Election

I bought a T-shirt recently that says “Barack to the Future.” It’s written in the “Back to the Future” movie font in large bold capital orange and yellow letters. I found it in a small T-shirt shop on Broadway just above Canal Street. The guy who owns the shop told me that Michael J. Fox has one. Who knows? He should, if he doesn’t.

I bought a slightly more subtle Obama shirt in Union Square last weekend, a tan shirt with a faded dark-brown caricature portrait. The guy I bought the shirt from is reaching the end of his stint in Union Square and is about to continue his tour around the country at college campuses. He donates 20 percent of his profits to Obama’s campaign.

Union Square feels like an Obama-themed flea market, recently. I’ve enjoyed strolling through the vendors hawking competing T-shirts, bumper stickers and buttons among the neighborhood artists and farm stands.

I have seen a few McCain supporters holding a banner , but they are rare. And I don’t see any McCain buttons or T-shirts, but this is hardly surprising for New York City. All of my close friends are Obama supporters.

Upstate, in Jeffersonville, my dad tells me someone has twice removed an Obama sign that he put up on the corner near his house.

“They haven’t touched the one in my yard,” he tells me. “I have another one to put up on the corner but I’m waiting until closer to the election.”

I’ve been hesitant to write about this election, fearing that I will come across like I don’t know what I’m talking about or naively out of touch with the issues that are important to the readers of this column.

Though as I sat down to write this week, I could not in good conscience write about anything else. This is perhaps the most important election of my life. The current state of affairs in our country is scary. The economy is failing. We are dependent on foreign oil, the war in Iraq wages on and we have a humongous and growing national deficit (How’s that for summing things up?).

I agree with Obama’s foreign policies, his health care plan, his tax plan, his plan for a withdrawal in Iraq and almost all of the issues, but I have always voted for Democrats (Al Gore and John Kerry).

I believe that this election goes beyond politics. The country needs a new direction; it needs a smart, well-spoken leader who will listen and think before acting.

I read Obama’s first book, “Dreams From My Father,” a year or so ago. Written when he was just a little older than me, it tells his life story and is insightful, eloquent and, above all, inspiring. Above his experience, or lack of, depending on your perspective, he is the kind of leader that our country needs.

We need someone smart and intelligent to stand up as the face of our country.

I’ve been racking my brain to try to figure out a clever way to end this column, bring it all back around to T-shirts, Union Square or Michael J. Fox. But it ends with you, alone, voting.

And all I can do is hope.

- Zachary Stuart-Pontier