Maybe they grabbed me because the little girls look so much like my granddaughter. Maybe I want my little girl to have the same hope shining through her eyes as these girls have.
The photographer, Scout Tufankjian, describes the great excitement in that state where the grandfathers had lived through Jim Crow and the young men desperately needed to believe they have a future. Obama's success opens up all sorts of possibilities, doesn't it?
When I see this picture, I imagine the future for these little girls. It seems that the sky is the limit, doesn't it? I want my little granddaughter growing up with such hope, even as she grows up in a world groaning under the weight of our excess.
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Edited to add: I've printed off some copies to inspire myself and others, and while I was at it, I paired it up with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt. Living fiercly.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit
belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust
and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and
again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does
actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great
devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the
end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least
fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and
timid souls who neither know victory or defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt
