Vote Hope VOTE OBAMA Vote For Our Future And Our Children's Future

This is one of the most exciting days I have ever experienced.

As someone who has believed for well over a year that Barack

Obama offers the most exceptional leadership qualities in my

lifetime, and that his election as US President would move the

United States and the world in a sea change away from the

policies of fear, division and darkness of the past eight years,

the time has finally come for hope and transformation.

I have just voted, my wife voted earlier this morning, and I

hope that everyone eligible across this nation votes - and that

the vast, vast majority of them vote for Obama and for a fully

renewed and empowered Democratic House and Senate.

We are at an extraordinary turning point in the world in many

ways, not least the global economic crisis and the challenges of

the global climate crisis,  but also the very different climate of

"opposites" and war-mongering that has characterized the

Bush administration, particularly in its response to the horrors

of 9/11 - which, if you remember, initially earned us the genuine

sympathy of the world, but which was turned into an excuse by

Bush and particularly Cheney to run roughshod over individual

freedoms and the Constitution.

Let the election of Barack Obama today usher in a new world,

not of pie-in-the-sky easy solutions, but of genuine, hard-thought-

through and hard-won transformation and evolution (and may

that word and all it represents remain a cornerstone of our

civilization; it can coexist with all kinds of spirituality).  Let us

move toward a more open and adaptable society that is not

afraid of the fact that, together, we are government.

We would not exist as a nation without the binding force of a

federal government, and to believe that Government is "them"

and that "we" or "us" are entirely separate from and absolved

of the responsibility that government entails, is childlike.

We are government.  We vote it in, we vote it out.  Without it,

we would have no civic or social fabric.  Its precise role in our

lives clearly evolves as we do, as evidenced most recently by

the dramatic actions of the Bush Administration-appointed

Federal Reserve and Treasury to rescue the world from the

excesses of the so-called "Free Market."

I believe the Free Market has its place; it was for the energy

and opportunity of America that I moved here from Britain

and became a US citizen.  But I also believe fundamentally

that the core of a healthy society is equal opportunity for all,

and in particular the provision of good education and healthcare

for everyone, just as I believe that government, be it federal,

state or local, should maintain the roads and protect citizens

from assault and even the risk of drowning at sea or freezing

on a remote mountaintop

In any event, let us see what tonight and tomorrow bring.  I

believe that they will deliver a landslide victory for Barack

Hussein Obama and also for a Democratic Congress.  I

believe that the nature of our times calls for such a clear

mandate.  I believe that Barack Obama will prove to be a

truly historic president, although like everyone he will make

mistakes but will learn from them and grow stronger as a

result.

I believe that Barack Obama offers a new dawn for America,

which may sound overblown, but never in my life have I

felt such hope and pride in listening to and watching a

political candidate.  He represents pretty much all the

values that I would like our society to embrace, and I hope

and believe that as we embrace them, we should embrace

him, too, as a beacon of the 21st Century.

Alexander Chow-Stuart