RedPost and The American Dream
I again am a bit hesitant to blog about this, as I try to keep this blog connected to RedPost and not my personal life or religious or political leanings. It’s all inter-related, is the thing, so it’s hard to separate. But like my post about my accident, I will connect this to RedPost, I promise.
I’m a political-junkie. I spend way too much time watching CSPAN. I check Politico.com more than twice daily. I subscribe to James Kotecki’s YouTube feed. I would describe myself as a Republican, but I don’t know what that means anymore, so I don’t. I think my beliefs tend to fall more with Libertarians at this point. In local politics (as in, Goshen city), I’ve consistently voted for Democrats, as they seem to be the ones who are making needed changes, doing a good job of fiscal management and planning for the future.
On December 30, after my accident, I arrived to Hershey Medical Center in an ambulance around 11:30 pm and got to my hospital bed, after much poking, prodding, x-rays, and CAT scans, around 1:30 am. I was alone in my room (with occasional interruptions for more poking and prodding), flat on my back, happy to be alive, unable to move or get up to go to the bathroom, in a neck brace unsure if my neck was broken, and generally a mixed bag of emotions, just not wanting to be alone. So I turned on CSPAN and spent the night not sleeping much but at least comforted by the voices (I could barely see the TV as I couldn’t move my neck or elevate my head) of Mike Huckabee, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mit Romney, and the rest of the ’08 presidential-primary-circus-like-event. It was the moment that I really got introduced to Obama, I hadn’t heard him speak before.
Running a startup like RedPost is an exercise in belief and the kind of hard-working hope that Obama talks about. You have to get up every day, go to work, and believe that what you’re doing will actually work. That even though there are companies with millions (even billions) of dollars out there who could outspend you in a minute, you’re doing something different enough and good enough that you can beat them. Some days this is easy, some days it’s harder.
This exercise in belief is part of the oft-cited American Dream. The Dream is a bit mythical to us Americans. As a skeptic, it’s hard to know how much of The Dream is myth and how much of it is true. Can anyone really lift themselves up by the bootstraps? Can David really take on Goliath? Can a small software upstart outsmart 20 year veterans in the same industry?
Obama says “Yes We Can.” His South Carolina speech sent chills down my spine. He chose 3 words that sum up The Dream. At this point, his campaign is directly linked with my hopes and dreams as they relate to RedPost: because if he can do it, so can I. If he can succeed when he’s “not supposed to” so can I. There’s also a weird, more emotional connection for me to that night I spent in the hospital bed and a feeling I can’t shake that I shouldn’t have walked away so easily from a 70 mph car crash where I rolled over 3 times. But did what I wasn’t supposed to do.
And since I’m talking politics and can’t stop myself, a few more notes about Obama: he’s the only candidate that’s laid out a comprehensive technology plan that calls for opening up government. If you know what an API is, just imagine our government giving us citizens access to our government’s internal workings through an API — being able to query the budget, spending, the legislative process, the judicial system, etc. would revolutionize how this country works, eliminating a ton of waste in the system, increasing efficiency, transparency, and moving us towards the dream of open source government.
Obama has also already turned into more of a myth/legend than a human being. No one can live up to perfection, of course, but how many presidential primary candidates have had multiple songs written about them? Songs that in a day have become the most-viewed video of the past 30 days? It’s pretty amazing, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum.
So we’ll see what happens in 2 days. I hope Obama proves to me that The Dream is more than a myth, that it’s real. In fact, I’m counting on it.
