The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

A chapter is closing: the past eight years have seen the Presidency of George W. Bush. He took office just a few months before I began highschool; the terrorist attacks of September 11 happened in the second month of my freshman year; two wars have come and gone, although our troops have remained overseas. I am now 21 years old, and half-way through my junior year in college. Eight years have changed our nation and our world; but it has also shaped my world view. September 11 awakened my love of country, my desire to oppose wrong, and the compassion to aid the victims of this violence and hatred. My teen years were dominated by those images of two burning towers crumbling, of human beings falling like rag dolls to their deaths, of people dancing with joy in the streets around the world after hearing of the carnage, this atrocity on American soil. They call us the Great Satan because of our immorality; yet though I weep at the national mistakes we have made, I still love America because right or wrong, she is still my country. Though I do not agree with all the politics of this nation, I will give all I have, including my life, to ensure that hatred does not prevail, that when our nation suffers, the world does not celebrate, and that the United States can once more be a beacon of freedom to the world.
We are facing four years of change: the first term of the presidency of Barack Obama. Am I confident in his abilities? Not really. I did not vote for Senator Obama, nor do I agree with his politics; however, for better or for worse, he is the man for this time. He has been chosen by a free nation to lead us through the next four years. So much changed in the past eight years, some for good, and some for ill. I pray for our next president, and for our nation, and I pray that God will have mercy on our nation--that the next eight years will not see another atrocity like 9-11; that there will be no wars or nuclear challenge; that America may once more raise her head as the leader of the free world. "Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"