A disturbing trend has arisen in the American media. News outlets like CNN and ABC News now refer to Senator Obama’s supporters as being "cult-like" and "creepy." This attempt to put Senator Obama in comparison with figures like David Koresh and Jim Jones is slanderous and uninformed. They are perplexed by the ardent support of the "youth vote." The cynics just don’t understand why we fight this fight.
We are a generation born into world under threat of the cold war, then trust into a war on terror. We have watched as the cost of living outpaced wages and tuition outpaced our parents’ capacity to save. We have listened as our parents reminisced about the great leaders of their time; JFK, Dr. King, Bobby Kennedy. We have longed for our own great moment of inspiration. We have longed to be relevant.
Our parents, who were once so hopeful, have become the cynics they fought in their youth. They have told us time and again to keep our heads up and our hopes down. To them and others who seek to deny us our hope, we ask only these three things; remember, understand and trust.
Remember how you felt the first time John F. Kennedy called you to action. Remember how your hearts swelled when Dr. King lead his ever-growing league of marchers against adversity; not once, not twice, but three times through the streets of Alabama. Remember how you hoped.
Understand that we feel that same call to action today. Understand that, for the first time in our lives, our hearts swell as our ever-growing numbers rally around a common purpose. Understand that we hope.
Trust that we have relentlessly toiled with the future left to us. Trust that you have instilled the values of your youth in us, and that we carry those values forward in this campaign. Trust that we are intelligent, independent thinkers who recognize the challenges that lie before us.
We are not children. We are adults facing a long journey of recovery from a senseless war and the corrupt policies of the Bush administration. We are the ones left holding this bag.
It is time for us to step up to this challenge and choose the leader we believe best able to lead us through these challenges.
We choose Barack Obama.
Update: The "Why We Fight" title was apparently a bad choice and was distracting people from my intended message, so I modified it.