Months have passed, the dust has settled and it is official that Barack Hussein Obama is the president of the United States.
After all these months, my eyes still well up with tears and my heart swells whenever that thought crosses my mind.
At the risk of sounding trite and antiquated I must say that's "it's been a long time coming.
" The very first election that I could vote in was in 2000 and I proudly cast my vote for Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman.
I was a sophomore in college at the time.
I don't know whether it was my youth or this overwhelming since of idealism that engulfed me at the time or maybe it was both, but I never believed that Gore would lose.
I had such high hopes for a Gore administration.
I imagined a finely tuned presidential machine much like the workings on the West Wing on NBC.
I desperately wanted a Josiah Bartlet/Martin Sheen liberal commander in chief that truly cared about people not just in this country but people around the world.
Through the controversy that surrounded the election I believed that right, in this case left would prevail.
I was left dumbfounded when it was officially declared that Gore had lost the election to George W.
Bush.
How could something so blatantly wrong and unfair happen in such a public arena? It just made no sense to me then and come to think of it now how this happened.
It was not fair.
At this time in my life injustice meant something compelling to me that I mistakenly thought meant something to the world at large.
They say that time heals all wounds and so in 2004 undaunted I voted for John Kerry and John Edwards.
Surely after the last four years the American people had been convinced that Bush Jr.
was not the right person for the job I thought, and after the way Gore was robbed in the previous election, there was no way that sort of smoke and mirrors politics would fly again.
I believed that a democratic victory was undeniable and inevitable.
I stayed up late watching the returns and I held on to hope the next morning that it would be a blue state victory.
My heart sank when I heard reports at work that Kerry had called Bush and conceded.
Each painful year of Bush's second term I became more and more disillusioned with voting and the election process.
At twenty four years of age I was already fed up politics.
I was a two time loser when it came to voting.
It was at this point I began to feel as if I was personally to blame for the outcomes of the last two presidential elections.
I felt like the jinx of the Democratic Party.
Prior to my being able to vote it seemed Bill Clinton had effortlessly glided into the White House.
Hadn't he? In all honesty, I could not remember.
The Clinton election was in 1992.
I was 14 years old when Clinton was elected.
In some of the deeper caverns of my mind I could recall the mood of that time and for my family the election of Bill Clinton was a good thing.
I understood that Clinton and Gore were democrats and by birth so was I, I thought.
It didn't register to me that I could be anything else because my parents were both Democrats.
At that time, I did not understand or fully grasp Democratic or Republican platforms.
I thought Democrats are the good ones that want to help people, all people and the Republicans were only for the rich and didn't want to help people.
It seemed like an easy choice to me - I wasn't rich; nor was I resistant to helping others.
I vaguely remember Clinton's inauguration.
I am sure at the time such an event was hardly exciting or interesting to me.
I recall hearing Maya Angelou's poem "On the pulse of Morning" and thinking it was a really good poem but not really knowing or understanding the significance of it.
It would be more than a decade before I truly grasped or felt in my soul what was being communicated in that poem.
At around the age of twenty eight, twenty nine the intoxicating, entrancing call of politics began to whisper in my ears.
At this stage of my life, I had worked some and was on my own for the most part.
I understood the importance of good healthcare due to my personal struggles with lupus and frustrating journey with social security when my illness made it impossible for me to work.
I started hearing rumblings about this man with a weird name I couldn't recall.
It seemed everywhere I looked there he was and I couldn't have a conversation without hearing his name, Obama, Barack Obama.
I had a friend call me and asked if I had listened to any of his speeches or learned anything real about the man.
The last thing my friend said to me was "he is it.
This guy has what it takes to be president.
" Immediately, I thought I am not falling for it this time.
Every time I jump on a bandwagon the band breaks up.
I thought there is no way this man can possibly win - 1) he's a democrat and 2) he's black.
After months of refusing to listen I finally heard him, Obama and the impossible happened I started to believe again.
He spoke of change and the American people wanting something different and was tired of the same policies and politicians that had failed us in the past - indeed something was stirring not only in me but all over the world.
Obama's name became tantamount to the word hope to me.
This was an incredible feat to inspire hope in someone that felt hopeless.
I decided that this election possessed the possibility to be different and I jumped in and committed to do all that I could to get Barack Obama elected.
I left my job in 2008 because my health had declined to the point that I just didn't have the energy to perform it anymore.
Despite my challenges and the frustration I felt with not being able to do what I wanted because of my health I decided to volunteer to help in some capacity with the campaign.
One night, a friend and I went to our local campaign headquarters in Nashville and just listened.
We were told that there was a need for supporters to go to Indiana and knock on doors encouraging people to get out and vote and let them know that they could vote early.
Immediately, I thought that is what I want to do.
I didn't know how I could do it because walking and heat were not friends of mine.
I went on faith and I volunteered for a weekend in Evansville, Indiana.
On the drive to Indiana, I was full of energy and optimistic I felt that I was on a mission.
As soon as we got to the headquarters in Evansville we were given a map and literature to distribute.
A large van dropped us off in a neighborhood in Indiana and the driver told us that they would meet us in another area blocks away.
We were given the cell number of the driver to call in case of an emergency.
As soon as we exited the van and I felt the heat outside my enthusiasm began to wane.
Our first stop was an apartment complex.
We went up and down steps knocking on doors leaving pamphlets at homes where no one answered.
After an eternity, twenty minutes, I told my friend with much shame I can't do this.
We called the driver and while we waited for him to arrive I sat on a curb crying while my friend finished the last of the apartments.
After a few minutes the van arrived and we were returned to headquarters.
My friend let me feel sorry for myself all the way back to the car and then she suggested that we get lunch and regroup.
We decided to keep going.
We both knew that physically I couldn't do all that walking but where there is a will there's a way.
We looked at the addresses and then the maps and with the help of a GPS we found and drove to each of the residences.
I got out when I could and knocked on doors and when I couldn't my friend would.
Despite some of the distances being a short walk, we drove with a lot of stop and go, and we did it.
Over the course of two days we made it to every address on our route.
I wondered on the Sunday drive home if our efforts would mean anything.
I cannot put into words what it felt like to see the state of Indiana turn blue when all of the polls had been closed and votes counted.
Hearing CNN - CNN because I don't believe anything unless I hear it from Anderson - announce that Barack Obama had won and was the president elect was an out of body experience for me.
I stared at the television sobbing searching for words but none came to me.
At the ripe old age of thirty I have witnessed a number of historical events.
I am old enough to remember seeing the Challenger explode on live television in the eighties; I can recall the horrors of the Oklahoma City bombings and I will never forget the events that unfolded that horrible September 11th.
Each of these events touched me and shaped my development but nothing in my life had prepared me or compares to the rush of emotions I felt that evening, and I don't believe anything ever will aside from the second coming.
Suddenly it was 1993 again and I heard Maya Angelou's voice and the profound words of her inauguration poem.
I heard her say, "So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew, the African and Native American, the Sioux, the Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek, The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh, the Gay, the Straight, the Preacher, the privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
They hear.
They all hear the speaking of the tree.
" I remember that day she said, "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
" Despite not fully grasping the poem in 1993, my favorite part of the poem was then and remains today the last stanza, "Here on the pulse of this new day you may have the grace to look up and out and into your sister's eyes, into your brother's face, your country and say simply very simply with hope Good morning".
"Good Morning" how perfect, how profound and how simple, there's no better way to start a new day than with a good morning.
What I've learned since 1993: not all Republicans are evil, love is stronger than hate, change is possible and does happen, one person can make a difference and lastly that the selfish, the prejudice, and the dumb have the right to be ignorant and be heard, but if those of us not in these aforementioned groups allow these sorts of ideas and hatred to go on unchallenged and permeate through the minds of our children and the uneducated then the selfish, prejudice and dumb have won and that just means that no one has.
After all these months, my eyes still well up with tears and my heart swells whenever that thought crosses my mind.
At the risk of sounding trite and antiquated I must say that's "it's been a long time coming.
" The very first election that I could vote in was in 2000 and I proudly cast my vote for Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman.
I was a sophomore in college at the time.
I don't know whether it was my youth or this overwhelming since of idealism that engulfed me at the time or maybe it was both, but I never believed that Gore would lose.
I had such high hopes for a Gore administration.
I imagined a finely tuned presidential machine much like the workings on the West Wing on NBC.
I desperately wanted a Josiah Bartlet/Martin Sheen liberal commander in chief that truly cared about people not just in this country but people around the world.
Through the controversy that surrounded the election I believed that right, in this case left would prevail.
I was left dumbfounded when it was officially declared that Gore had lost the election to George W.
Bush.
How could something so blatantly wrong and unfair happen in such a public arena? It just made no sense to me then and come to think of it now how this happened.
It was not fair.
At this time in my life injustice meant something compelling to me that I mistakenly thought meant something to the world at large.
They say that time heals all wounds and so in 2004 undaunted I voted for John Kerry and John Edwards.
Surely after the last four years the American people had been convinced that Bush Jr.
was not the right person for the job I thought, and after the way Gore was robbed in the previous election, there was no way that sort of smoke and mirrors politics would fly again.
I believed that a democratic victory was undeniable and inevitable.
I stayed up late watching the returns and I held on to hope the next morning that it would be a blue state victory.
My heart sank when I heard reports at work that Kerry had called Bush and conceded.
Each painful year of Bush's second term I became more and more disillusioned with voting and the election process.
At twenty four years of age I was already fed up politics.
I was a two time loser when it came to voting.
It was at this point I began to feel as if I was personally to blame for the outcomes of the last two presidential elections.
I felt like the jinx of the Democratic Party.
Prior to my being able to vote it seemed Bill Clinton had effortlessly glided into the White House.
Hadn't he? In all honesty, I could not remember.
The Clinton election was in 1992.
I was 14 years old when Clinton was elected.
In some of the deeper caverns of my mind I could recall the mood of that time and for my family the election of Bill Clinton was a good thing.
I understood that Clinton and Gore were democrats and by birth so was I, I thought.
It didn't register to me that I could be anything else because my parents were both Democrats.
At that time, I did not understand or fully grasp Democratic or Republican platforms.
I thought Democrats are the good ones that want to help people, all people and the Republicans were only for the rich and didn't want to help people.
It seemed like an easy choice to me - I wasn't rich; nor was I resistant to helping others.
I vaguely remember Clinton's inauguration.
I am sure at the time such an event was hardly exciting or interesting to me.
I recall hearing Maya Angelou's poem "On the pulse of Morning" and thinking it was a really good poem but not really knowing or understanding the significance of it.
It would be more than a decade before I truly grasped or felt in my soul what was being communicated in that poem.
At around the age of twenty eight, twenty nine the intoxicating, entrancing call of politics began to whisper in my ears.
At this stage of my life, I had worked some and was on my own for the most part.
I understood the importance of good healthcare due to my personal struggles with lupus and frustrating journey with social security when my illness made it impossible for me to work.
I started hearing rumblings about this man with a weird name I couldn't recall.
It seemed everywhere I looked there he was and I couldn't have a conversation without hearing his name, Obama, Barack Obama.
I had a friend call me and asked if I had listened to any of his speeches or learned anything real about the man.
The last thing my friend said to me was "he is it.
This guy has what it takes to be president.
" Immediately, I thought I am not falling for it this time.
Every time I jump on a bandwagon the band breaks up.
I thought there is no way this man can possibly win - 1) he's a democrat and 2) he's black.
After months of refusing to listen I finally heard him, Obama and the impossible happened I started to believe again.
He spoke of change and the American people wanting something different and was tired of the same policies and politicians that had failed us in the past - indeed something was stirring not only in me but all over the world.
Obama's name became tantamount to the word hope to me.
This was an incredible feat to inspire hope in someone that felt hopeless.
I decided that this election possessed the possibility to be different and I jumped in and committed to do all that I could to get Barack Obama elected.
I left my job in 2008 because my health had declined to the point that I just didn't have the energy to perform it anymore.
Despite my challenges and the frustration I felt with not being able to do what I wanted because of my health I decided to volunteer to help in some capacity with the campaign.
One night, a friend and I went to our local campaign headquarters in Nashville and just listened.
We were told that there was a need for supporters to go to Indiana and knock on doors encouraging people to get out and vote and let them know that they could vote early.
Immediately, I thought that is what I want to do.
I didn't know how I could do it because walking and heat were not friends of mine.
I went on faith and I volunteered for a weekend in Evansville, Indiana.
On the drive to Indiana, I was full of energy and optimistic I felt that I was on a mission.
As soon as we got to the headquarters in Evansville we were given a map and literature to distribute.
A large van dropped us off in a neighborhood in Indiana and the driver told us that they would meet us in another area blocks away.
We were given the cell number of the driver to call in case of an emergency.
As soon as we exited the van and I felt the heat outside my enthusiasm began to wane.
Our first stop was an apartment complex.
We went up and down steps knocking on doors leaving pamphlets at homes where no one answered.
After an eternity, twenty minutes, I told my friend with much shame I can't do this.
We called the driver and while we waited for him to arrive I sat on a curb crying while my friend finished the last of the apartments.
After a few minutes the van arrived and we were returned to headquarters.
My friend let me feel sorry for myself all the way back to the car and then she suggested that we get lunch and regroup.
We decided to keep going.
We both knew that physically I couldn't do all that walking but where there is a will there's a way.
We looked at the addresses and then the maps and with the help of a GPS we found and drove to each of the residences.
I got out when I could and knocked on doors and when I couldn't my friend would.
Despite some of the distances being a short walk, we drove with a lot of stop and go, and we did it.
Over the course of two days we made it to every address on our route.
I wondered on the Sunday drive home if our efforts would mean anything.
I cannot put into words what it felt like to see the state of Indiana turn blue when all of the polls had been closed and votes counted.
Hearing CNN - CNN because I don't believe anything unless I hear it from Anderson - announce that Barack Obama had won and was the president elect was an out of body experience for me.
I stared at the television sobbing searching for words but none came to me.
At the ripe old age of thirty I have witnessed a number of historical events.
I am old enough to remember seeing the Challenger explode on live television in the eighties; I can recall the horrors of the Oklahoma City bombings and I will never forget the events that unfolded that horrible September 11th.
Each of these events touched me and shaped my development but nothing in my life had prepared me or compares to the rush of emotions I felt that evening, and I don't believe anything ever will aside from the second coming.
Suddenly it was 1993 again and I heard Maya Angelou's voice and the profound words of her inauguration poem.
I heard her say, "So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew, the African and Native American, the Sioux, the Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek, The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh, the Gay, the Straight, the Preacher, the privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
They hear.
They all hear the speaking of the tree.
" I remember that day she said, "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
" Despite not fully grasping the poem in 1993, my favorite part of the poem was then and remains today the last stanza, "Here on the pulse of this new day you may have the grace to look up and out and into your sister's eyes, into your brother's face, your country and say simply very simply with hope Good morning".
"Good Morning" how perfect, how profound and how simple, there's no better way to start a new day than with a good morning.
What I've learned since 1993: not all Republicans are evil, love is stronger than hate, change is possible and does happen, one person can make a difference and lastly that the selfish, the prejudice, and the dumb have the right to be ignorant and be heard, but if those of us not in these aforementioned groups allow these sorts of ideas and hatred to go on unchallenged and permeate through the minds of our children and the uneducated then the selfish, prejudice and dumb have won and that just means that no one has.
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