President Obama- Yes we Can


     We often connect more to the people who understands what we have been through or experienced the same situations as us. In Obama's speech about fathers, he mentioned how important it is for fathers to be in their children's lives. He did not stop there, but he shared with us how his mother was living as a single mother. Hearing about what his mother had to go through in order to give him and his siblings a good life, reminds me of single moms now. I am sure that brought a connection between him and the single mothers in the country. They see that he indeed understand their struggles, since he has seen his mother experience the single mom life. Being the man that he is right now, would we have known that he knew how it felt like to be poor? The fact that he mentioned it, brought a lot of people closer to him because he was sharing something personal with us.

     During the president's victory speech, I noticed that many people were tearing in the crowd. I too started to tear as he spoke, after the elections. I didn't tear because I was upset, but because It made me believe that anything is possible. The most amazing part about his speech was the 106 years old African American woman named Ann Nixon Cooper. She was there when women and people of colored skin couldn't vote. He acknowledge the fact that this woman has seen the different events that have taken place in the United States. The biggest one of it all, was for her to see that a black man, could become the president of the United States of America. We didn't think that this could be possible, who knew that Obama would win the election? He did say "yes we can" and so he could and he won.

        When Obama won the election, it made me believe that perhaps the United States is starting to view blacks in a different way. I remember the night I stayed up and waited for the winner of the election to be announced. After waiting for too long, I ended falling asleep. Then all of a sudden I heard all of these noises in my neighborhood, cars honking and people shouting Obama. Right there and then I got up to find out that the president of the United States was now black. I did not expect him to change the ways that African Americans gets treated in the United States, it was just a proud moment  for me and my family. I am sure that other blacks weren't happy about his win, but then again everyone have their right to chose. Being able to sit down and listen to these speeches by Obama, brought an energy in me. Yes he was trained to be a great speaker just like any other politician, but it is best when their situations can relate to yours.

                                                        "Yes we can"

America's Most Gerrymandered Congressional Districts

   "This election year expect to hear a lot about Congressional district gerrymandering, which is when political parties redraw district boundaries to give themselves an electoral advantage. Contrary to one popular misconception about the practice, the point of gerrymandering isn't to draw yourself a collection of overwhelmingly safe seats. Rather, it's to give your opponents a small number of safe seats, while drawing yourself a larger number of seats that are not quite as safe, but that you can expect to win comfortably. Considering this dynamic, John Sides of The Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog has argued convincingly that gerrymandering is not what's behind the rising polarization in Congress."

    "The point of gerrymandering isn't to draw yourself a safe seat but to put your opponents in safe seats by cramming all of their supporters into a small number of districts. This lets you spread your own supporters over a larger number of districts." I think that this is a great way of making your opponent feel comfortable, that way they won't try hard enough to win. They'll be so focused on the small district that they have, while you're out there influencing a larger group of people to vote for you.