Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Change Has Come to America...Meet the new 'First Family' of the United States of America

My options were many. I had three invitations to election night viewing/victory parties all in downtown Chicago. I'm leery of huge crowds even though the idea of being in the energy was inviting. I opted to stay at home and take a nap so that I could stay awake and see the results with my husband and 3 sons.
Four hours later when I awoke from what was supposed to be a 45 minute 'cat-nap', I tuned in to election coverage and was awed by what I saw. A peaceful, patriotic, sea of people in Grant park. This was more people in one place just standing still than I'd ever seen in my life. People of every size, shape, height, and ethnic heritage. Suburbanites and city-dwellers; old and young, men and women, boys and girls. Kids and babies were perched on top of the shoulders of their parents--given a joyful reprieve from going to bed early on a school-night.

When the polls closed on the West Coast and the election results were shown, Senator Barack Obama was declared the winner at about 10pm CST, with 280 electoral votes. The crowd erupted in a resounding roar and my spirit literally left my body briefly and soared through the air. I prayed to go high enough to see the face of God. When I landed I did see His face--in all the tearful faces involved in a giant flag-waving, celebratory hugfest
Senator Barack Obama had been elected President of the United States of America in a landslide victory. What a beautiful day to be alive. Change has come to America.
Here are a few lines from his powerful 16 minutes acceptance speech in Chicago, Illinois to a crowd of over 150,000 in Grant Park. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The moment was sacred.

OBAMA: If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.
We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

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