| Yesterday I had the good fortune of meeting President Obama while serving as a volunteer in the Presidential motorcade during his trip to Dallas. Monday’s activities were emotional on many fronts for me. I could not sleep Sunday night due to the excitement and overall nervousness associated with what I was about to be part of. I found myself wandering my apartment several times throughout the night. Those of you who know me well know that I have a great deal of political memorabilia that contains quite a few John F. Kennedy items. One of my favorite pieces is an authentic newspaper from Odessa with the bold and emblazoned headline of “Kennedy Dead: Governor Connelly Injured.” Reading the sub-headlines and stories associated with this historic paper brought home for me all the vitriol anger and controversy surrounding President Kennedy’s fateful visit to Dallas in 1963. We often think or believe that politics today is worse than in previous decades, but in actuality it is quite equal only magnified in a 24/7 news cycle. But for me, yesterday’s activities helped to again ignite that fierce urgency of now. 
Being part of the Presidential motorcade is a pretty amazing experience. As we sat on the tarmac yesterday waiting for Air Force One to arrive I couldn’t believe where I was. How’d I get here? What brought me to this point in life where I’m participating in such a patriotic duty as serving in the presidential motorcade? What an amazing crossroads. It’s not something a lot of blue-collared boys from Euless Texas think about, or get to do, every day. As Air Force One confidently rolled down the tarmac and approached the motorcade one could not help but simply be overwhelmed by the pure intimidating beast that is the President’s mode of transportation. Even under a blistering hot and unmerciful Texas sun the bold declaration of “United States of America” across the massive sides of America’s flying fortress makes your skin tingle with pride. I dare say that I had a grin thinking about what I was witnessing. The pomp and circumstance that goes with participating in such an operation as safely and securely transporting the President is no easy operation to manage, or execute, as we saw with the injury to a Dallas police officer. The White House Advance Team, Secret Service, and various law enforcement agencies that participated in yesterday’s activities were the consummate professionals. All entities went out of their way to make me feel comfortable, informed, and prepared. I’ve now had the good fortune of meeting Barack Obama three times in my life. In 2006 I attended the Campus Progress Student Convention in Washington DC where a newly elected Democratic freshman senator from Illinois addressed the over 500 attendees about youth engagement in politics. In 2008 candidate Barack Obama came to Dallas and gave a rousing speech to a packed audience of over 17,000 Texans that had many comparing him to Robert F. Kennedy. It was after Obama's rally in Dallas in 2008 that I wrote something to the effect of: The power of hope is what has sustained my family and defined my life. It is what has managed to build the foundation from which my 28 years of life bore, thus far, for all to see. Hope is all that millions of Americans have these days after the eight years of pure hell we've experienced under Bush administration policies. Hope is what leads me to believe that, with hard work, a little intelligence, giving back to my community, and a bit of discipline, that a gay man from Euless, Texas, can be president someday. This, all of these thoughts, are what wound through my mind as I listened to Obama. It is what I reflected on as we drove home this afternoon. It is what has tears in my eyes as I write. My life is hope. I can’t help but think that one of many reasons that I gravitated to Barack Obama as a candidate for President was because of the fierce urgency of now which for me continues to be hope for a stronger, more united, and more prosperous nation. The partisan divide in politics is growing wider, the problems of our state and country grow taller, and the extremism that penetrates political discourse today has superseded all attempts at bi-partisan cooperation to do good will for our state and country. It may seem to some that hope has vanished, but I declare that it hasn’t. President Obama has accomplished a number of great things in a very small amount of time after inheriting a collapsed economy, two wars, and a polarized nation. All of those elements—-those reasons I work so hard to help produce a better nation upon my death that is better than it was upon my birth, is because of the fierce urgency of now. It’s time that we as a state and country channel that urgency again and get to work continuing to build a more perfect Union. |
