I’m writing some of this at 9:25pm, Pacific Time, on the 4th. I’m sporting a fine champagne buzz and a feeling of disorientation. Is this a movie? Is this real? It’s real. I just watched The Speech. It was marvelous. It was stirring. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve teared up tonight. It started when, at 8pm, when I was nursing Evie to sleep and Kile and I broke our “no news” rule for the night to turn on MSNBC and see some returns. We gaped at the TV as some returns came in and theories were made about the remaining states. Really? Could it happen? And then, at 8pm, it came. The west coast projections were in. Obama was our President-Elect. And without even a warming, the tears flowed down my cheeks. I stroked my baby girl’s back and murmured in her ear. At last.
We went downstairs shortly thereafter, our laptops and phones back in hand (they were locked up in the guest bedroom), to tell Harry the good news. We let him stay up to watch Obama speak at Grant Park. This is history, after all. He needs to be able to tell his children someday that he remembers the night Barack Obama became our president.
Even McCain’s speech was good. The best speech I’ve heard him make so far this year, in fact. Because FINALLY, I was hearing the John McCain that I used to admire. He was gracious and dignified and commanding and GOOD. It can’t have been an easy speech to make. And Sarah Palin definitely looked verklempt. But he owned it. And he made it good. Good on him.
I’m so proud of our country. For eight LONG years, I felt weighted down. I didn’t want to have “nostalgic” pride for my country, I wanted to be proud of my country in the present. And I don’t want to make it sound like I haven’t been proud of my country at all the entire 8 years. But there has been this weight on my shoulders. It’s been on a lot of people’s shoulders. And now? Now, I feel like we can FINALLY move forward as a nation. We can indeed come together after this election, and heal ourselves.
And that’s a lot of it. This election is finally OVER. No more speculation. No more politics. We can all go back to being friends, right? We can all come together and unite again, right?
Right now, I’m just humbled and awed and excited and happy and tired and incredulous.
Wow. Just… WOW.
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2 Responses to “Yes We Can”
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Well, I didn’t watch any news. At all. All day. So I didn’t know until about 10 minutes ago who was going to be our next president. And now that it’s over, I’m not feeling as hopeful as you, Marilyn. I couldn’t vote, because I missed the registration deadline, so I can’t complain because I didn’t use my voice. But I don’t think that Obama is going to be able to do the things he says he’s planning on, any more than McCain would have. I guess I’m just tired of campaign promises that never seem to pan out. I’m tired of it, really. To me, that seems to be a status quo. “When I get to be president I’ll do ABC – XYZ”. And maybe one or two things get accompished, but that’s it.
On the plus side, at least I don’t have to watch any more political ads for the next couple of years. Because I don’t think I could have taken any more.
great post, marilyn.
i DO have hope. and it feels so good to be hopeful. but i know there’s a long road ahead of us. and i will hold this president accountable, just as i hold the outgoing president accountable.
but it HAS been a long eight years. a HARD eight years. and just last night, listening to Obama’s speech did i really feel the weight of the last eight years. because when you’re carrying a load so heavy, you just kind of get used to it. and now, knowing it doesn’t always have to be so, the gravity of it all got to me.
we can be the change we want to see in the world.
lizs last blog post..the bullet