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Today was the day for the individual people of this country to stand up and be counted. The count has been taken, and the choices are now a matter for history to examine. For me, this is the greatest moment in the life of my country - the country I have lived in. Those who look backward to inform their ideals have been beaten back, and just in the nick of time. This is a moment of real glory for this nation, and it is an epic event that the hope for humanity, which our experiment represents, has survived another gale which could well have blown it out. Once again, it is for those who look forward to take up the work of getting us where it is we have always belonged. Lincoln - the greatest American - knew that we are the last best hope for humanity. It is in a moment like this that his wisdom is reaffirmed, and it really is a moment to thank God because there is still hope that people can create a society in which belonging is based on common belief in freedom, and desire to work together on that basis alone. The people we are destined to be should never have been based on shared ethnicity, history, birthright, religion, or race. To fulfill the promise, a night like this was absolutely necessary. That I lived to see it is to have seen an epic event that cannot avoid being a turning point that ranks only behind our founding and our renewal under Lincoln; I couldn't ask for more.

That said, I can't help but think of all the human pain, humiliation, and misery that has taken place so that this moment could come to pass. So many have suffered greatly, and willingly, simply on the hope that a day like this may one day come. I have to believe that somewhere out there they know what has now happened. Barack Obama won this election as a man, an individual; but I am sure he knows, certainly more than I do, just how much blood, sweat, and how many tears were shed in the centuries that came before. I am convinced he will not forget this. I am sure it isn't with him as a burden either. I have to think he is happy to have it with him. I believe he will carry it well.

I myself do feel a tremendous weight off of me tonight. It is only now coming to me just how down and rotten the last 8 years have left me feeling. That I feel myself imagining renewal and hope as possible again is exhilarating. I love my country very much, and I always have. I feel as if I just went through a long phase in which I couldn't recognize it. I was born in 1970. I never saw the America that necessitated a Martin Luther King Jr. I was naive. I thought there was no way but forward to go. The full ebb and flow of history lives on a much longer arc than my life has had yet. The shock of going backward hit me particularly hard. I suppose I simply lacked the skills/perspective to handle it. I have learned much. Yet also, it is incredibly important that it was NEW voters, the young voters who came out to make this happen. The 2000 crowd and the 2004 crowd were out this time as they had been before, but finally, those with the most at stake saw how much was in the balance, and they stepped in to break the jam. It is enough to free one from a good deal of the cynicism and hurt that has accumulated of late.

Like I said, I am just glad I lived to see it - and to see him accept in Chicago of all places!!! I am glad I was able to participate. That is going to be a defining event in my life. I hope to never see us go backward from where we I think we are tonight. Perhaps it is only because I now realize how quickly we can be sent backward that this big leap ahead means so much.