What an amazing night!

I’m exhausted and am going to bed, but it’s been a truly amazing night. McCain was gracious in a (crushing) defeat, and Obama was humble, inclusive, and inspiring in his acceptance. It was in so many ways a night to be proud of the U.S. after so many years of cringe-inducing stupidity and greed.

For me the most powerful image of the night was Obama’s and Biden’s families on the stage together after Obama’s acceptance speech in Chicago. There we saw black and white children hugging and celebrating together on stage, interacting with a comfort that would have inspired beatings, or worse, in the living memory of many who voted. These children will walk the halls of the White House, not as tourists, but as residents. These children’s lives are one giant step closer to the dream espoused in the Civil Rights Movement, in the Suffragette Movement, in the Emancipation Proclamation, and in the Declaration of Independence. These children represent our future, as do all children.

Obama was elected on the promise that he can help us make a better world for all our children. Now we all have an obligation to work with the people we elected to make good on those promises.

Thanks to the great folks that came over to watch the returns with us, and for all the friends and family that we shared this with on-line and on the phone. It was an honor to have shared this historic night with you all.

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3 thoughts on “What an amazing night!”

  1. I assume Weather Girl, though she couldn’t vote, and didn’t actually say what her views on the matter were on your radio show, was very pleased as well. Hopefully we have made a move to heal our realtions with ‘the world’ as she put it. =]

  2. Oh, she’s pretty darn chuffed :-).

    I think there are millions, perhaps billions of people around the world who couldn’t vote in this election, but who are incredibly energized by and hopeful about this outcome. To have a President who understands that there’s a larger context and that we’re all interdependent (things corporate “America” has understood in a deep, deep way for years) is so refreshing after the past eight years. Watching the Twittering and blogs and e-mails of friends and acquaintances (defined in numerous ways) in the last 24 hours is wonderful evidence of how much these people care, and how happy they are both for us and for the rest of the world.

  3. I also had an election night get-together. Actually, my wife and I have done so every two years for a while now. Last night’s was the most exciting, though, forsooth.

    I’m not a man accustomed to overt sentimentality; however, looking out at a group of colleagues, friends, and neighbors watching the election returns until late into the evening on such an historic night, it is hard not to get caught up.

    Not everything went well, though. We had a number of state constitutional amendments here in FL, and the results of several were very dispiriting. Typically, I tend to invest more in local elections over national ones; however, this year it is hard not to let the magnitude of the moment re-arrange things a bit. It helped to finally have a candidate on the ballot that I wanted to vote for, instead of having one that was merely a “better alternative”.

    That alone makes a win more exciting. That — and the shear astronomical improbability that the democrats didn’t totally screw up . Does anyone other than me find the idea of a democrat having an extraordinarily well-run campaign a bit surreal?

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