Yes We Can & Yes We Did !!!

I sat teary eyed and speechless at the Transportation Workers Union Hall in Tulsa, OK as the then Senator Barack Obama (now President-elect Barack Obama) addressed the crowd of over 125,000 in Grant Park in Chicago, IL as the next president of the United States of America! I feel so proud to be an American tonight - so proud to be a small part of the history that was made tonight, and so proud to be a small part of the progress that this country demonstrated it is committed to make tonight. I love the reality that we, as a nation, have rejected the status quo, that we, as a nation, have rejected the regressive, bigoted past, that we have embraced tomorrow, a future that includes all of us, and will take each and every one of us to make that tomorrow a better place in which we all may live. We will all need to live together, in a better world, in a world that we all inhabit and in a world in which we all have a say, that we all have a stake in. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, and I love that that is our new collective reality. There is an exciting sense that filled the air tonight - from the liberal, progressive East coast, a wind that blew through even the most conservative, staid mid-western part of this country all the way to the West coast where Obama won handily.

I look at my nieces and my nephew and I am so glad that I don't see any prejudice in their eyes - no bias against someone whose skin is another shade than theirs, or no bias against their Uncle Eric and Uncle Brian or any two people who love each other. In other words, the bigotry of the past - both racial and sexual - is almost over and will begin to less frequently rear its ugly head in our public life. I have faith in our future again. I have faith that tomorrow will be better than today. I believe that tomorrow anything is possible, that anyone can achieve whatever he/she sets her/his mind to do. I don't mean to sound too righteous, but I am so glad that I lived to see this day in this country, my country.

Congratulations President Obama and congratulations to your wonderful family - we love you, we elected you as our leader and we are here to support you. Please carry on and lead us - we are ready to walk with you!