afterglow

i am officially 100% a convert. after a long, political season, i felt my heart softening throughout the day yesterday towards the magnitude of the choices and the consequences of those choices to move this country forward. i could barely contain the lump in my throat that pretty much stayed put all day as i literally watched history being made: first, with the sheer numbers of voter turnout, many of which were first time voters...and secondly, when the returns starting pouring in and it became more and more apparent that our next President would be B.O.

President-Elect Barack Obama. it feels weird and good, all at the same time, falling from my lips.

i cried real tears last night--tears of victory, of joy, of thanksgiving. i cried when i spoke to my grandmother who lived through overt racism firsthand and who always instilled in me that i could be anything....ANYTHING...that i put my mind to. i cried as i watched PC sleeping on the couch--she won't understand what has happened until she is much older, but, in her lifetime, a Black president has been elected in a country where a scant 200+ years ago, we were considered 3/5ths of a human being.

and tho i don't have a son, i cried for all of my friend's sons and every little black boy (particularly those who are without fathers in the home) who can now look up to Barack Obama--a man whose father left him early in his life, but who was surrounded by a village that gave him the love and the encouragement that got him to this point.

Yes you can, be President, JJ. Yes you can, EE. Yes you can, K C-P. Yes you can, AR.

YES YOU CAN.