NY Times: "The Obama Dividend."

[muntrv]

Op-Ed Columnist
The Obama Dividend

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: November 5, 2008

America is more than a place. At its best, it also is an idea.

When my father was driven from his home in Eastern Europe in World War II, he initially settled in France. But France offered no opportunity to impoverished refugees, so my father sought better prospects for himself and his descendents by moving on to an Oregon logging camp to begin to learn English and start a new life. What lured him was not the real estate of America, but the idea of America.

We Americans have periodically betrayed that idea of equality and opportunity, but on Tuesday evening we powerfully revitalized it. I invited people to post their thoughts on Barack Obama’s election on my blog, nytimes.com/ontheground, and the result was an outpouring from every nook of the globe.

Jessica watched the results from a bar in Cape Town and wrote: “For the first time in recent memory, I can shout in the streets that I am American and be proud of the progress, hope and color that now define us.”

In Switzerland, an American was bathed in compliments comparing the election to the fall of the Berlin Wall. An American in Kenya named Tom wore an Obama T-shirt and found that his walk to work took more than an hour because so many people stopped to congratulate him and celebrate with him.

SEE MORE AT LINK BELOW
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/opinion/06kristof.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

[Raine]

1. Obama's election really makes America PROUD!!! nt

[Bucky]

2. I sense more than that. It makes the world proud of America.

Obama's election makes us all a little better.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Really well-written column. I agree with the sentiment

"Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be, but, thank God, we ain’t what we was.”

[Miss Chybil]

4. "Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be,

but, thank God, we ain’t what we was.”

I like that.

[applegrove]

5. It is a much smaller world today as the earth comes together to celebrate.

[beachmom]

6. Kick