President Obama is generating a new hope

It's amazing how the world embraces our President Barack Obama. Everywhere he goes, there are thousands of people reaching out to touch him, to photograph him. You scan the crowd and see a commonality of excitement, of smiles, of tears and hands reaching out to him.

The state of the American economy can be included in the worst of our times. But the world has hope in our president. People don't describe him as "the second coming," as some have negatively said. They see President Obama as a new hope, a new way, a new America. The world has grown tired of the traditional American arrogance and it is also ready for a new America.

The people of the world connect with his sense of family, community and country and with his beliefs that everyone has a voice, no matter their ethnic or economic background. He brings to the highest office in America his openness to accept and listen to those different from himself and his willingness to work with and not against.

When he meets heads of countries, he doesn't bring a supremacist attitude; he talks with them on the same level of respect. They feel his difference and are anxious to work with him; they are willing to give him a chance.

Even though there are Americans who criticize his every step, he is president of the United States and we as a people must work as a united front to return our country to the status we once had. This new hope includes everyone.

BONITA LEE PENN
Manchester