“Oh the times they are a changing…”

In 1776 the Founding Fathers of the states formed The United States of America; a youthful country filled with prosperity, hope and a dream.

It was to become from that pivotal moment in time, a place for anyone and everyone to achieve impossibilities, a place to work hard to reach greener pastures, a place to be free and a place to start again without restrictions. Thus the dream was born. 

In America, one needn’t worry about skin colour, religion, ethnic origin or position in society; these things do not matter in the more important pursuit of the dream…but hold on, is it not more than obvious that this dream has been lost through the ages? Did America simply give up during its game of dream tag?

No. It is more sinister and dark. America gave into the pursuit of materialistic pleasures and slowly became the consumerist nation we know today. It’s innocent and pure dream was slowly twisted and blackened through the economic boom and Industrial revolution, leaving every man and woman seeking not equality but money and social stature. Well this only led to a great depression as the Wall Street Crash echoed around the world sending ripples through the world’s economy. Change is what was needed. Whatever happened to equality? It was left to people like Martin Luther King, Jr. to dream a dream of equal fairness between races and fight for the rights of his people; rights which should have been theirs since the start.

The ongoing battle between Republicans and Democrats will continue with time with the latest win given to the Democrats. There have been times in the past when every single state has voted for the same candidate showing an immense achievement in the candidate’s campaign. This year the Democrats won with 364 votes; 202 votes ahead of the republicans but what was so special about it? Why the crazed jubilation?

This year, on the fifth of November 2008, at around 4am GMT, Barack Obama beat his rival John McCain to become the first Afro-American president-elect of The United States of America. Obama campaigned for change and if I’m not wrong I think change really is in the air. The shackles are off, finally allowing Americans and the rest of the world to feel free and not just feel free but be free. Even I felt it, in my small home in London town, in the early hours of the morning as I eagerly watched the incoming votes and the magical position of 270 votes being passed by the Democrats. My eyes welled up in the spirit of the moment. The sheer emotion I felt was unbelievable and unprecedented. I’m not even American! I can still feel it now…a strange lightness, liberation and renewed hope for the future, a reassurance that better days are on their way and a feeling of importance.

Perhaps America’s soot covered, decadent, corrupted dream can now be restored to its former glory. Perhaps now, people may see this man’s achievement to be the inspiration for them to reach the stars through perspiration and hard labour.
The sky really isn’t the limit as it is limitless. We as a people can work together in choral unison to make ourselves heard and to evoke change for the benefit of everyone with the exception of rich fat cats, but even they need saving from the ghouls haunting them deep beneath the ground in pockets of oil.

Where did all this garish expenditure, opulence, money lending, endless pleasure seeking take us? Into a downturning, unstable and faltering economy. The economic crisis is quickly leading us into a global recession which will leave us all shaken. Change is what we need, and this my friends? This is history in the making.