I realize a lot of folks are fans of Mr. Obama. So it will probably offend some if I confess on this rainy morning that I heard little in his speech last night but the spending of my money. We’re a single-income family, and we make sacrifices to be that because we believe it’s important for me to mother and homeschool full-time. (Deleting the paragraph I just wrote here about what sacrifices because it’s too personal for cyberspace…)

95% of working families will get a tax cut. Will we qualify as a “working family” in the governing lexicon? Or will we be forced to sacrifice our right to sacrifice, and become a two-earner family to either become eligible for, or pay for, the sweeping benefits he describes? What about the sharp disagreement I have in other values issues? What about — ?

I can’t say as I feel excited about either option this election. But Mr. Obama is an eloquent speech-maker, and he’s captured the essence of America more than once. If he were a poet I’d quote him here, but instead I’ll choose Langston Hughes, who gives voice to one of his themes in a way that captures the ambivalence that goes along with being American:

I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like

the same things other folks like who are other races.

So will my page be colored that I write?

Being me, it will not be white.

But it will be

a part of you, instructor.

You are white—

yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.

That’s American.

Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.

Nor do I often want to be a part of you.

But we are, that’s true!

As I learn from you,

I guess you learn from me—

although you’re older—and white—

and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.

That’s the last stanza; the rest of “Theme for English B” is here. Hughes writes about skin color as a dividing line that separates his experience from his teacher’s — a line that has to be bridged. Race isn’t something I struggle with as a dividing line, but there are plenty of others, all of which have to be bridged within if we’re going to call ourselves Americans.

I agree with Mr. Obama that we can be “a better country” if we can truly learn from one another, truly own our shared identity in the arenas of policy, justice, economics, all the rest. I hope we can. It starts with the personal: I hope I can rise to the occasion each day brings. I hope “you” — in whatever different shoes you wear — can too.

Poetry Friday is at Charlotte’s Library today.