Finding the Audacity of Hope in Denver

Greetings from the 2008 Democratic National Convention. It's thrilling to be here and witness all of us democrats finally turning our attention to the substantive issues and decisions of this election -- like coming together to nominate Barack Obama to be the 44th president of the United States -- and away from the trivial ways in which the media has attempted to frame our candidate up until this point: Is his skin pigment too dark to be president -- or actually, maybe it's too light? Does he wear a flag pin? While we sat for months and watched so-called political experts debate whether these factors made Obama "elect-able," he took the high road and continued to talk about all the important values and ideals those debates sorely lacked -- namely redemption, hope and unity. Maybe now we can all turn our attention to those ideals.

I had the honor of addressing the Democratic Women's Caucus on the second day of the Convention and it was clear at that moment in the week that the room was divided, with hundreds of Hillary Clinton supporters standing and cheering at virtually every mention of her name. But as the day progressed, and when Hillary Clinton gave her impassioned speech that evening, I saw the tides turn. Her address was about unity and hope, and about the imperative to elect Barack Obama as the next President of the United States. I believe Hillary's supporters will follow her lead and put their bruised feelings behind them. There is an election to win -- and that's why most of us have traveled all this way.

Seeing our party start to unite is exciting, although one of the most important moments of the Convention for me personally occurred just after I spoke at the Democratic Women's Caucus. As I was backstage, a young African American woman approached me. She said her name was Venus and with tears in her eyes she said "My grandmother helped raised me and one day just before she died she told me, 'Baby, someday the lowest rung is going to be on top. I might not be alive to see it, but I pray to God you are.'"

Venus told me that during our speeches she realized just how close her grandmother's dream was to coming true. She told me she wasn't sure that it might ever be possible in her lifetime either but that she had hoped. We hugged and I thanked her for sharing her story. Then as I watched her walk away I realized what I had just witnessed in a young woman named Venus was the embodiment of what Barack Obama has been preaching to us from Day One of his campaign, a message many in the media, and many of us American citizens, too, have been far either too cynical, or too close-minded to embrace. But there she was in all her glory: the audacity of hope.

Comments

[NorVaGal]

Thanks, Ms. Johnson. It is stories such as the ones you've shared here that foster that audacity of hope. Each of us dreams for the future. Our party is coalescing to make many of those dreams become reality....from the bottom up.