I first remember politics with my parents. Children of the 40’s and activists of the 60’s, the 80’s for them were like a menagerie of shattered dreams. The messages of unity, change, volunteerism, and true inspiration from the 60’s had given way to the lies and cynicism of the 70’s and the new Conservative frontier of the 80’s.

Before I was even old enough to know what I wanted out of my politicians and for my country, I knew disappointment. My parents‘ frustration was mine—as an eight year old, a nine year old, a ten year old. Oh they did their best to hide it, but I remember them yelling at the nearly-animatronic President Reagan on television. I remember being in DC with my father on a family vacation during the presidency of Bush the Elder and watching him seethe at (and boo) an awful Congressman spewing hate toward Ted Kennedy in a speech on Capitol Hill. My father was not the sports fan I am, this was as passionate as I’d ever seen him about anything.

It was with pride I volunteered with them for Bill Clinton in 1992, and cast my first-ever vote for him in 1996. But I remember my parents wanting more. I didn’t get it at the time, but while Bill Clinton offered the charisma of some of the dynamic leaders of the 60’s, he didn’t offer the leadership of those people. He was never able to win a simple majority of voters in either of his campaigns. He was not able to build a coalition—to get America past the things that divide us and bring us together to face our greatest issues.

Because of this failure to unite, he failed the American people on many levels. He failed to take even small steps toward universal health care. He tapped out to conservatives and signed the Defense of Marriage Act; he signed NAFTA into law without Human Rights or worker protection provisions, and allowed sweeping welfare reform to pass that left millions without emergency safety nets at the state and local levels. While he was in many ways a good president and to be admired, he did not build the bridge to the 21st century he’d hoped to, because he was unable to rally the support to do so. He played the game with the same pieces, and gained many wins, but ultimately he was playing the SAME game.

Throughout the incredibly divisive presidency of Bush the Younger, we’ve suffered further as a country. We’ve become more polarized, more likely to look upon each other with scorn and disdain. More likely to look at things we can’t do, instead of focusing on the things we can. What was a conflict of color—white and black—became a conflict of Red and Blue in the first decade of a supposedly marvelous 21st century. We went to war on the strength, or rather because of the weaknesses, of those conflicts. We’ve been so busy pointing fingers at each other that we haven’t taken the time to point them at our leaders and hold them accountable.

And then….along comes Barack.

Like just about everyone else, before the 2004 Democratic National Convention I had not even a scintilla of an idea who Barack Obama was. But on that night he delivered the Keynote address, he became something special to me. Growing up in a “Red” state with decent people who happened to think like me on many issues and differently on a maybe a scant but important few, it had become very hard to just consistently revile Republicans and blame them of all of life’s problems. As a person who one day hopes to affect change in my home state, it became abundantly clear to me that the only way I’d ever be able to do that is to find common ground with people and work from that to create change.

Barack’s rhetoric that night—there is not a Black America, a White America, a Latino American, an Asian America…there is the United States of America—hit me like an 18-wheeler. Not only did it touch on what I was feeling about my future and the future of my state and Country, but for the first time as an adult—in the face of both Democratic and Republican leaders who continuously demonized each other to the long-term benefit of no one but themselves—I felt hope.

Hope for the future of the nation, and of the world. Hope for the future of my family and friends, and hope that there was something more to politics than just the opportunity to help people on a grand scale. I finally had hope that my dreams were more than just dreams. His words, if anything, gave wings to my dreams. Those wings stabilized what had been my up and down gliding, and allowed me to soar to new heights.

When he won nearly 80 percent of the vote in the 2004 Illinois Senate race in a year that saw Democrats take it on the chin pretty hard across the country, he got more attention. The country was not ready to unseat Bush in 2004, but the people who heard Barack’s message believed in and were ready for something different. He has not stopped convincing people since then.

In so many campaigns on which I’d worked in the past, the Democratic candidate placed all their hope on getting people to vote who had not previously shown a commitment to voting, or who had never voted in a campaign before. It was from the ashes of the disenfranchised that many a campaign had hoped to rise. None had, including the Kerry campaign in 2004 even with the hundreds of thousands of new voters registered.

Even though my support for Barack’s message and ability to lead carried me through all of last year, it wasn’t until he won Iowa based primarily on supporters who had never caucused, who had never supported a campaign, that my hope began to become a reality. As any of you who have spent a long time trading in hope will know, when hopes actually come to being in reality, there really is nothing sweeter.

For the first time, we have a leader who promises change, and delivers. For the first time, we have a leader who promises unity, and delivers. For the first time we have a leader who looks at the Washington of BOTH parties and knows to truly get things done we have to change the way we operate. And on top of all this, he’s a Democrat! He opposed the war in Iraq from the start; he’s a strong advocate for women, and for the future of our nation. What he’s doing is bringing the middle of the political spectrum to the Progressive agenda instead of bringing the Progressive agenda to the middle.

Now I know there are those of you who have supported other candidates. Hillary has experience; there is no doubt about that. But her experience is the experience that brought us the same failed solutions that led to job loss with NAFTA, that led to the knowledge deficit in American Schools, and that lets the drug and oil companies write health care and energy policy. Her experience is experience in a system that is fundamentally broken for so many in our country. She has openly stated she thinks the lobbyists who work for corporations and special interests in Washington, the same lobbyists who often get in the way of anything substantive getting done, represent the views of real people. To me, that’s trickle down politics. You can either listen to the corporations and their surrogates tell you what is good for the people, or you can just listen to and represent THE people in general. One way directly helps, the other leaves far too much to chance. It’s trickle down government at its worst.

To those of you who support Senator Obama now, thank you; we have miles to go before we sleep. But there are many of you to whom I am sending this who I know do not, or have not, supported this campaign. Some of you support other Democrats, some support Republicans, some support no one.

To you all especially I say, now is the time.

Now is the time to make the calls, to hang the signs, to canvass the neighborhoods and to do as I do in sharing your support.

Now is the time to give your energy, your heart, your soul, and yes, a little of your money as an investment in our nation and planet’s future.

Now is the time to get past the concerns about this candidacy. Obama won 93 percent white Iowa and steamrolled through South Carolina with the support of black voters as well. He’s drawing winning support from all age groups, and has more votes, more delegates, and a broader coalition than any candidate. He’s winning Democrats, he’s winning Independents, and yes, check the exit polls, he’s winning Republicans. And he’s done it all without taking the corporate or special interest dollar, without lying or distorting the record of his opponents. He’s done it by bringing people together across all the lines other candidates and campaigns for the last few decades have used to divide us. He transcends those labels and those divisive lines, as should we.  And look at his Super Tuesday results! America supports him. America is ready.

I know some of you have concerns about his experience. But it is exactly his lack of too much of the taint of Washington that makes him such a transformational leader. He certainly has incredible support and surrogates, from many of the Clintons’ own White House advisors to Senate anchors like John Kerry and now Ted Kennedy. At some point, it has to stop being about specific experience and start being about THE RIGHT experience, and the right person to lead. Barack has the right experience, and Barack is the right person to lead.

My friends, now is the time. It starts tomorrow after Super Tuesday. It will not end until we have written a new chapter in American History. We can’t do it without you.

Barack and his amazing wife Michelle in many ways remind me of my own parents. My father, a social worker and educator who taught me from a young age to see the dignity in everyone and to celebrate our diversity in meaningful and powerful ways, not to let it create chasms between people. Even though he passed away before realizing the full extent of his dreams, the lessons I learned from him echo throughout the rhetoric and life of Barack Obama. My mother, an outspoken and passionate female attorney struggling even in the 80’s to fight for equality for everyone, especially women. One need only know my mother, who has persevered in the face of incredible obstacles and is my true hero, and hear and see Michelle Obama speak to understand why I find both so inspiring. Though Barack and Michelle share not an age, racial label, or even generation with my parents, their message finds fertile ground in the seeds planted over the years of my life by loving parents who always challenged their son, with care, to do better. I have no doubt Barack and Michelle will do the same for this nation.

Thank you for taking the time to read, and for considering supporting Senator Obama.