What I wanted to write earlier today (but was too rushed to describe adequately) was that I have really been very emotional today. In addition to being nervous, I also feel incredibly awed by the historic moment and the possibilities that could happen tonight. I know that all sounds very cliche, but it's the truth.
I feel so emotional about all of this that while I was flipping back and forth between the Today Show, CNN, and MSNBC, they showed Barack Obama and Michelle Obama with their two daughters headed to a polling station to vote. And I cried when he and Michelle took their ballots and started to fill them out. And then when he finally submitted his ballot into the machine and people were clapping, I cried again. And not just little tears, I really sat on my sofa and cried.
Why?
Because I never thought I would see this happen. That a non-white, mixed-race, African American, person of color would be on the brink of potentially becoming President of the United States.
This is the first election in my memory that I can FEEL the emotion of it--I want this SO BADLY. And as much as I can tell you that there are all these political and ideological reasons that I support the Democratic nominee, there is also the symbolic moment--the symbolic import of his racial identity--that as someone committed to an anti-racist, social justice worldview, this moment is one I will always remember.
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I feel like my body is starting to prepare the untold quantities of tears that it's going to need to get me through tomorrow - no matter which way it goes.
I pray and hope that I get to end up bawling on the floor with JOY because capital "H" Hope has re-entered my life.
And not with GRIEF because it has left me for the duration.
the emotional thing for me was watching all the people waiting in line. Not caring how long it takes to vote.
I've already written about how emotional I am and how much I've been moved by the images I've seen.
But perhaps the image that seems to sum up what I feel is the image of people in Chicago--the sense of who those folks are--their diversity--their representation of a mixed race America.
That's the vision of America I believe in.
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