Respect. Empower. Include

These are the guidelines Barack Obama has given his campaign as they strive to get him elected the next President of the United States.

It's a tall order. In the face of mistrust - is he Muslim? does he pal around with terrorists? will he raise my taxes? will he turn over the US to the hands of those who wish us harm? In the face of heated, passionate disagreements. In the face of fear. But it's what Obama requires of his campaign staff and volunteers. And it makes a difference in the thousands and millions who have volunteered, worked, called, fundraised, hoped. Hope has become contagious.

It makes a difference for me. Seven years ago, an entire world reached out to America in the wake of tragedy. But ever since then, all I've heard from my leaders was to fear, to hate, to distrust. To disrespect, disempower, exclude. I heard that I should pay attention to the worst of people in case they decide to wield that against me. That I should protect myself from harm. But it was isolating and tiring, looking at everyone warily, with suspicion. It certainly didn't make me feel good about the world I lived in and limited the life I could live and still feel safe.

Then in 2004, I heard a skinny guy with a funny name give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. And he told me that there are just as many things we have in common with one another than we have differences. That we want to provide for our families with decent wages. That we want our children to grow up healthy and strong with a bright future ahead. That we just want to be heard, respected and loved. And I thought to myself that I would be voting for that man for president one day. I just didn't know it would come a scant four years later. He has appealed to the good in all of us. To trust that as a whole, we are greater than the sum of our individual strengths. That to accomplish the great things that Americans have done in the past and can do in the future, we would have to put aside the fear and distrust and work together. And that it wouldn't necessarily be easy, but that we could be surprised at what we could do.

I have never been one to care that much about politics. Ten years ago, you couldn't have paid me to know who our elected officials were and what they stood for. This year, this historic election year, I AM paying attention with all my obsessive tendencies on display. Not only did I donate to a campaign for the first time, I donated multiple times. As I watched the primaries turn into the general election period, I paid attention not just to the policies but to the people and their expressions of hope. Those faces, those eyes - they keep me daring to believe that we can shed the atrocities of the past eight years and go back to the America I once thought I lived in.

In two weeks, we will know. And I hope that we will know a brighter future.