Remember, Remember..

It is something of a significance that the day after our country elects Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, one of our closest allies, Great Britain, celebrates a historic day of defiant action. For in 1605, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators put into action the Gunpowder Plot, a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament by sneaking in barrels of gunpowder into the cellars below. Fawkes was caught in the act before he could set flame to the explosives, and he and his co-conspirators were sentenced to brutal executions. But this treacherous act has gained respect over the centuries and is now a cause for a celebration. Fawkes and Co.'s methods were blunt, but their ideology was to bring religious freedom to the lands of King James I, specifically for other Catholics like themselves.

This Powder Treason is violent in nature, but is symbolic of the desperation of a group of people seeking religious freedom from an intolerant dictatorship. And its 403rd anniversary comes a day after our much younger country chooses an entirely new kind of President to lead us in an entirely new kind of direction. It's also notable that we've elected an African American, a racial group our country once enslaved, and very very slowly did we finally allow them the rights other white Americans were insured. And that this man is now mandated by the American people to break down the old walls of past administrations and bring our country something entirely different and new that will be able to successfully govern our modern civilization.

So celebrate this holiday as if it were our country's own. For now we too have faced a standing power, and shown that we the people have enough of our own gunpowder to shake things up.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow.

P.S. - This is always a fine day to watch V for Vendetta, especially with so much political discourse surrounding us. Here's a clip of V giving a rather wordy, but meaningful speech:

November 4th, 2008

I'm tipsy off champagne and beers, but I will do my best to describe the miraculous feelings I have right now.

Tonight our country made a choice. A choice to move our society into the future with a president that has shown he is tuned in to the problems that everyday americans face. We are in the worst financial situation since the Great Depression and have even more domestic and foreign problems that have been largely ignored over the course of our current president's final term. President Obama will be faced with a daunting agenda to turn a deficit ridden country into a prosperous new age democracy. He will have to move quickly to turn worldly opinions around and make America into what it once was; a country that was envied by all others. I do believe America can be great once more, I do believe we can fix our economy. But what it requires is the faith and optimism of the american people in our governing systems. It demands that we work together to solve problems that seem far out of our reach. And these are all part of the reasons why I chose to support Barack Obama.

With 64+ million votes cast for him and 350+ electoral votes collected, Obama has shown he has what it takes to unite our country. Maybe some were votes more against republicans than for Obama, but we have still put our faith in his leadership and now we will wait to see whether any of it will pay off.

I have been a supporter of Obama for well over 2 years now and have worked to get him elected since those cold winter primary days in New Hampshire in January of this year. I put my hope and hard work into making sure he was elected, and for tonight to give me that satisfaction is something I will be thankful for for quite some time. But this isn't about me and who I wanted to win, this is about where we as a country want to go in these next 4 years. And our country chose Obama's vision and gave him a democratic majority to enact that vision.

While some of you may still have your doubts, I hope you will understand that this was what the people decided on. And while you may not think it's the best direction for our country, have enough respect for American democracy to be willing enough to see how things turn out. Come 2012 if nothing good comes from an Obama administration than you have every right to bear those Palin 2012 t-shirts and start persuading others to your cause. But give Obama a chance to do what he has done to all the pessimists and naysayers over the 2 year course of this presidential election: prove you wrong.


So I give cheers to one historic night, and to a brighter future for us all :)
..President Barack H. Obama... Damn that sounds good!