Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Happy Birthday, America!

President Obama. The sound of this is resonating in my ears.

Got up at 5:30 this morning and turned on the TV. When I saw the news, I started to cry. I was so emotional. All these crowds cheering Obama.

This truly is a new day. A new dawn.

On a level, I realise, I never thought I would see this in my lifetime. A Black man in the White House. Now anything is possible.

Whole new possibilities have opened up. Things that were not conceivable yesterday can happen now. I felt like this when apartheid ended in South Africa and Nelson Mandela was elected. I feel it even more strongly now.

For the first time, I care about what the First Lady is wearing. I care about how she will decorate. We have a Black First Lady in the White House now.

When Michelle Obama tells her children they can grow up to be President, she really means it. And now, the rest of us can mean it too.

Obama had 93% of the African American vote, along with 40% of the white vote.

African Americans are full citizens at last. We can participate fully in the electoral process. We have the power to bring about change. And we have used our power.

At last, I feel proud to be American.

Well done, America. Congratulations. You have finally come of age.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I can't stop breaking into tears. I am a white male who is a single adoptive father of an eight-year-old son. Like Obama, my son's birth mother is white, and his birth father is black.

I've been an ardent democrat way before I ever dreamed I would be a father. I have actively supported Obama since January, but he didn't touch my deep cynicism about the American people until last night. Now he is actually chipping away at that. What an amazing man.

It is like rebirth.