McCain Up in the Polls? We're Still Winning... [Originally Unpublished]

[Note: I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, when McCain pulled ahead of Obama in the national polls for the first time...]

Lately, a lot has been made about the McCain-Palin ticket suddenly surging forward and, for the first time, taking the lead in the national polls. Many of my fellow Obama supporters have reacted with great despair, losing hope in the momentum that Senators Obama and Biden have accumulated since the Democratic National Convention. Others have implored the Obama-Biden campaign to fight fire with fire and turn to the swiftboating that has come to define the political impetus with which the Republican party strikes. It is this negative thinking that Senator Obama has come to speak and work against, and what he and his supporters are looking to eliminate from the American political landscape. Each time we drop our heads in doubt, or turn our faces away from the fear that wells up inside of us, we dilute the message the Senator Obama has tried to carry to each and every American during this election season: hope.

I have listened and read many reactions to Senator Obama’s campaign. A majority of those who have come to support him say that he has been an inspiration, whether through his eloquence as an orator, his work as a community organizer, or his conviction as a politician. He has become for many people a symbol of changing times, when we can look around and upon our American brothers and sisters and not be afraid to ask for help or to offer it. He has inspired many who had been apathetic to rise up and stand for something, to look into the eyes of those who are suffering, feel their pain, and tell them that together we can rise above the struggle presented before us. He has united millions-- White, Black, Asian, Latino, Native American, gay, straight, Democrat, Republican, Independent--in the fight to change this country and the image that is projected to its citizens and to the rest of the world.

How can it look like we’re losing? Each time one of us, Democrat or Republican, turns to a poor man on the street and offers him food, we win. Each time someone volunteers at an overstaffed health clinic, we win. Each time someone raises his or her hand and fights for the change he or she believes in, we win. So regardless of who wins this election, we as a people can continue to win if we look to serve each other as brothers and sisters would.