Official Participant in the Youth Media Blog-a-Thon

It’s funny, somewhere in the YO! archives there’s a blog written by yours truly around December 2007, or maybe January of this year, where I explain why I’m politically “apathetic”. Today, almost a year of campaigns and politics later, I’m at my wit’s end, on the edge of my seat in a nervous sweat, anything but apathetic about tomorrow’s election day.

This is one of the most pivotal moments of my lifetime, maybe not in my personal history (marriage, children, winning an Oscar, etc) but my life in relation to the world’s history. I have spent the better part of my teenage years holding animosity towards America. I believed that things would never change, that corruption and greed will always prevail, and that as a collective this society is corrupt and indecent at it’s core.

Barack Obama of course is not my savior; his monumental step towards the white house doesn’t erase the history of atrocities towards African-Americans in this country. Michelle Obama’s controversial statement resonates with me in that, “for the first time in my adult life, I’m proud of my country.” Obama has made it okay for me to have a glimmer of hope in the political process, to be proud and satisfied with a leader that represents my concerns and interests.

It’s hard for me though, on the eve of Election Day, to imagine what it would mean should Obama win the election. I almost feel safer thinking McCain will win because all that would mean is that I would be disappointed and feel powerless, a feeling I have come to be used to living in America. If Obama wins? How triumphant and powerful would I feel? I keep trying wrap my mind around the possibility but I can’t, it would be a feeling, a moment, a sentiment that I never imagined myself holding with regards to this country.
—Jazmyne Young