A very Good Morning to the United States of America!
Many of us stayed up late and got up early to watch Barack Obama win the election for President. I felt proud of you all as I listened to his speech and to Senator McCain’s gracious acceptance of defeat.
I had an early text from a friend saying she wished she was American today. We, too, believe that you can, because if you can, then we can, and so it goes on.
If the son of a goatherd from Africa (headline in The Sun today) can make it to the White House, then a few private schools should not be able to keep a good man or woman down here and if white voters can elect a Black leader then racism has lost is power … I watched a family like mine – a man the same age as my husband, wife, two daughters – acknowledge the choice of the majority and, for the first time in a long time, I felt inspired. God bless America.
Excerpts from the speech, and a short video, HERE.
And, girls, this is the puppy to choose!
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November 5, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Nas
🙂 it was a really, really beautiful night
i was in tears at the end
November 6, 2008 at 8:56 am
adifferentvoice
I’m very happy for you. Nice tears, not sad tears. A Democrat friend from Colorado wrote to say she’d cried five times! I guess she was very happy :).
It’s been interesting here, watching people’s reactions. Some surprising people affect to have barely noticed what has happened, while others needed to share their excitement at ridiculously early hours of the morning. A friend suggested that it was those who knew what it was like to be a minority (and lacking in power) who had enjoyed the triumph most – a triumph of hope, I suppose. I think she’s right.
Perhaps you don’t need hope if you have power. Instead you have fear, that your power might be taken away. Hope, on this occasion, won over Fear.
November 6, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Nas
“Perhaps you don’t need hope if you have power. Instead you have fear, that your power might be taken away.”
Very insightful. In fact, I’m sure I could write for pages on it, so I’m not going to go past that.
Masssachusetts is a very liberal state, so generally I don’t see many disappointed people. In fact, the only person who’s had anything negative to say about it was this The Very Good-looking Guy in Arabic class. Judging from his arguments, I’m just going to say that it’s a good thing he’s so good looking. Makes it easier to sort of mute out the absolutely childish nonsense he’s spouting and just focus in on the view (Ungracious of me, perhaps… But the man compared Obama to Hitler. That’s ridiculous!).
In general, there’s been a lot of worry that someone will try to hurt him. I’m nervous, but hoping for the best and waiting to see what happens. It does make me a bit snappy though; one of my friends text-messaged me the following: “Wonder what the odds are in vegas that he gets assassinated before inauguration.” I WAS NOT AMUSED.
Bah. Truth be told, while I get frustrated with people who think that this wasn’t a big deal for our country and who downplay Obama’s ability to lead because of his age and the fact that he inspires people (what’s wrong with believing in your president, hello?), at the same time I’m getting tired of people mindlessly chanting WE DID IT, YES WE CAN la da dee.
This was a good step, and I’m proud my country was able to take it. I’m proud of all the people who went out to vote and DID make a change, and I thrilled to my bones that Obama is our president. But we’ve got a long, long way to go.
November 8, 2008 at 11:45 am
adifferentvoice
And you’ve got most of the world watching, and hoping you make it …
November 20, 2008 at 1:08 am
dustus
Enjoyed reading your post. Hopefully change will continue to occur here in America.
Adam