"Hope" Is Not a Buzz Word
I was 23 years old when the nation was attacked on September 11, 2001. I can remember hearing pundits say "this changes everything" and "things will never be the same." Obviously it was a tragic and traumatic event, but that sentiment has carried on through the better part of my twenties. If you were 43 years old on that day, I would imagine it was a difficult concept to get your head around as well, but if you were a young adult just entering his or her individual life, there was an added twist; how can you process the idea of everything changing and things never being the same when you have no point of reference for what "everything" and "the same" is? I was just beginning to put my hands on the world around me, to interact and engage with it, and to actualize the dream of being an adult in a free society. To wait in line for 23 years only to have the "sorry, future canceled" sign flipped in my face was depressing, to say the least.
The social and political narrative of the last eight years, if you're a young adult, has been "you are the first generation of the second half of the rest of human existence." That's a huge psychological undertaking, and I believe it's one that will someday be diagnosed on a massive scale as having led to a kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (Something has to explain away our premature obsession with 1980s nostalgia.) My generation has come to know itself as the generation that should have seen the good days, my, were they spectacular, now take off your shoes and place them on the belt.
What Barack Obama says to me is these days are good for something. Just when I'd thought my only role as an adult was to help shoulder the nation through its darkest days (known to us as "the rest of them"), Obama gives me the feeling that I could be alive to witness one of the most brilliant upturns in a country's history. Imagine that -- a young adult in this day and age being given something to someday brag to his children about having being alive to witness. What a concept.
That's why hope is a worthwhile commodity. To those who question whether hope is a tangible product worth building a campaign around, I'd say take a look at despair and how powerful that has been in reshaping how people think and live. I believe the definition of the "hope" that Barack Obama enthuses operates on the unspoken thesis that there has to be a polar opposite to the despair of 9/11. Because if we accept that there's not, the will to live becomes forever altered. To adults who will vote for him, Barack Obama represents a return to prosperity. To the youth, he represents an introduction to it.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
HuffPost's Pick
I was in the eighth grade on 9/11 - barely even old enough to really understand what was going on, much less realize what it meant for how I would grow up. This is going to be my first time voting in a presidential election, and I couldn't be happier about it.
John, Thank you for your support and encouragement. We love your songs and the message they encompass. I am waiting for the world to change, and that can only happen with Barack Obama. Like Charles said, we are dying and may never see this change if it doesn't happen soon. We are so inspired by your message which is Barack Obama's message.
Watching Barack Obama's 30 minutes, just breaks my heart. That our nation has devolved into an abyss is nothing more than a president (Bush/McCain) that doesn't care about the people of this nation. Bush only cares only about the Oil companies, the Halliburton CEOs, the KBR CEOs, the Banking CEOs, the Drug CEO's, the insurance CEOs. The taxpayers have been stripped bare with no hope, no, jobs, no homes, no insurance, and no dignity.
Watching Barack Obama's 30 minutes offers us the only hope. The hope of a better nation, a better world, a better life, a better day. John, we listen to your music and say YES WE CAN! We can hope, we can dream, we can change the world! Lets go vote!
I was a kid when the Berlin wall came down and couldn't understand the tears in my parents eyes as they sat glued to the evening news. After all, it was just a cruddy old wall, right?! I finally understood their tears on 911. I cried as I tucked my own daughter in that night, thinking... she'll never grow up in a world free of fear, a world where walls came down and people came together, not apart. I cried because I knew that I could not offer her the future I thought she once could have, the future my own parents celebrated at the finish of the Cold War. Obama is that Berlin Wall coming down on the blame, fear, and intolerance that has divided country from country and American from American.
well said... you're absolutely right
thank you -- absolutely beautiful...
Hope is not only in the hearts of this generation...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW-6DpC-mj8&eurl=http://concreteloop.com/
Thank you. What an inspiration Charles is!! Bless his heart!
What a great perspective. I am 46 years old, and my first real-life civics lesson was watching the Vietnam war on TV and starting to understand what that really meant at 6 years old. The Cold War was still in high arc, too. I grew up in a lot of fear of total annihilation.
I hadn't thought about that parallel to those growing up in 9/11-world.
One thing I can tell you, though. This current 9/11 mindset is optional. We can be afraid or we can say "k-my-a*s*s"!!!! Any of us can die in any moment for any reason, so why sell out our liberties and common sense on the so-remote possibility of random death in a terrorist attack? I'm not afraid to die anytime anywhere by any means, so give me liberty or give me death, I say.
I remember too. I watched the Viet Nam death count every evening at the end of the news.
I have never felt fear. Wasn't raised that way.
Vote
Obama/Biden
Everyone said that 9/11 changed everything but they are wrong.With the exception of those who were directly affected or traumatized, the only thing that changed was our perspective.
Every time you part, it could be the last time you ever see that person again.
Act that way
Great post, John. You write for HuffPo as beautifully as you do in your music career. I saw you live for the first time many years ago at a club in Boston, when your career was just beginning, and I knew you were very special.
I think many of us older folks (I'm in my 50s) are counting on the more youthful generations to bring about the kind of change our country needs right now. We're doing our part in this election, but the youth vote will make a huge difference this year.
I can only hope that the college students all over the country who are being targeted by the voter repression tactics we're hearing about will know their rights and not be intimidated. The rest of us are counting on your generation to vote for HOPE and give Obama the kind of margin needed to thwart another stolen election. Thanks for doing your part in that regard.
An "old" fan. ;-)
I believe that Obama will win by a landslide. What really pisses me off is that the whining and petty republicans will never let up on him. The democrats decided to take impeachment "off the table" for some unknown reason but I would not expect the republicans to follow suit. In fact, it would not surprise me to see more than one attempt. After living through the worst presidency in history and the dems doing nothing to stop him, you just wait and see, the phony liars in the republicrat party will never shut up and will certaimly make every move that Obama and his party want to make as difficult as they possibly can.
I remember being 18 years old listening to Kennedy and Nixon on the news, thinking Kennedy HAD to win. I remember being 19 years old listening to Kennedy's inaugural speech. It was one of those "I was in that place when this happened" times. Then we had another "I was in that place when this happened time in 1963. Another in 1968. Another in 1980 (altho I wasn't cheering for Reagan, you can bet). After that, it seems to have been downhill all the way. I actually had hope that 2001-2003 was the bottom, but ...
(When you vote, don't just consider the presidential candidates - if your Representative or Senator has more than 10 years in Congress, vote for the other guy. Can he or she really be that much worse? The framers didn't plan Congressional service to be an adult career. It shouldn't be. Ask yourself just WHY every single person in the House is up for re-election? Why didn't the House get 6-year terms like the Senate?)
Vote for hope as if the future and the heart and soul of this country depend on it. You know they do.
I'm 60 now John, an old hippie musician. But many my age are hopelessly square. I get emails from people my age and older telling me how scary Obama is. Conservatives fear change; someone might take their toys away, but we don't want them.
I'm glad to be around for what looks like a new dawn.
I was working for Bobby in LA the night he died. Once again I feel like I did just before that fateful day.
I was 11 when Bobby died. From what I have learned of him since, I think that was probably the greatest loss for our country in that century.
I can't say why but I am getting a definite Bobby vibe from Barack.
Comments from anyone who knows more about this than I do?
I saw Bobby in Richmond CA about 4 months before he was killed. I feel it too.
My dad says frequently that Obama reminds him of Bobby and JFK. He doesn't know what it is, but it is what initially drew my dad to him. Probably the way that they spoke.
Spartanmom-
68 was a tense time. RFK agonized over running, and didn't announce until LBJ declined; just months before the election. He was more passionate than his brother, and partly inspired by his loss. But it was the year the Democratic party fragmented and imploded, (violent anti-war protests?) just as the GOP is doing now. It's taken 40 years for the pendulum to complete the swing.
It is a new era, and cable tv and the web are partly the reason. Today's youth are as idealistic as some of us were back then, and now they have the tools to debunk the scams that the right has been running. The GOP has always been the party of rich wasp men, they have just spent the last 30 trying to convince the uninformed otherwise. Now the emperor is naked. We need a major house-cleaning to prevent plutocracy and get closer to a true democracy.
Bobby had a vision, and Barack does too; it's a rare and wonderful thing.
My grandmother cried telling me she voted early , and how proud she was at just the possibility of Obama becoming president.
Sleeping is becoming harder to do with the election so near.
Shout out to ya , I'm probably old enough to be your g'ma, I've been voting 38 years,I voted today, it was the first time I actually voted for someone I WANTED to vote for, it was exhilarating, but tonight, when they went live to Fla at the end of Obama's infomercial, I definetly had tears of joy and was on my feet clapping, It felt so good to see ALL those people cheering for our hope for the UNITED States of America. So....until the 4th, breath deep and give thanks we've come this far, and I hope you too have a block party planned for the 5th. I anticipate dancin in the street!!!
Wow...wow...you described all this beautifully. Your perspective is spot on...ah....your way with words... well, you are, after all, who you are. You...are good
Thanks John...for taking the time to share your thoughts, good luck to you ......here's to hope...for a spectacular upturn.
Oh, I like this......
I believe the definition of the "hope" that Barack Obama enthuses operates on the unspoken thesis that there has to be a polar opposite to the despair of 9/11.
Wow.....what a superb post! Kudos, John Mayer! :-)
You perfectly summed up my own thoughts, which I couldn't put into words. Thank you.
Try being 57 and having watched JFK get killed, then RFK, then MLK, then the election being stolen in 2000 and 2004. Talk about post traumatic stress. For the last 40 years I have desparately hoped for change and I almost don't dare wish for it anymore for fear of being let down again.
I'm 55 and I totally agree.
And I'm with John about taking off your shoes before boarding a plane. This has been the hardest thing for me to swallow since 9/11. We send our brave troops to die in a pointless war, but we at home are too scared to get on a plane without checking everyone's shampoo bottles. Our generation was responsible for ending the war in Vietnam and making civil rights a law, but since 9/11 we've become cowards for letting fear shape our lives.
I'll be 57 in December and I know how you feel. You have to admit that the 40 years haven't been near as long as the last eight. I will be so happy to again have a President and not a dictator!
As someone who relates to the age (50's) Having lived through those tragic times is exactly why we need this time, and someone to believe in again. I have "hope" again after so many years of lost respect and hidden dispare that Barack Obama is the beginning of a new era for all Americans, and our place in the world.
Obama/Biden 2008
we deserve it!
Have to agree. 62 and still missing JFK. You're right about the hope. First time i a long time. Wouldn't miss this for anything.
Ditto! Not to mention Martin Luther, John Lennon, and so many other men and women who gave us hope and were taken away, but still linger in our hearts. I'm pushing 60 and I Thank God everyday that Obama has stepped up. I Thank God we have stepped up once again. And I'm not even religious anymore..., and have searched for faith and hope in all the right and wrong places, and everywhere in between.
We have another chance to get right, or at least lead us and our children in the right direction. Hope is vital resource.
Vote Obama!... and make the time to keep making those calls and reaching out to maintain and evolve this process!
This opportunity will not be taken away. Keep up the fight!
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
