Your Emmylou

why

Obama made a video responding to the gun control petitions 

he still hasn’t responded to the secession petitions

hahahahahahahaha

barackobama:

The President checks in after Richmond’s rally, on his way to Chicago to vote early: “These all-nighters are a little harder to pull off than when I was in college. But we’re going strong.” Here’s where to find out if you can vote early in your state, too.

These videos are making me ridiculously sad for some reason.

Maybe it’s because I feel bad and strangely guilty that he has to go through all this just to keep his job? Like somehow it’s my fault that this election is so close when it really shouldn’t be close at all?

I mean, let’s be real here, my strong, borderline fanatical support for Barack Obama stems from an almost entirely emotional place. As irrational as it is, I like this president and his wife because of who they are, what they symbolize, and how they make me feel—confident about my potential and my future in a way that I’ve never felt before. Yes it’s because I’m black. Yes it’s because I’m nerdy and ambitious and something of a weirdo. Yes it’s because I see him as a true example of triumph by a person of color in a nation wrought with both formal and informal racism. Of course I feel proud of a black president when I grew up with kids mocking my name, making fun of my wide nose and big lips, nine-year olds telling me to go back to Africa where I came from, hating myself because I looked so different from most of my white classmates.

Honestly, how strange is it to hear criticism of a president and feel as if on some level, that criticism is directed towards you? How ridiculous is it to blindly support a politician who has more than once made decisions that you strongly disagree with?

I have to think that somehow, this is a reflection of the strange and unique experience of being black in America, how it can be so isolating, so emotionally exhausting, that it can make one attach themselves to a person or ideal so deeply that it defies reason. As informed and politically aware as I am, it would make sense that I support this president half-heartedly or even not at all. The more logical choice for someone with my political beliefs would be a more truly liberal candidate like Jill Stein. But this entire thing—this presidency, this election and my feelings about it—is illogical. It is beyond reason, it is deeper than politics. My admiration for President Obama may seem silly, naive, or misguided, but it is real. I am probably too inarticulate to clearly convey what Barack Obama and his presidency mean to me, how it has inspired me to do more and go farther in life than I had ever previously imagined. He has shown me, more than anyone else, that I can~, that I must not give up on myself, that any obstacle can be overcome, that my skin color will limit me only as much as I let it, that I will undoubtedly face bigotry and hatred but that I can fight it, I can succeed. Both he and Michelle have shown me that the strength I need is already within, I was born with it, and it can never be taken away.

So yes, these videos, this election, these polls, they all make me sad in a way that is entirely nonsensical. And honestly, I’m perfectly fine with that.

Obama today at UM.

LOL it’s only thirty seconds I’m so ashamed.

You guys keep freaking out about the debate. 

I’ll be over here watching this video of Barry and Michelle being cute.