A neighbor stopped me the other day to say hello. Actually, she had an ulterior motive in saying hello. She immediately began her campaign speech. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about. I hope you’re a ‘Hillary Girl’, she said with an eerie threatening look about her. Just the words Hillary Girl were enough to give me that sensation you get the moment you realize you are about to puke your lunch onto the sidewalk. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to smack some sense into her or just let go with the hurl and aim at her pink blouse. I held my composure and tried to imagine her not being too offended when I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” She looked surprised; almost that look of treason and disgust because I wasn’t supporting a sister for the highest office a person can be elected to.

I saw a little panic in her eyes when she said, “Oh God, I hope you’re not for McCain!” I gladly responded with a hearty “hell no!” She narrowed down my political choice and asked why I was “so in favor of Obama.” I hadn’t said a word about the man, but was glad she asked. This all happened two days before Barack’s rally in Portland on Sunday. After I saw the news footage, I was hoping my neighbor had watched it too.

I haven’t had much interest in politics for the past 16 years for two reasons: Clinton and Bush. I have felt about as helpless and hopeless as so many Americans do. But have you seen the Portland footage of Obama’s rally? It makes me proud to be living in Oregon. Take a couple of minutes and watch the clip. Go ahead. I’ll wait for you.

Obama in Portland

Okay, so you watched what happened in Waterfront Park; you saw the crowd of about 75,000 people, and you had to sense the excitement and hope from that crowd. When was the last time you saw a cheering crowd like that where Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney or the Denver Broncos weren’t in the same proximity? This is my point — the man has given us a light at the end of the tunnel and we believe in him. We feel excited that we can hold onto that promise for change. His presence is reason enough for celebrating the fact that we can actually choose who we want to be our President and feel fired up about it. We no longer have those doomed feelings of being on a sinking ship that we never wanted to board in the first place.

I have been giving this a lot of thought lately. We have been missing something in our lives. Something similar to what we felt from the mid 1960′s to the early 1970′s. If you weren’t around then as a teenager or young adult, then you have no idea what that feeling is. This is because our society has been missing something very vital – a cause for jubilation in the promise of change. That belief that what we do can actually create a change for the better, to be a part of history; a generation that will be looked back upon as the generation that had great significance in how the future world will be. It’s that same feeling and belief we had 35 or 40 years ago that we were about to embark on a new path that led to a time and place when our actions made a positive difference.

What have we been doing the past thirty plus years? We have been running on a gerbil’s wheel getting nowhere. Our imaginations have been stagnated. If you need an example, look at the movie industry. Too many remakes of films or TV shows that we watched thirty years ago. Who was the last Presidential candidate that held this kind of attention and excitement that Obama holds? The only one I can think of is Bill McKay. Remember him? He was Robert Redford’s character in The Candidate.

The big difference between the film in 1972 and the reality of Obama now is that we know Barack won’t be seen in the back of a limo after he is elected asking, “What do we do now?” I believe, as many voting Americans believe, that Obama knows what to do next and he will do it. And for the first time in 16 years, I’m looking forward to that day.