By Hanna Tamrat
We all talk about owning a piece of Obama’s campaign. But that kind of talk didn’t hit home with me until my sister a few days after Obama’s historic nomination speech called me and left a voicemail message saying: “Congratulations!”
For a split of a second while listening to the message, I thought I won some kind of award of which I wasn’t aware of. Then, the message continued: “…Obama Selashenefe!” (…because Obama won!)
Frankly, I haven’t spent more than a couple of hours per week (except for those days I just get carried away…) volunteering for the campaign. But, that was all it took for my family to know I was invested in it.
So, whatever amount of time and energy we have put into it, we each own a piece of this campaign. Why is that important? It means we had a say in the direction of this country–a country we call home. As immigrants with a second generation of American-born Ethiopians coming of age, not only is it a privilege but it is a huge responsibility.
With Obama running for President, we have a prime opportunity to have our voice heard in unison and as one of the constituencies politicians would look to for generations to come for policy directions, be it domestic or foreign.
Ethiopians for Obama seized this opportunity like no other that I have known, at least not at a multi-state level. It is the first movement in my opinion that strives on ensuring that we count, primarily through our votes. And the best part about it is that we don’t even have to be “politicians” or political-savvy people or even that much interested in politics, really. We are just exercising our rights and our duties as citizens by voting and ensuring our families, community members and more also vote.
Every time I hear pundits talk about “record number of new voters,” I smile to myself thinking “…and we represent a chunk of that!” Not only do we represent a good number of first-time voters, but we had something to do with it as volunteers, whether it is reaching out to Ethiopian-Americans or other Americans.
To some, the idea of a nation-wide unified Ethiopian political force may seem too ambitious and remote, but great things start with great vision! I am sure I heard or read this great wisdom somewhere, but I certainly also saw it happen in the past few months culminating towards the nomination a couple of weeks ago.
A man, who against, absolutely, all odds, became the first black Democratic nominee for President in the history of this country. Now, that’s a big deal!
But his vision didn’t end there and neither has ours! Our success, as Ethiopians, who seek visibility, and as Americans, who are not immune to the day-to-day struggles we experience in this country, is closely related to Obama’s success. And, even though at this point even a failure would be translated into success for both him and the entire country, we still owe it to Obama and, frankly, to ourselves to see this through!
We owe to him because he led us on an inclusive, irreplaceable and irreversible journey which we took and will continue to take along side all our fellow Americans. We owe it to him for allowing us to forge within our Ethiopian community a movement which will highlight our unified potential in this great nation. We owe it to him for validating our own hopes and dreams for our future and the future of our children and their children, simply by living his hope and achieving his dream.
All this should be reason enough to support him. If not, keep tuning in! Better yet, I challenge all the 80+ members in this group to give me the reasons we should continue or start to support Obama. Let us inspire one another with our stories, our visions and our wisdom! As I always tell even my Ethiopian brothers and sisters who are not U.S. citizens, don’t undermine what you have to offer.
Yes, we can! Yes, we did!
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Hanna Tamrat is a dedicated Ethiopians for Obama member and a brillian author.
Join Ethiopians for Obama at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group /ethiopiansforobama/
5 thoughts on “We own a piece of the Obama campaign”
haana bravo !
Hana you have done an awesome job. You have passed the expectation of our needs. Yes we can. We should strongly support Obama for various reasons that you mentioned. We should also learn a lot especially those Ethiopians who were born here to consistently put our efforts to bring the best for us and for the rest of our country as well. However, hana and those who are devoted your time and energy in supporting obama, are you guys doing this just for fun? Or just because other’s do it? Or just because it is very interesting to invove in this campaign since it doesn’t cost many sacrifices including life? Or just to get a poor popularity around our area?
The reason I have mentioned all these questions is based on what I have been noticed from some people that strongly support Obama. Many of these people that I noticed are just doing this because it’s is too much fun and because they are simply emotional about it or just because to gain poor popularity around their area if they say I support Obama. The reason I say this is that I strongly believe that we should support Obama on various things including his ultimate diverse principles. But if we are very devoted to support Obama, why do we fail to support democracy and why don’t we try to bring the right democracy to see many Obama’s in our country too. One supporter of Obama who is strongly endorse him based on democratically facts should also try and devote him self to contribute what ever it takes to bring the same democracy to our country. Therefore as a conclusion I strongly urge hana and her partners to contribute a lot to bring the democracy we want in Ethiopia as well. Since the democracy we want is highly harassing and abusing by the small group TPLF members. I am also a big supporter of Obama but I also want to bring some changes by the potential that I have to my country. At this moment I strongly support many practical apportions groups who are tirelessly work and fight the TPLF regime. So, when ever we support Obama lets also remember that our people in Ethiopia is waiting the justice they deserve as any human being especially this time.
Yes!Great and awesome job Hana!!!
Use also text message and tell folks to send the message to at least 5-10 of their friends,that is a very successful way of propagation!!!(that showed a very great turn out during the 2005 Ethiopian election)
I am glad that Obama won the democratic nomination but still a long way to go for the presidency.
I am interested in Obama’s becoming the next president of the United States because of my hope that he will bring genuine democratic changes to Ethiopia and Africa as a whole.
Those of us who have been extremely disapointed by the Meles Zenawi regime and the Bush administration, we are all now calm and quite for the time being. We are awaiting the deleverer of all Ethiopians from the yoke of oppression.
I hope you guys let Obama know what the Ethiopian community of the Diaspora is doing for him. I am hoping Obama will not play politics as usual and ignore us completely like the Bush administration did for the past three years.
With Obama’s help, Ethiopians, those of us who have been ignored and oppressed for the past three years, will finally say, “OUR TIME HAS COME!” Meles Zenawis’ and his TPLF is history.
Our neighbour Kenya saw what is coming and already embraced the Opposition – a smart move by the Kenyans. Meles Zenawi sounds like he is not able to read the signs of the times and act quickly in embracing the Ethiopian Opposition.
Mr. Meles Zenawi, “THE DAY OF SALVATION IS NOW.” We encourage you to act quickly before it is too late. We think your time is up and we do hope you agree with us and make the smart move of embracing the Ethiopian Oppositon right now. You never know, God may bless you abundantly for that!
Happy to read that “Ethiopians for Obama” were part in the historic Obama victory and hope will continue through the activism they demonstrated so far. We need some kind of Ethiopians for Ethiopia/Africa movement also. The only “Baria” student I have in class, told me that he doesn’t see any difference between “whites and Ethiopians he met”, because both are deeply racists. So, we need the movement partly to cleanse ourselves of the “Baria” talk we literarily enjoy when referring to blacks allover and to our own brothers and sisters to the south/west/east of our land of origin. Let us renounce and drop that stinking racism some of us entertain here in America and back in Ethiopia. In Obama we witness the “Baria” fighting to become the president of the United States. Also, let us have the courage to accept the fact that Ethiopia is a multiethnic country and stop to embarrass and shame people for their names or appearances saying, “are you Abesha” or “you don’t look like Abesha” or “your name doesn’t sound an Abesha” etc, as if all Ethiopians are of an Abesha origin. For instance, I am a proud Ethiopian; I love my Abesha people, but I am not an Abesha. I apologize if this is offending your sensibilities.