As I posted on twitter before, President-elect Barack Obama will be posting his weekly radio addresses on YouTube. It looks like he’s not wasting anytime getting started.

It’s exciting to see Obama continue his exlpoitation of technology to diffuse his message. Be sure to check out change.gov and become a part of the political process.

The following is my message to Barack Obama. Submitted to Change.gov. Submit your message today.

My wife, son, and I live in Ireland while attending graduate school in NUI, Galway and Trinity College Dublin. We visited our home state of Indiana this past August and it was a priority for us to register to vote by absentee ballot. I had faith that Mr. Obama would be our next president as long as everyone did their part to participate in the democratic process on November 4th. I also knew from elections past, that every vote DOES matter.

Indiana is historically a Republican state, but I knew this time things were different. Mr. Obama has the unprecedented ability to unite both sides. As an example, my step-father, a man that has never voted for a Democrat in his life, pledged his support for Obama.

I knew that this would be a special year, for a special man.

I was so excited the day we received our absentee ballots in the Irish post that I could hardly wait to send it back to my election board in Tippecanoe County, Indiana.

I knew that this would be a special year.

I was jealous of those back home that got to experience the excitement of the campaign while I tried my best to watch from afar. I felt helpless that I couldn’t knock on the doors of my fellow Hoosiers, or participate in the early voting drives. Nevertheless, I sent emails to friends and family on ‘both sides of the aisle’ urging them to take part. I posted on twitter, facebook, digg, and my blog. I was a part of Democracy 2.0.

I knew that this would be a special year.

A week before the election I received a letter without a return address at my school department office. I thought, “who could be sending mail to me here?” I opened the envelope to find a card with the cover:
‘US ELECTION 2008′ along with festive pictures of donkey, elephants and American flag balloons. At first I thought it was a card confirming my absentee ballot had been received. Then I opened it to find it in fact was an invitation to the Election Results Party in Guinness Storehouse, Dublin hosted by US Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley.

I knew that this would be a special year.

I was beside myself. “WOW! Me? Invited to a party given by the US Ambassador to Ireland? No!” On Tuesday afternoon, my wife and I found a child minder for our son and headed on the train from Galway to Dublin, hardly able to contain our excitement. The Guinness Brewery at St James’ Gate is a special place nestled in the old western outskirts of Dublin CIty. It was a foggy night as we made our way from Heuston Station, passing very near Kilmainham Gaol, a place steeped in the civil rights history of the Irish people.

I knew that this would be a special year.

We partied in style as we watched the election results slowly come in on the big screen, surrounded by more than 2000 Americans, Irish, Africans, Politicians, Celebrities, and lowly graduate students such as ourselves. The Guinness flowed freely and was served up with American hot dogs and doughnuts. It was a truly some great Irish craic with American flair. Music played, TV and radio crews interviewed us, and great political discussions were had while periodically interrupted by a CNN anchor calling states for Obama. The crowd cheered. The blue states piled up on the map and the battleground states were promising.

I knew that this would be a special year.

Then, the balance started to tip as it became quickly evident that Americans were making themselves heard at the polls. Late in the evening, a CNN anchor noted that even if McCain was able to pull off wins in all of the states that were leaning for Obama, he would not be able to win Washington, Oregon, and California. The crowd roared. As the clock was showing 3:30 am, we decided to go back to our hotel and get some rest. We had faith that America had chosen its next president.

I knew that this would be a special year.

We woke up a few hours later to find that just a few minutes before we had gone to bed, the networks had called it for Obama. We were ecstatic! We grabbed breakfast with coffee, but it was easy to forget about the party induced headaches. We headed back to Galway on the 11:00 am train in order to collect our son from school.

I knew that this would be a special year.

Then, another phone call from a friend: “Obama has won Indiana!” Only a few thousand votes and less than a percentage point separated the two candidates. All the stats started flying through my head: The first time Indiana has voted for a Democrat President in over 40 years, the first African-American President-elect of the United States. WOW! Our absentee ballots sent from Ireland, people like my stepfather ready for a brighter future, young people twittering, facebooking and blogging, ALL of this helped make a difference in 2008.

I know that this IS a special year.

Thank you Barack Obama and Joe Biden, thank you Indiana, and thank you America! You have made me proud to be an American again. You have made my footsteps lighter today knowing that little people DO make a big impact.

We DO have hope for change in our country.
We DO have hope for change in the world’s eyes.

YES WE DID!