Another Year Past! Hello 2009!

We didn't think it would be possible to top last year, but with your voices, Orato.com reached new heights in 2008, being ranked #3 on PC Magazine's 2008 list of Top 100 Undiscovered Websites and named an Official Honoree in the news category by the 2008 Webby Awards, which were called "The Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times.

One of our star correspondents became an award winner this year as well. Last year we chose Trisha Baptie to cover the trial of convicted serial killer Robert "Willie" Pickton, who was charged with murdering six of her friends. This year Trisha won British Columbia, Canada's Courage To Come Back Award. Congratulations to us all!

If you haven't had a chance to check out Orato.com's Top 50 Stories of 2008, have a look!

We hope you will help us ring in the new year with your own amazing eyewitness stories. If you were "there," tell your story here. Here's how to Get Involved!

'Tisn't The Season

As I was frantically running around the mall yesterday, I realized it would be the first of many aggravating shopping sessions until December 25th comes and goes. Hot, irritable and sweating, I was ready to bowl over any child, woman or granny if it meant I could escape one second sooner.

It was November 17th, exactly 38 days until Christmas, and already the malls are packed full of desperate shoppers clogging the aisles and slowing down the lines for regular people like me. It took me nearly two hours to locate and buy buttons. Buttons! Why I would spend two hours buying 49-cent buttons is besides the point. Let's focus on the fact that with each passing year, Christmas shoppers invade malls earlier and earlier.

These geniuses think they are 'avoiding' the annual onslaught of last-minute Christmas shopping, but I have news for you - you're making it worse! Instead of dealing with two weeks of madness, now we have to deal with eight. No matter how early you start shopping, you're inevitably going to end up back in the mall three days before Christmas looking for that one final thing.

So in the spirit of Christmas, here are my favorite stories on the site right now, available to you with only a click of a button. No lines, no waiting, and no screaming children.

For a beautiful story about love, family and heartbreak, read My Father Gave My Mother AIDS by Christina Cure.

For a first-person view of the fires raging through California, make sure to check out I Am Engulfed In Flames by Todd Williams.

This weekend marks the 45th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. Greg Melikov remembers where he was that day. Do you? Read November 22, '63: Where I Was This Moment.

Feeling hungry? Why not take a look into the fabulous life of a Burger King employee. Have it your way with My Life With The (Burger) King by Emily Sinclair.

It’s Been A Long Time Coming

It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. – Barack Obama, Nov. 4, 2008

I don’t know about you, but this morning I feel like singing.

In his victory speech last night, Barack Obama made reference to one of my favorite songs ever – Sam Cooke’s majestic “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

Cooke, who had one of the most soulful voices ever captured on vinyl, died a long time ago, on a sad drunken night in December 1964, only 33, never lived to see that change, and much heartache and pain still had to be endured before it finally came. But come it did, last night, in America.

If you’ve never heard this wonderful, soaring anthem to hope, you’ve got a treat in store. Here’s a link to the recorded version on YouTube.

It feels as if I can finally breathe. The hope and promise of America that was gunned down under murky circumstances in Dallas nearly 45 years ago this month has been restored. Ever since John and his brother Bobby were assassinated, the light has been out in America, and now, a remarkable man has relit the lamp. But even as he walked out onto the stage in Grant Park, Chicago, I held my breath. Thankfully, last night ended in celebration, and the tears were tears of joy.

It’s the morning after, and Obama and his team are preparing to roll up their sleeves and begin the transition to power. Everyone, and I mean everyone, will be watching. The expectations are enormous, and the tasks are daunting. But Obama’s wonderful refrain -- which has given him the strength to rise from his early poverty, through his early days as an organizer on the south side of Chicago through a withering two-year-campaign culminating in his electoral triumph -- has been adapted from another song from another great soul act, The Pointer Sisters. And it hits just the right note.

It’s called Yes We Can Can. Here’s the chorus:

We got to make this land a better land
than the world in which we live.
And we got to help each man be a better man
with the kindness that we give.
I know we can make it.
I know darn well we can work it out.
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
yes we can can, why can't we?
If we wanna, yes we can can.

And here’s the link.

I dare you not to move to the music….

Getting old is a mixed blessing. I lived through that dark day in 1963 when the light went out, but I’ve lived long enough to be around when it came back on again. Where were you last night? What were you thinking and feeling?

Orato.com is our way of making sure that everyone is included…that every voice has an outlet…and today, especially today, we’d like to hear from you. Post your presidential story. It don’t matter if you’re black or white (Michael Jackson), or if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. On Orato.com, all voices are equal.

I don’t know if Barack Obama will rise to the occasion. I only know that so far, he has. And he’s done it by daring to hope – hope that adversity can be overcome, the same hope that kept Sam Cooke going, that keeps us all going.

Let’s give the last word to Sam:

There were times when I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will