Where Was I?

I'm following Wren's lead, and making myself pin down where I was when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States of America. If I ever have children, I hope they are amazed when I tell them of a time before we had a black President. I hope I will also be able to tell them about a time before we had women Presidents, and they will think we were living in the Dark Ages. I will tell him of a time when many of us couldn't afford to drive our cars, didn't have health insurance, and couldn't get a good education. But I don't yet know what the future holds.

What I do know is that last night my faith in this country was restored. It's tenuous, but it's there. I'm not ashamed to be an American. I no longer fear that we are in a downward spiral that we're too selfish and stubborn to pull out of. When Barack Obama was elected President I was in the home of two very dear friends. Four of the most important people to me outside my family were around me. I had prepared a delicious veggie tray and had been anxiously filling myself full of cucumber sticks, caramel corn, and Midori sours.

At 7:00 we switched to Comedy Central's Indecision 2008: America's Choice coverage. It felt right to be brought real-time election news by the people who had kept me sane regarding politics for the past eight years. At 8:00, Jon Stewart ended the show with the following words: "As of 11:00 Eastern Standard Time, Barack Obama is projected to be the next President of the United States of America." Shock, bated breath, worry about jinxing the fact that our greatest wish had just been granted. Trevor excitedly demanded that we switch to a real news station. There was no sound from the newscasters on MSNBC. We couldn't see the numbers properly at the top of the screen. Before us was a multiracial sea of tear-streaked faces, people cheering so loudly their voices were one, embracing friends and strangers alike.

We cheered, but were still nervous. We got a noise complaint. We waited. MSNBC announced that John McCain had called Obama personally to concede. I got to break the news to my sister by phone. Finally, around 9:00, we watched John McCain concede more gracefully than I could have imagined in front of a uniformly white crowd of bitterly disappointed supporters. They booed when McCain urged them to support Obama. It was the best speech I've ever heard him give. My father called and told me he loved me and said that this was the most excited he'd been since 1992.

We waited more. Finally, Obama and his wife and children came out on stage. We cheered. The entire world cheered as one. Michelle Obama's dress was amazing. There was bullet-proof glass around the stage. He spoke, and we were silent for a full twenty minutes. Many of us cried. He thanked us. He told us this was our victory. He told us we had a long road ahead. He said he would be the President of those who didn't vote for him, too. He said that he will listen to us, "especially when we disagree." He said, "The new dawn of America is at hand." He promised a new puppy for his daughters. That made me remember that I love him for showing how human he is.

The rest of the evening is a blur. We ate, we drank, we hugged, we sat in shock. We tried to imagine the new world that was before us. We wondered about local elections, about Prop 8 in California. No victory is untarnished. This victory will not solve all of our problems. But it's a sign that we're willing to try to be better.

I have rarely felt that I was present at the brink of history. Certainly not for something so wonderful as this. This morning I did not wake up from a beautiful dream; I woke up to a hopeful reality.