Where were you on November 4?
Forgive the cliche that follows, but it must be said: yesterday will go down in history as a moment that defines a generation.
People of our parents' time remember with stunning clarity the moment when JFK got shot. In the same way, we remember the horrible day when planes brought towers crashing down. And yesterday, yet another watershed moment washed over the American soil.
Where were you when Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States?
I was fortunate enough to be in the seat of presidential power itself: our nation's storied capital, Washington, D.C. And I wouldn't have had it any other way.
The evening began simply enough, with a large group of friends gathered in a home around a flat-screen TV. Armed with laptop computers feeding us the blogosphere at our whimsy, we craned our necks forward, eagerly anticipating the election results. I had spent much of the previous several days getting out the vote for Obama in Virginia and I sat with bated breath, hoping that I would soon see the fruits of my labors.
Before long the result was clear: Ohio fell to Obama and we all knew it was over. Some of my friends began popping champagne as the election coverage droned on, all but irrelevant at this point. I gazed at the electoral map on the TV as time crawled by...
...and suddenly Virginia, the battleground of my efforts, was blue! And in the blink of an eye, the entire West coast was blue! And the electoral vote tracker screamed Obama 297! It was official!
We rose up, cheering, screaming, hugging. We watched as McCain graciously conceded the presidency, and we fell pin-drop silent as our President-elect spoke to the American people as the President-elect for the first time. Words from the the Gettysburg Address filled my heart with joy and I almost lost all pretense of composure, my body wracked with the emotion of the moment.
And before we knew it, the speech was over. So we headed to the White House.
The streets of D.C. were a festival of celebration -- everywhere people cheering, screaming, crying, hollering, dancing! Hugging random stangers, giving them high fives! Cars honking their horns: "BEEP BEEP BEEEEP! Yes We Can!" Thousands of young people of all colors outside the White House, waving American flags! Singing the Star-Spangled Banner! Chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!"
This was no jingoistic knee-jerk patriotism.
This was the sound of a nation rediscovering its soul. The expression of a nation that would no longer divide and destroy, but instead uplift, inspire and transform.
I looked around and thought, Let it never again be said that we are not pro-America.
From the White House it was then off to U Street, the historical center of Washington's black community. Following MLK's assassination forty years ago the neighborhood had erupted in riots and burned to the ground, sparking decades of disinvestment and neglect.
But tonight, as drum circles and dancers spilled into traffic, U Street was ablaze not with arson fires, but with joy.
The history was not lost on me. Forty years ago, a great black man who had struggled for justice fell. And tonight, another great black man, his path cleared by those struggles of decades past, had ascended to the highest office in the land.
It was a new day in America. And I was in Washington, D.C. to see it firsthand.
People of our parents' time remember with stunning clarity the moment when JFK got shot. In the same way, we remember the horrible day when planes brought towers crashing down. And yesterday, yet another watershed moment washed over the American soil.
Where were you when Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States?
I was fortunate enough to be in the seat of presidential power itself: our nation's storied capital, Washington, D.C. And I wouldn't have had it any other way.
The evening began simply enough, with a large group of friends gathered in a home around a flat-screen TV. Armed with laptop computers feeding us the blogosphere at our whimsy, we craned our necks forward, eagerly anticipating the election results. I had spent much of the previous several days getting out the vote for Obama in Virginia and I sat with bated breath, hoping that I would soon see the fruits of my labors.
Before long the result was clear: Ohio fell to Obama and we all knew it was over. Some of my friends began popping champagne as the election coverage droned on, all but irrelevant at this point. I gazed at the electoral map on the TV as time crawled by...
...and suddenly Virginia, the battleground of my efforts, was blue! And in the blink of an eye, the entire West coast was blue! And the electoral vote tracker screamed Obama 297! It was official!
We rose up, cheering, screaming, hugging. We watched as McCain graciously conceded the presidency, and we fell pin-drop silent as our President-elect spoke to the American people as the President-elect for the first time. Words from the the Gettysburg Address filled my heart with joy and I almost lost all pretense of composure, my body wracked with the emotion of the moment.
And before we knew it, the speech was over. So we headed to the White House.
The streets of D.C. were a festival of celebration -- everywhere people cheering, screaming, crying, hollering, dancing! Hugging random stangers, giving them high fives! Cars honking their horns: "BEEP BEEP BEEEEP! Yes We Can!" Thousands of young people of all colors outside the White House, waving American flags! Singing the Star-Spangled Banner! Chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!"
This was no jingoistic knee-jerk patriotism.
This was the sound of a nation rediscovering its soul. The expression of a nation that would no longer divide and destroy, but instead uplift, inspire and transform.
I looked around and thought, Let it never again be said that we are not pro-America.
From the White House it was then off to U Street, the historical center of Washington's black community. Following MLK's assassination forty years ago the neighborhood had erupted in riots and burned to the ground, sparking decades of disinvestment and neglect.
But tonight, as drum circles and dancers spilled into traffic, U Street was ablaze not with arson fires, but with joy.
The history was not lost on me. Forty years ago, a great black man who had struggled for justice fell. And tonight, another great black man, his path cleared by those struggles of decades past, had ascended to the highest office in the land.
It was a new day in America. And I was in Washington, D.C. to see it firsthand.