The Morning After

I was jittery all day yesterday about the election. I was afraid to be too hopeful. Over the last 3 days F had been asking over and over again, who do you think will win. All I could say was that I hoped Obama would win. I hoped the polls were true. I hoped it wasn't going to be a cruel joke at the end of all this. I hoped we weren't going to have more of the same. I stopped short of stating that I thought Obama would win. Not because I didn't want to be wrong, or jinx Obama, but because I couldn't trust that the media was telling the truth and not just making a story. I couldn't trust that white folks of my age and older would see beyond race and vote for the man with the better plan for America's future. I couldn't trust that the election wouldn't be stolen by the same demons that stole the last two elections.

I came home from work and prepared dinner, did my night time chores, and settled F in after work. We began watching CNN just as the first of the polls were closing. The early returns were frightening. Obama was not getting the first good returns. As the evening wore on, and quite rapidly as each time of poll closings occurred, Obama's momentum built stronger and stronger. I don't remember what time he was actually projected to be the winner by CNN, but it was before my usual bedtime. And still, I didn't trust it.

I went to bed and turned the TV on. I watched as John McCain made his concession speech. He was gracious and generous and open about his willingness to continue his bi-partisan cooperation. That's when I allowed that maybe I could trust the result.

By the time Obama came on to greet the crowd and make his first speech as President-elect, I knew and trusted that he won the election. Obama has a clear mandate across this nation. This is something no one in the White House has had for quite a long time. Bill Clinton didn't have a mandate, as popular as he was, he never got 50% of the popular vote.

More important than Obama's mandate is the excitement he has generated across the generations to do more, to be better citizens. There is no more invisibility for Generations X and Y, the groups of people that followed the boomer generation; the groups that lived in the shadow of the largest generation ever, in the world, not just in America. The groups that have certainly gotten my attention by how they have changed how they believe and, more importantly, how they behave across racial, gender, and sexual orientation lines.

I have said several times in the past, and still believe of my generation, the boomer generation, that never before in the history of the world has a generation aspired to do so much and accomplished so little. So maybe, the only accomplishment of my generation was to raise a generation that can and will accomplish what my generation was only able to dream.

The other day I heard Andrew Young say that Barak Obama did not have the scars he himself had. That really struck me. I really understood that. Barak Obama did not grow up in Jim Crow America. He grew up in a multi-racial family, part of both races, influenced by both races, a product of both races. He has often said that his white grandparents poured everything they had into him. That's a very different experience than having a relationship with white people that is filled only with obstacles and closed doors.

The same is true for the two younger generations in America today. They don't have the scars my generation have. They don't have the experience of hoping, dreaming, and having leaders who can make the dreams reality, one after the other, shot down, murdered, eliminated. They don't have the experience of being afraid to hope -- afraid to believe in leaders -- afraid their adulation will make their heroes a target. I'm so glad they don't have that. I'm so glad for them that they are free to believe, without reservation or cynacism. I need them to keep going, regardless of what happens. I need them to do what we could not. The country needs them to do what we could not.

Last night as I watched and listened to President-elect Barak Obama's speech I sat awed with tears flowing. I heard what he stood for, what he believed we needed, what he aspired to accomplish, and who he hoped would get on board with him. I was struck by the fact that through most of this campaign I missed it. I missed what they all saw in him. I was stuck in Hillary Clinton. I was stuck in something I trusted, rather than something that felt too scary to me. I started to get it a few weeks ago. I did come around. I did vote for Obama, not against McCain. I'm glad to be on board, too. I'm still afraid. I'm afraid for him. I'm afraid for his life. I'm afraid for Clio, and her generation, that they will have their dreams shattered in an awful way.

So, while this was an election, a political event, it is also a very personal event. It is a new day. A brighter outlook for this country and for the world. Though he rarely spoke ot it, I see the road Obama is walking as a road toward peace.