CNN iReport

I'll start by saying that I am so incredibly sick and tired of, after

almost 3 days, how so many of us have sold so short the meaning and

value in having a Prez-Elect Obama. Yeah, he's black. Yeah he has a

funny name. Yeah, he's the one no one had Ever thought would ever truly

win, as much as however many wished and willed this to be... Surely one

could chalk it up to all the ignorance (on either side of the

equation), but why do my fellow black Americans put so much emphasis on

the "he looks like me!" candidate, and not rather the man that made us

believe in our country - and in some cases, our very selves - again?

I'm briskly moving towards 22 years old. Only for the past year have I

ever taken notice of the possibilities and the potential greatness of

this country. I have always been more distracted by the seemingly

infinite levels of ignorance, that begets hatred, that begets pain and

regret and sorrow and revenge.. I have usually only been able to see

greed and intolerance and the vast difference between the rich and the

poor in this country. I've most frequently come to face the failings of

a leader, a boss, and a people (because that seems to be the only thing

that trickles down). I am too sure that I am not the only one who's

lost hope, here.

And then this man with the big ears and huge salesman teeth smile and

that vague and almost enigmatic sense of himself. I paid that man no

attention at first - I like to think that I am the type of intellectual

that won't just vote for a man because he looked like me... Truth is,

though, I may not have considered him just Because he did - and I wrote him off, knowing fully well that he had no chance in Hell of being my president.

But then I heard President-Elect Obama speak.. And then I heard him

speak again.. and again. And with each successive time, there was

something that had just dragged me to him. Not how eloquently he spoke,

but his message - you don't have to be afraid.. You don't have to be

sheep.. You Can Have Hope. I believe that is what a leader should be

able to do for his/her people - make them believe, again - in the

leader, in the themselves, and in their neighbor. To give us a unifying

purpose and a need and desire to be better than the people that we are

today. We are a country that should promote new and free thinking. We

are a nation that should believe with full and utter conviction that

tomorrow is a much better and much brighter day. We are a people that,

throughout our many differences and our distinct and varying needs and

wants, should be able to respect our fellow man as we would our closest

friends - because for however much I can't stand the ignorance and

blatant hatred in this country throughout the primaries and the general

election - I know that we're all just as screwed if we can't come

together and do what needs to be done to drag ourselves up and beyond

our polarizing dissimilarities and towards the most general goals for

our country: power, comfort, health, love, life, and Freedom.

And That is why I voted and hoped (and maybe even prayed

just a little) for Prez-Elect Barack Obama to win. Because that man

makes me believe in myself and us again, like I can hardly ever

remember having been able to. Because he as a leader reminds me that

I'm not lazy and listless, but rather without any general direction,

and I am willing to take to his direction even if it means that just

two people around me are better off for it. The point of a leader in a

democratic nation is NOT to do his/her own thing and drag the nation

along for the ride - but to Lead, Guide, and Protect the people from

what we may not be able to see, stand against, or run from. Not because

he's black and I'm black and I have a black man in the Black House, now - but because he's black and I'm black and he proves that it doesn't

and Shouldn't matter. And because I have a man in the White

House that only makes it easier to believe that the people of this

nation (rather, the majority) are great and wise and not so cynical as

to assume that the impossible is even a such thing.

I finally believe in the man who tells us all what we should do to be great, again... And that means so much more to me than the color of his skin.