Congratulations and thanks to Barack Obama
Tonight, the damndest thing happened: the guy I voted for won an election. The person I voted _for_, rather than the placeholder I used for voting _against_, won an election. First time since ... well, forever, since before this election I've never had a candidate I could honestly support.
I've been kicking around on this planet for 54 years. Missed being able to vote against Nixon in '72 by four days. Not too long ago, I startled myself by realizing that I've been alive through ten sitting Presidents. And until this election cycle, I thought I'd never see a statesman. I thought those days were past, that all we had left were politicians.
I've never been more glad to have been wrong.
In 2000 and 2004, I told people that that was the election in which leaders of both parties went to bed at night praying, "Please, God, send us a candidate." But (providence be thanked!) that was then. Now...
This cycle, I watched a man who knows how to be gracious, how to listen, and how to think. I watched him endure a campaign where his opponent's primary message was, "Look at the scary nigger!" and still have the character to thank that opponent for his service to our nation rather than berating him for his indiscretions. (Watched him, that is, do what I couldn't have done though I know it's the right thing to do.) And -- mirabile dictu! -- felt like that's who he _is_, not just a persona he puts on.
This cycle, I watched the politics of fear have their ass chewed off by the message of hope. And, sweet bleeding fuck, I sincerely think the guy who promulgates that hope, who embodies it, really means what he says, that he is who I think he is, who I want him to be.
For once, I think this country that I love will actually have a leader who'll love it just as much as I do, in the way I do.
"These are the days of miracle and wonder, this is the long distance call, the way the camera follows us in slow-mo, the way we look to us all."
God help me if, for the first time in my life, I'm not actually looking forward to inauguration day.
I've been kicking around on this planet for 54 years. Missed being able to vote against Nixon in '72 by four days. Not too long ago, I startled myself by realizing that I've been alive through ten sitting Presidents. And until this election cycle, I thought I'd never see a statesman. I thought those days were past, that all we had left were politicians.
I've never been more glad to have been wrong.
In 2000 and 2004, I told people that that was the election in which leaders of both parties went to bed at night praying, "Please, God, send us a candidate." But (providence be thanked!) that was then. Now...
This cycle, I watched a man who knows how to be gracious, how to listen, and how to think. I watched him endure a campaign where his opponent's primary message was, "Look at the scary nigger!" and still have the character to thank that opponent for his service to our nation rather than berating him for his indiscretions. (Watched him, that is, do what I couldn't have done though I know it's the right thing to do.) And -- mirabile dictu! -- felt like that's who he _is_, not just a persona he puts on.
This cycle, I watched the politics of fear have their ass chewed off by the message of hope. And, sweet bleeding fuck, I sincerely think the guy who promulgates that hope, who embodies it, really means what he says, that he is who I think he is, who I want him to be.
For once, I think this country that I love will actually have a leader who'll love it just as much as I do, in the way I do.
"These are the days of miracle and wonder, this is the long distance call, the way the camera follows us in slow-mo, the way we look to us all."
God help me if, for the first time in my life, I'm not actually looking forward to inauguration day.