Mom Voted Democrat!

Below is a great story that we received via email from Kess Leake-Campbell of Lorton, VA. If you have a story that you would like to share, email stories@generationobama.com:

When I turned eighteen in 1981, I registered to vote Democratic. My mother accused me of registering Democrat simply because my parents were Republican and I was being a rebellious child and “just had to be different”. The conversation would be revisited over the years at various family gatherings when politics would come up and I would tell her again, what I told her then, "It's how I feel I should vote, Mom," and leave it at that.

Yesterday, I sat down with my Mom and played the "Yes We Can" video for her and asked her if it reminded her of Kennedy's campaign for president. She said that it was very much like watching that event happen all over again. And then she said to me, "Don't tell anyone, but I voted for him too." I almost fell out of my chair! My mother...voted Democrat!

She then went on to tell me that she had been listening to Senator Obama's speeches and had seen him on Oprah, and that she felt he just might be the person to help us keep from losing our country. "I was holding you in my arms, crying as I watched the news tell us that President Kennedy had been shot," she tells me, "and it was if all the dreams, the hopes....it was the end of an era. Now, there's a new era, and it has the same feeling of hope, of promise, that we had back then. I never thought I'd live to see it happen again, and I am so grateful I am part of it now."

I, too, have hope.

For generations, my family members have served our country, and have always respected the office of the President. We may not always like the person inhabiting that office, but we do respect the position and duty. This time around, I have felt that our country is being systematically deconstructed. Freedoms, ideals, concepts and beliefs are being challenged and blocked. The basic rights - to be able to love whom we wish, to live in peace, to have privacy and security - those rights are being challenged and blocked and removed piece by piece. I have hope that Senator Obama will be the president that restores our rights, restores our peace and reinforces our security. I hope that as our President, Barack Obama will rebuild the trust that the United States of America once was given by other countries and other peoples.

Like my Mom said, "I am so grateful I am part of it now." - I am grateful to be part of the new generation of hope.