I never thought I’d live long enough to see a black man elected President of the United States, but that appears to be what has just happened this evening as most of the networks are calling it a done deal. I have never been more proud of my country than I am at this very moment. Regardless of what happens from here on out this is a monumental step forward and the door is now open for this to happen again in the future and as it becomes normalized there will eventually come a day when people will marvel that it was ever considered remarkable at one point in time.
As good as the polls have looked over the past few weeks I was still hesitant to allow myself to imagine this possibility coming to pass. The frustration of the last election when we reelected a clearly incompetent man to the most important position in the world because we let fear rule us kept me holding my breath until I saw it with my own eyes. My hope that we might see a brighter future here in America is renewed as I truly believe Obama is the man that can restore our reputation in the world and address the tremendous issues we’re facing both at home and abroad.
I thought it was quite striking as I sat down to watch the events unfold this evening the differences between the candidates as illustrated by their choice of celebratory venues. Obama chose a huge park in Chicago and invited anyone who wanted to attend to show up whereas McCain picked a smaller indoor venue that you specifically had to be invited to. It showed how one man is inclusive and the other exclusive in how they dealt with the American public.
John McCain as just taken the stage to make his concession speech. His supporters are booing every mention of Obama’s name. McCain is handling them well and the speech is pretty well considering the circumstances. Amazing. McCain is speaking of working together with Obama and encouraging his supporters to do the same. Some of them aren’t happy with that, but most of them seem to be listening. Whoops, mentioning Biden brought more boos and chants of “Sarah, Sarah.” Overall it was a surprisingly gracious speech. Still I’m quite glad he lost.
A big surprise here in Michigan was the vote to approve a Medical Marijuana law and the possibility that we may expand stem cell research in state looks like it might pass which would be a reversal of a law from the previous election. My state looks to becoming a little more progressive and I couldn’t be happier. This has definitely been one of the best election nights in my life time and I will sleep well tonight.
Obama hasn’t made his acceptance speech yet, but I’m going to end it here for now. It won’t be long before I need to pick Anne up from work so I’ll write more about it later when I’ve had time to gather my thoughts and hear what Obama has to say.