minds already. This process needs to stop.

If you do disagree with homosexuality for whatever reason that is your choice but I still don’t understand why you think it is your business how two people chose to celebrate their love? It doesn’t affect you in any way, you can still live your life the way you please since you do have all the rights in the world to do so. Why can’t you accept that different views matter and that all voices should be heard and that homosexuality is in human nature just as heterosexuality is?

Why can’t you say, I don’t agree with same-sex sexuality but I am pro-love? What reason do you have to keep two people from being happy? What motivates you to get involved in something that won’t do you any harm but will change constitutional laws for the worse for many of your fellow citizens?

I don’t understand. It’s not fair. And I hope this will be rectified somehow, that those last votes still being counted somehow make a difference. I think of all of you out there who see their plans of marriage slip away and of those who can’t get rid of that tragic, terrible image in their head: of returning their wedding rings. I think of all of you and I hope for the best because that is all I can do right now. My heart breaks for you.

No to Proposition 8. Yes to love. Yes to equality.

I can’t believe I didn’t repost this yesterday because those words uttered by former US president Clinton at the DNC in Denver were powerful back in August but never have they been more true than right now:

People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.

I think it’s safe to say that in one fell swoop America has jumped back to the top.