"Americans overcame the racial divide and elected Obama because they wanted the real thing: a candidate who spoke from the bottom of his heart," said Terumi Hino, a photographer and painter in Tokyo. "I think this means the United States can go back to being admired as the country of dreams." Full Story »
Posted by Michael Bugeja
This global round-up about America's restored image--as a world power of dreams--doesn't enhance the U.S. economy or the challenges awaiting President-elect Obama ... and that's the point. Reading the eloquent quotations and viewing the Washington Post's extraordinary still photography, we experience the audacity of the raised conscience that connects us to each other.
The news of Obama’s triumph reached Kenya as the sun rose Wednesday, and within minutes, a wave of euphoria — and some serious reflection — washed across this East African nation, where weeks of violence after a presidential election in late 2007 left many people deeply pessimistic about democracy.
This is just a snippet of the eloquent writing jam-packed with information, setting up the poignant quotations.
In keeping with the poetry of human jubilation, I'm reminded of these telling lines by William Wordsworth: "While here I stand, not only with the sense/ Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts/ That in this moment there is life and food/ For future years. And so I dare to hope. ..."