To look at the world...

through the eyes of a child is to not look at it through the lens of naivete but uncorrupted eyes. Children have not had the experience of being betrayed by a close friend or loved one. Children do not have the selfish internal mechanism that makes them want to deceive and take advantage of others. Children do not have the polluted mind of someone who has been conditioned with ignorant and prejudiced views. Children see the world for what it could be if everyone dropped the facades, the charades, let go of the dogmatic views, open up their closed minds, embraced differences, and a celebrated the uniqueness of every individual. This world view, that of the optimist, is much better to have than that of the realist. The optimist see the world for what it could be and strives to make it so. The realist only sees what is, stays idled in this narrowed scope, and perpetuates the problem because they fail to see beyond it to a solution.

This picture was taken at a Barack Obama campaign rally in Charlotte, NC; in fact, it was his first rally in North Carolina after accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. I went here armed only with a handheld Kodak C613 Easy Share camera. I didn't have my Sony Alpha 300 DSLR yet and it wouldn't have done any good in the sea of people that were the spectators. Despite having only a casual snapshot camera, I was still looking for a great picture. This was when the photographer in me was still merely making his presence known instead making his presence present. My wife and I were able to get a spot directly in front of the stage about 50 feet away. I got some great shots of Obama making his speech then decided to see what I can get from the crowd.

The thing that stood out to me was not the tens of thousands of people that showed up to the rally but the thousands of parents who brought their young children. I even recall the first Obama rally I went to during the primary season and I hoisted a kid onto my shoulders so he could shake Obama's hand. The look on his face had enough "Thank Yous" for a thousand lifetimes. At this rally there was so much emotion in the air. The parents wanted their children to witness and be a concrete part of this history in the making. The look on this child's face emcompassed everything felt about that day. He had a look of hope, a dream dancing in his head, an outlook on tomorrow that was being made possible by the coming change. He was and still is seeing the world for what it could be if everyone would just let it be on its own.