aimee liu

Dear Friends,

As SuperTuesday approaches, we have an opportunity to ACT on our desire to create a healthier world for ourselves, our loved ones, and the future.

I must share with you my thoughts at the end of this extraordinary weekend. Yesterday I canvassed for Barack Obama. Today I attended a massive rally at UCLA featuring Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Caroline Kennedy, Stevie Wonder, and...the surprise of the event -- Maria Shriver endorsing Barack Obama!

UNITY, TRUTH, and HOPE are the watchwords of this campaign, and they really do ring true. Michelle Obama is one of the most spectacularly impressive human beings I have ever heard or seen. And the others on the dais with her were no slouches.

She pointed out that Barack has been seasoned by a lifetime of people telling him he "can't." From the Southerners who condemned his white mother and her black children, to the Ivy League establishment at Princeton, to the white Chicago pols who fought his entry into state politics. He proved them all wrong and has been ready from Day One for every challenge he has taken on.

She pointed out that his global upbringing and personal connections to Asia and Africa, and to multiple faiths, give him a knowledge base and sensitivity to international affairs that are unique for a Presidential candidate in American history. His name and his race are, in fact, tremendous advantages in engaging the trust of other nations around the world and in repairing the shredded image of America in the world's eyes. These, to me, are the strongest reasons we should all support his candidacy.

She pointed out that his campaign is filled with every dimension of America -- from the young to the elderly, every color, gender, political party, every faith. A 93-year-old Korean-American woman who had joined the US Navy in 1942 spoke up to emphasize this point. But I had already witnessed this diversity in the massive crowd at Pauley Pavilion, and in those who walked beside me yesterday when I canvassed for him. My co-walker's husband is a lifelong Republican who has registered Independent for the first time, so he can vote for Obama.

These are just some of the reasons why the LA Times today endorsed Obama, and why Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife and first lady of CA, made her surprise endorsement: "If Barack Obama were a state," she said, "he would be California. He's brilliant, a leader, a creative innovator, a bold intellect, the embodiment of diversity, dreams, hope, and change."

Perhaps the most powerful basis for these endorsements,though, was contained in Caroline Kennedy's remarks. "We have not seen a candidate since John F. Kennedy who inspires each and every one of us to be an agent for change. But Barack Obama is that candidate."

"WE are the change we've been waiting for," Maria Shriver said. But it has taken Obama to awaken us, to realize this change, and to show us the way to make it happen. This is what it means when ten thousand people yell "YES WE CAN!"

When I came home I stumbled on a quote by Galileo, which was printed on the tag of a Good Earth tea bag: "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."

I felt as if Galileo were speaking down the centuries, and Barack Obama is the truth that we all need to discover and vote for.

And if you have any doubt about the ability of this campaign to energize and inspire, do not miss this video:
Www.yeswecansong.com

If anything I've just said moves you, please feel free to pass this on.

Aimee Liu
www.aimeeliu.net