I watched Obama's speech from Mile High Stadium in Devnver tonight. What can I say? Of course it was amazing. Anyone who has been paying the least bit of attention the last 18 months wouldn't expect anything less. But, before mentioning any of the details, I have to say that getting 80,000 people to show up for a political speech, in a swing-state, is pretty astonishing.
Barack Obama seems like he's a character straight out of an Aaron Sorkin script. Just like President Bartlett, he exudes an ideal. Too good to be true, perhaps, but that's not the point. In his best moments he's embodying everything we'd want a president to be: he is thoughtful and he is passionate; he is self-confident and he is self-examining; he is intelligent and he is inspiring. And, tonight was one of those moments.
After eight long years he makes us feel that there's hope again. It doesn't have to get worse every year. We don't have to let the economy run into the ground. We don't have to continue watching the middle class slide into poverty. We don't have to lose all of our friends around the world. We don't have ignore the need to save us from irreversible climate change. We don't have to let prejudice and close-mindedness hold back equality and freedom for all sexual orientations. We don't have to let ignorance, fear and superstition rule over reason, facts and science. But more importantly than all of that, he makes us believe that we can be better than the past. "America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone."
Switching gears entirely, monsoon season continues unabatedly here in the desert. For those of you who are confused, here is a primer on Arizona weather. Most of the year the wind comes in from the west, and the moisture from the Pacific Ocean stops at the mountains leaving Arizona dry and almost rain-free. During the later summer months, though, Arizona gets so hot that the air rises and begins to suck in moist air from the Sea of Cortez to the south, creating a monsoon season. It's the same phenomenon as in India and other places, but not as severe.
Anyway, we've had a lot of nightly rains and thunderstorms lately, and tonight we had a good one. About an hour after Obama's speech I could hear the wind howling and the whole building seemed to be creaking and moving with the violent gusts while the sky lit up like a press conference. It went on for a good hour and I captured some of it on video from my balcony (using my regular camera).
First, here's an example of the wind, the rain and how frequently the lightning flashed. Because it was very cloudy, the lightning isn't very distinct:
Second, after a while the wind calmed down and it cleared up a bit, which made the lightning more impressive (mostly the last 15 seconds):
No comments:
Post a Comment