I am speechless with joy. So is everyone in my world. A message this morning from my friend Thalassa said, “I’m in love with my country again.”
I know what you mean, and it feels intoxicating. The crowd in Grant Park. The euphoric celebrations everywhere, even overseas. The newspaper headlines (The Morgen Post in Hamburg featured a full page picture of Bush with the headline, “The Madness Has Ended.”) Wow, wow, wow.
My daughter Kellin is in Italy. How can I adequately explain to her what has happened here in her absence? This is a new kind of optimism, much deeper than the hopefulness I felt when Clinton won his first term in office. Imagine! We now have a president with a brain and a heart. A leader who wants to end this horrible war in Iraq. (Please, oh please make that happen.) A leader who has the savvy to comandeer one of the most successful political campaigns in this country’s history but does not carry the odor of drunken power lust that usually accompanies such stellar success. He is unlike any other political figure I have known.
There was a time when I was afraid none of my children would ever have the experience of feeling hope in their country. They endured 8 years of their early adulthoods living through the worst administration in our nation’s history. Their excitement at the sea change we have witnessed still makes me teary.
And how about that New York Times op ed page this morning? Five poems and one prose column. It seems a fitting response to a legendary night’s events.
The only fly in the ointment (as my grandmother used to say) is the passage of Proposition 8 in California. I can’t believe my home state would step back from the new world order of equality that we need to create. This is a major loss, to be sure, but the fight continues. I know justice will prevail eventually but let’s just hope it doesn’t take a generation.
Beautiful.
Check out what Obama will do for the Arts:
http://fullbodytransplant.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/obama-for-the-arts/
We did it.
Yes we did.
My son reassured me all along so I could free myself of worry. Still, I’m flabbergasted. A world with decency, values, art, kindness. Not to mention diplomacy, wisdom, and brilliancy after the greedy idiocy, yes, our poor children have had to grow up with. I am in a daze. A good daze for a change.
I have thought about you so many times during this ordeal. I love this good daze we’re in and that we have something hopeful to offer our children. Thank you for your words.
I had faith that Obama would be elected by ushering in a generation of hope and commitment that would replace the Bush doctrine fear hold of corruption, cronyism and cynicism. My son called me seconds after the announcement that Barack Obama was the President Elect. I cried tears of joy with him and the world.
Me too my dear friend, tears of joy.
It is, indeed, amazing. I, too, feel very in love right now.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t. But that is easy to understand given my residence in Massachusetts. But I never get tired of hearing others relish the same joy.
Yes Deborah! We are celebrating and can’t stop smiling…after we have to remind ourselves that it really happened…from the Middle East. You write exactly how I feel. For the first time since becoming a citizen of the United States in 2001, I am proud to be an American. This election restored my faith, respect and hope in the country, its abilities and my fellow citizens. It is also a very important event for the region I’m living in now. There is a lot of work ahead but I believe that the future is brighter than the last 8 years were. – Filiz (Amman, Jordan)
Filiz! So good to hear from you and to know you were able to feel the intensity of this election from your faraway perch. The optimism is infectious. So good to hear from you!