Onward, Obama: My thoughts on the outcome of Election '08

It may seem a bit late in the day for a post about last night’s historic election, but I needed to allow myself to recuperate, both mentally and physically, from the late-hours’ barrage of emotion and unprecedented enthrallment.

I won’t go on and on about what the upcoming Obama presidency means or promises. I will leave that analysis and speculation to far more talented writers, thinkers, politicos and activists. Instead, I want to simply express to whomever shows interest the feeling I had last night, watching the polls collectively determine the fate and potential destiny of the country and of the world.

Regardless of what “side” you may have been on, of where or for whom you may have cast your vote, this election was by far the most important election in half a century. The past few months have been a wildly frustrating assault on the capabilities of Americans to come to terms with the state of the country as a whole from within, as well as in the eyes of the world. And after so many months, after years of disbelief, what I saw and experienced last night was something I was not ready for.

It was New Year’s Eve. It was Super Bowl Sunday. Crowds were gathered in positive excitement in every corner of the country and of the world. And by crowds, I mean hundreds of thousands of Americans, young and old, black and white; keeping vigil at the gates of the White House in D.C., Rockefeller Center (or “Election Plaza”) in New York, Grant Park in Chicago. Overseas, onlookers watched satellite feeds in public gathering places throughout Europe, Africa and the South Pacific, cheering at the prospect of America, a NEW America, emerging as a positive force for good for the first time in decades.

When the results were called and projections announced Barack Obama the nation’s next president and first black president, scores of people celebrated like never before. Women cheered, men cried, children danced. Musicians played, factory workers rejoiced, homemakers sighed in joyous disbelief.

Never before in modern history has America - has the world - taken such interest in an American election. “Politics as usual” played no part; this was something totally different than anything anyone has ever seen.

Watching what I saw on screen, I felt compelled. I felt overcome with the urgency to want more and do more. I felt inspired. I felt truly and deeply proud to be an American, something that I do not think I have ever really had the opportunity to feel. Pundits have expressed the power of the black vote, the young vote, the workers’ vote; collectively, the “inspired” vote won the day.

Regardless of how you voted, no matter who you are or where you are from - whether the color of your skin is black or white, or the pin on your jacket is blue or red - Americans collectively won a victory last night. We got to be inspired to be the great country we are supposed to be.

Generations before me have their stakes in history, both good and bad. Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, V-Day, JFK, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Neil Armstrong. For years, I have read books and seen video of the events that, for better or worse, have shaped the country and the world.

In my lifetime, we have seen war, climate change, poverty, disease, genocide. My home was attacked by fanatics on 9-11. Not too long after the towers fell, the country watched an entire city fall from the waters of Hurricane Katrina.

While the fall of the Berlin Wall was a point for the “good” side, it was too distant and I was too young to understand its significance in the world around me. Nelson Mandela made an impact, but even still, the message was lost in translation.

Last night, something different happened. The country - the world - changed.

This morning as I headed off to work, I stopped by a newsstand along my daily commute and picked up a copy of The Daily News, its headline reading “President Obama”. I did not buy it to read…I know the facts, I know the headlines, I know the analyses behind the campaigns, the election, the economy, etc. I bought it to commemorate and memorialize this event. I bought it so that one day I can pull it from a dusty old chest and show my children that I was there when it happened, that I remember the faces, the excitement, the disbelief.

This is my victory. This is my man on the moon.

It is not solely because he will be the first black president, or that a young, relatively unknown Democrat was able to dethrone the right-wing agenda of the last 8 years. It is more due to the idea that he has demonstrated the nation’s desire to believe in the possibility of change, and to be collectively inspired to pursue a dream far beyond what the American people has been allowed or even expected to pursue in the past. It is this sense of true inspiration that I felt last night, as people on screen cheered, arm in arm, for the first symbol of a true democracy that the nation has seen in a very long time.

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