900 lb Gorilla

I can tell you honestly that never before in my years have I been so excited about a Presidential election. Not just for the immediate change that I believe will be the daunting task for President-Elect Obama, but for the social significance of the voice of the American people.

All across our nation, people of every race, creed and color cast their ballots and overwhelmingly chose the Illinois Senator to represent them and to lead our nation. I was thinking about this a lot last night while glued to CNN as the results came in - that just a scant 40 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was bringing the cause of race relations and civil rights for all men and now, four decades later, we have transcended this racial divide that has scarred our nation for so long and have elected the most qualified person for the highest leadership position in the world regardless of race.

This speaks volumes to where America has come as a nation that we can get this 900 lb gorilla off our backs and people of all races can now truly expect from their dreams that they can do what ever they wish in this land. This election has shot life back into the American Dream. The original dream - not the one that has morphed into where you live and what car you drive - it's the one that uprooted peoples from all over this globe to have them move ever closer to the beacon of light that America has offered since it's inception. That dreams are valid and that although we have gone astray in so many ways, we can now refocus on the prize.

There were people yesterday that got to cast their ballot for a black man who 40 years ago would have been segregated to even mingle with whites. The brave people, people of all races, who stood up to this racial intolerance and fought and bled to change the momentum of an establishment that had been entrenched defiantly for so many generations.

This doesn't mean that America has gone through some miracle cure and our past transgressions have some how been absolved. It does mark a significant milestone in that race is becoming less of a barrier to seeing the person who is inside. And that we can someday finally grasp that brass ring and reward our best and brightest people in a well formed meritocracy.

I am filled with a hope this morning that is hard to capture in this meager blog. A hope that our self imposed oppression has somehow been lifted and that freedom will ring true in the hearts of Americans making that beacon burn so much brighter than it ever did before. And that my children, who are too young to even know the significance of this day, have the potential laid out for them in that they can achieve great things based upon their talent and character.

I am filled with a joy that can only be summed up in seeing the glimpse of an undivided America where we care for one another more than we care for only the privileged few.

I am filled with pride in knowing that when pressed against any wall, Americans can rise up together and utilize the democracy that they have been blessed to have, but have been apathetic towards for so many years, and as a singular voice press for change when our leadership has failed us.

And as we move forward and these imminent struggles lurk at our collective doorsteps, that we may dig down to these overwhelming emotions and find that strength to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, buckle down and march through this difficult time. And that we may look to one another as sisters and brothers of the same great nation and support one another until we have reached our goals.

Can we do this? YES WE CAN!