Speeches

Friends, I spent tonight watching the President's address from Tucson. It's about a half hour long, but I would highly recommend it to you. I thought it was a beautiful speech. It's shameful that such a beautiful speech had to be borne out of such a senseless act.

I teared up. Real men tear up.



I certainly can't claim, and won't claim, to be nonpartisan. But I thought this was the kind of speech a leader makes, when he/she is called upon to be a leader. When I heard about this shooting on Saturday, I was absolutely horrified, and I don't really know why.

Maybe it's because it hit an elemental cord. Sure, I'm just a student, and often times I value the paycheck over more altruistic concerns, but I know exactly what it's like to go to work, hoping that today you can make the community a little bit better. I play a tiny role, an absolutely tiny role, and while I myself sometimes question the wisdom or humanism of the things I write, I like to tell myself that what I did today made some victim of a crime feel a bit better, or made a neighbor feel a bit safer. To think someone would shoot me for doing that, that's absolutely terrible.

In any event, the speech made me think, which I am wont to do. In fact, for all the blather that I spray out each day, I'd venture to say that I think at least two to three times as much. I think that's okay though; I think I'm happy to deal with some awkward silences in order to think things through a bit more.

Anyways, what really struck me about President Obama's speech was the gratitude he expressed for the folks in Tucson on Saturday. The people who wrestled the shooter to the ground, the doctors, the guy who took care of the representative who was shot. It made me think about the things I was grateful for - the real things, not the coffee grinders.

I wish I had something more insightful to say, I really do. Often times, I wish I could come up with all these fantastic ideas I hear about, but maybe, it's times like this where we all need to be grateful for who we are. More importantly, like the President said, we need to be grateful for, and think about, the opportunity to make someone's life a little better, as well as the folks who do the same for us. It would be futile to make a list, because there are so many, but that's what I'm going to do tonight.

In any event, it's late, and I'm tired. Again. But I'm grateful tonight for the place I'm in, because I think it's someplace good. I'm grateful for my job, and I'm grateful for the "A" I got in negotiation. I'm grateful for the bagels someone brought into work on Monday, and I'm grateful for the person who opened the door for me at the bookstore tonight. Most of all, I think I'm grateful for friendships, when even though some are far away, they have become stronger and more nuanced. I'm grateful for something else too, but I don't want to be premature or embarrass anybody.

I'm also grateful for flossing, which I will do now.