As the dust settles on a remarkable week here in the United States of America, we all pause to say good riddance to an eight-year reign of terror that was visited on the people of this country and, more to the point, the people of this world. The image that will stay with me for the rest of my life from that amazing election night is this one: as CNN announced that Obama had garnered enough electoral votes to secure the presidency the Transportation Workers Union Hall where I was watching the returns exploded in an earthshattering roar. I turned around and saw behind me an African-American woman with tears running down her cheeks and I took a few steps toward her and gave her an immense, hard, long hug that she returned in kind. We had never met before, but in that moment we expressed the heartfelt emotion that filled the Union Hall and watch parties across the country. We had done it, we as a nation had elected the first person of color to the highest office in the land and we were all estatic about what we had just achieved.
I owe an apology to a fellow blogger (Roxie of Roxie's world) who challenged me several months ago about a claim that I made that Indiana was more conservative than the state where I reside - Oklahoma. With Indiana turning blue on the night of November 4th (or the morning of November 5th) and with Oklahoma going so overwhelmingly for John McCain at approximately 7:01pm (the polls closed at 7:00pm) I must admit that I was wrong. Oklahoma turned out to be the only state in the country in which not one single county voted for Obama - I am so ashamed. So in spite of all of my relatives and their "In God We Trust," license plates, Indiana turned out to be much bluer than Oklahoma is red. As I've said in the past, I gotta get outta here... I have an open invitation to head to Madison, Wisconsin, or back to to true blue New Mexico, but I love my job and have managed to surround myself with fellow progressives/liberals who make this blogger forget that she lives smack dab in the middle of the reddest of red(neck) America. What's a grrrl to do? I think I'll stay put for awhile longer, and see what I can do about bringing this backwater around to civilized thought.
Although I must question the wisdom of Roxie's mother, Moose, directing readers to the "ratemyprofessor" site which contains some none-too-favorable reviews of Roxie's mom, er, typist. Oh, what were you thinking?
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