I don't read the papers anymore and try desperately not to watch the news on TV. Occasionally I do listen on radio a few times a day and that's it, but I monitor my intake very closely. I'm very wary about reading too much negativity and the effect it will have on me personally. Your mental and spiritual well being are just as important if not more than the physical, and feeding it a daily dose of news about rape, murder, wars, famine, society deteriorating, being screwed over by the government, tax rises, gas rises, job losses, global economic crisis etc etc is not healthy. If you were trying to get in shape you wouldn't go on a diet of Big Macs and large fries would you? Well, I'm not about to feed my mind with unhealthy negativity on a daily basis either.
If by the off chance the news was on and the then-Senator Obama was on my screen or in the newspaper I would sit up and take notice with a quickness. For two reasons, I liked what I saw **swoon** and more importantly I loved listening to what this man had to say with conviction and most of all belief that maybe just maybe this might be the most honest and hard working President the world has ever seen. Barack Obama got a pass from the news ban without a doubt.
There was no way I'd feel right in being a cheapskate and not having a newspaper or 2, 3, 4, or 5 in my possession today. I vowed should he become the next POTUS then the papers were being bought and kept in a safe place for the day I'd be able to show the generations to come after me.
The Metro [free copy]
The Times
The Financial Times
The Evening Standard
The London Paper [free copy]
All had President Obama gracing the front page. These are the papers you have to get and keep to look back on and show the generations to come just how poignant this time was for many, not just in the United States but the world over. Believe. Tears have been flowing on these shores also, the brothas have that extra swagger going on in their step today [as do I], today I felt the glances from black Brits just a little bit differently than I normally do, and the odd few status messages I see on Facebook want to make it out to DC in January to just be present in the city where history is being made. That's just some of the effect America and it's new change has on the London and the rest of the world today.
£2.80 it cost me to buy the newspapers about history being made this afternoon [maybe I should keep the receipt too]. The cost of getting to this day by those who preceded us cost a lot more in ways we could never imagine. This just isn't a victory for America or for African Americans alone it's a global victory. There are people who are so affected by the votes cast in the USA by the voters of that nation who wanted to see this man as your next President, Leader of the Free World, the most powerful man on the planet, the whole world over. People were partying right here in London, in the villages of Kenya right the way around the world in Jakarta, Indonesia and Bangkok. Unlike Bush, Obama will have so much support outside of the US it's an amazing feeling to see a man and a family of colour welcomed with open arms, and if they are ever in London they can pop round for tea, the puppy too.
If you are an American reading this who has no idea of the level of coverage this has received globally, believe we saw everything that you saw as it happened. Election this and election that and I had to remind my backwards self that I couldn't vote in this one.
Grant Park was in my living room at 5am this morning as was Phoenix where McCain gave his conceding speech after 4am. We had the live debates beamed into our homes the same time as you saw them and the daily coverage of this election in our newspapers, on our radios and on our television sets. The speech was played over and over again. My mother cried, I cried, my best friend cried, my British friend in Chicago cried right there in Grant Park, I have no idea if my sister cried but she was elated. And when I see my 6 year old cousin I will pull out these newspapers and have a talk with her about the Obamas and ask her what she wants out of life and to remember that through her own personal strength and looking at people like Obama, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks who all stood [and sat] for something she like she always has, will be able to achieve and use these people as a source of inspiration to her as well as the people in her family. And most importantly never let anybody tell her that she can never become or never achieve.
I couldn't flip through the papers because I felt the tears coming on when I was on the train. I had my little cry [again] behind closed doors and from seeing that beautiful picture of Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha waving to the crowd at Grant Park it was just amazing to think in my 5 year old inner child voice "hey, they look like me."
If by the off chance the news was on and the then-Senator Obama was on my screen or in the newspaper I would sit up and take notice with a quickness. For two reasons, I liked what I saw **swoon** and more importantly I loved listening to what this man had to say with conviction and most of all belief that maybe just maybe this might be the most honest and hard working President the world has ever seen. Barack Obama got a pass from the news ban without a doubt.
There was no way I'd feel right in being a cheapskate and not having a newspaper or 2, 3, 4, or 5 in my possession today. I vowed should he become the next POTUS then the papers were being bought and kept in a safe place for the day I'd be able to show the generations to come after me.
The Metro [free copy]
The Times
The Financial Times
The Evening Standard
The London Paper [free copy]
All had President Obama gracing the front page. These are the papers you have to get and keep to look back on and show the generations to come just how poignant this time was for many, not just in the United States but the world over. Believe. Tears have been flowing on these shores also, the brothas have that extra swagger going on in their step today [as do I], today I felt the glances from black Brits just a little bit differently than I normally do, and the odd few status messages I see on Facebook want to make it out to DC in January to just be present in the city where history is being made. That's just some of the effect America and it's new change has on the London and the rest of the world today.
£2.80 it cost me to buy the newspapers about history being made this afternoon [maybe I should keep the receipt too]. The cost of getting to this day by those who preceded us cost a lot more in ways we could never imagine. This just isn't a victory for America or for African Americans alone it's a global victory. There are people who are so affected by the votes cast in the USA by the voters of that nation who wanted to see this man as your next President, Leader of the Free World, the most powerful man on the planet, the whole world over. People were partying right here in London, in the villages of Kenya right the way around the world in Jakarta, Indonesia and Bangkok. Unlike Bush, Obama will have so much support outside of the US it's an amazing feeling to see a man and a family of colour welcomed with open arms, and if they are ever in London they can pop round for tea, the puppy too.
If you are an American reading this who has no idea of the level of coverage this has received globally, believe we saw everything that you saw as it happened. Election this and election that and I had to remind my backwards self that I couldn't vote in this one.
Grant Park was in my living room at 5am this morning as was Phoenix where McCain gave his conceding speech after 4am. We had the live debates beamed into our homes the same time as you saw them and the daily coverage of this election in our newspapers, on our radios and on our television sets. The speech was played over and over again. My mother cried, I cried, my best friend cried, my British friend in Chicago cried right there in Grant Park, I have no idea if my sister cried but she was elated. And when I see my 6 year old cousin I will pull out these newspapers and have a talk with her about the Obamas and ask her what she wants out of life and to remember that through her own personal strength and looking at people like Obama, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks who all stood [and sat] for something she like she always has, will be able to achieve and use these people as a source of inspiration to her as well as the people in her family. And most importantly never let anybody tell her that she can never become or never achieve.
I couldn't flip through the papers because I felt the tears coming on when I was on the train. I had my little cry [again] behind closed doors and from seeing that beautiful picture of Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha waving to the crowd at Grant Park it was just amazing to think in my 5 year old inner child voice "hey, they look like me."
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