"If one person didn't exist, Everyone's life would change." ~Katharine Kinkead, 19

Have you ever had one of those weeks where everything goes wrong to the point that logic points out that you should be overwhelmingly depressed, but somehow you find yourself in a decent mood? Well, as hard to believe as it is, I feel like I've been shit on enough this week to the point that I should be in an adolescent stage of grief (after all, I am nineteen), but somehow I've managed to keep pretty upbeat. Somehow I can still stare into the rain and not feel entirely alone because I can take note off the way the rain falls at a slant, making little quotation marks in the sidewalk's reflections of the city's lights. But it's not only the natural beauties that have kept my spirits up, it's my family and the way they've helped me grow.
Somewhere along the line I've learned to pick up on daily patterns, like a name that's been repeated multiple times over the course of weeks; like Thomas Friedman. I've heard the name in my core studio, my research studio, my politics class; I've seen the name on Wikipedia, on books covers, and in articles. But you see, there are two Tom Friedmans. One is Tom Friedman, the artist who graduated from the University of Chicago and was made famous for taking small items and making giant compositions from them. The other is Thomas L. Friedman, a journalist for the New York Times and author of Hot, Flat, and Crowded, a book on my list of readings for Politics. It's strange how both names relate to my life so strongly, even if it isn't a significant strength. But in seeing such a connection, I've managed to keep an eye out for the name, and tonight it proved to make more sense than ever.
While stumbling around the pages of nytimes.com I found a popular articles list with Thomas L. Friedman listed unexpectedly (I obviously never realized how popular he really was with the publication), and so I opened it. The post, entitled Where did 'We' Go, Tom (as I will call him when we are finally good friends) asserts the fact that at a time when our economy and our political system has developed an immense desire for our nation to be one, we are in fact the opposite. This is not only a worry for Tom, but also one of my worries. With the debate on healthcare reaching newer and greater levels, it has become evident to me that our nation really doesn't know how to come together and not only support our leader together, but also take care of one another. The right wing has been bashing Obama and many of his tactics unfairly, but the left has also ridiculed Bush to no end. As Tommy puts it, we cannot afford to destroy the legitimacy of another president. Regardless of whether we like him or not or believe in any of the plans tied to his name, we must support Obama in some way, and some of the "attacks" that Tommy talks of are exactly what we shouldn't be doing. Yes, there is a Facebook poll as to whether or not someone should kill Obama. But before you say "That's only a kid. That's not so bad." think about this: where do children get their ideas from? And this: do you really want children thinking violent thoughts about their president now?
As foolish as the article is, there are plenty of other incidents that allude to awful national sentiments, such as Joe Wilson's infamous "You lie!" at Obama's health care speech and a boundless amount of death threats. These instances are not American, they allow no we to be formed, and right now we need unity.
My mother can say that she remembers the day that President Kennedy was elected and you can see the emotion in her face when she says she will never forget the day he was assassinated. I remember the day President Obama was elected. I don't want to have to "never forget" his assassination. I look back on the day he was elected and, without fail, I always get goosebumps and foggy eyes. I was in Grant Park. From the moment I entered and saw the floods of people following to the moment I left and saw the "Yes we did" shirts being sold and people hanging out sunrooves whipping clothing above their heads I could feel the incredible sense of unity. Even though I didn't know everyone in that park that night, we all had something to relate to and we were all a part of history. That night there were no lies behind the "we". That night we were Americans united.

Thomas L. Friedman: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/opinion/30friedman.html?em