T.G.I.F.: Democracy in action

A few months back I started a sporadic Friday series called T.G.I.F.: The Great Impossible Feat award.

And it strikes me that this Friday of all Fridays deserves a T.G.I.F. But it's not for Barack Obama and his campaign, although his election this past Tuesday to become our 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009 is, indeed, great and impossible. And I still feel choked up when I imagine this picture below as our First Family:


But the really Great and Impossible Feat is actually something we take for granted. That every four years, U.S. citizens who qualify to vote (age, felony record, mental competency, etc are potential barriers) are able to cast a ballot for the person they want to be their next President.


And during this election, people turned out in record numbers to vote. For the first time in a long time, people worked hard on behalf of the candidate of their choice--they CARED about WHO was elected. And even for those who didn't donate money or knock on doors or called people, they still did something that is really special: they voted.


[Look at these lines! When was the last time people lined up to vote like this? Or when was the last time record number of people showed up to vote early?]

People voted. And yes, the majority of American citizens voted for the candidate that I supported. And that makes me happy. But the thing is, this was a vote that was historic not just because it resulted in the election of our first visibly non-white, mixed-race, African American President--this was an election that also signaled that people COULD make a difference, that grassroots organizing DOES work, and that every vote COUNTS.


November 4, 2008 was democracy in action. It was historic. It was awe inspiring. And it was simple. People showed up to vote.


And THAT is the Great, Impossible Feat.

November 5, 2008 -- President-elect Barack Obama

I went to bed very late last night and woke up about an hour ago and laid in bed for a while as my mind slowly woke up.

And as I started to come out of my dream state, a grin spread over my face because I realized that last night, the U.S. had elected Barack Hussein Obama to be our next President of the United States.

It feels unreal. I have been reluctant to let myself imagine what this day would be like--what it would feel like, the next morning, to realize that it had actually happened--that the United States had chosen to elect its first African American, mixed-race president.

Last night, once the polls closed on the West Coast and CNN displayed its graphics declaring that Barack Obama had just been elected president, I wept. I sat on my friend's sofa and cried and cried, big gulping sobs because I had been holding in so much over the last few months.

And in the minutes and hours that followed, as we broke out the champagne, as we continued to follow the CNN maps that showed the electoral votes that Obama had gained, as we each reverentially imagined what this historic night meant, I felt something rising up in me that I don't often truly feel.

I felt pride that I was a citizen of the United States. I felt a huge surge of patriotism for my country. In the words of Michelle Obama, for the first time in my adult life, I felt very proud to be an American.

I know we have domestic and international problems of monumental proportions. I know that not everyone sees Barack Obama's election as the symbol of change that so many of his supporters do. And I know that as the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama won't cure everything that ails us, and his election does not signal the end of race problems in our country--and it certainly does NOT signal the end of racism in the United States.

But....

it gives me hope.

"E" Day, Part III

Yes We Can!


Yes We Did!